From Indentured Servitude to Landed Wealth:
Photo courtesy of Glen Edward Taul
In Search of a Kentucky Family's Roots
By Glen Edward Taul
I
carried the timeworn court record to my seat expectantly. Would this confirm the story I’d heard a lifetime ago? The mother of Arthur Thomas Taul had arrived in America as an indentured servant. I had heard that he became an orphan at a young age, his father having died. It was assumed that he inherited his name from his father. That was the usual practice, even for people in the lower orders of society. But this was a gaol book in my hands, the gaol book for the Assize Court of the Western Circuit. As I walked through the research room of The National Archives at Kew, I thought: If Mary Tall’s name is in this book, it meant that she had not contracted as an indentured servant as a way to pay passage to America. No, she came as a convict. Arthur Thomas Taul was significant for the future generations of Tauls. Because of his hard work and initiative, he established the basis from which his five surviving sons, their children, and descendants following could build prosperous lives. His progeny spread westward from the Appalachian mountains across the Mississippi River and beyond.
Above: The order authorizing the “transportation” of Mary Tall to America after being delivered to the jail (or gaol). Transcription: “At the Delivery of the gaol of our Lord the King of the County aforesd (aforesaid) of the prisoners therein being held at the Castle of Winchester in & for the said [Hampshire] County on Tuesday the Thirteenth day of April in the fifteenth year of the Reign [George II] aforesd before the said Thomas Burnet & Thomas Dawson Esqrs [Esquires] Justices, Mary Tall [and others] . . . were of this session of goal Delivery convicted of several offenses & to the benefit of clergy and were ordered and adjudged to be Transported to Some of his Majesties Colonies & Plantations in America for the term of Seven Years . . .” 16
Kentucky humanities
