Book Description

Excerpt from Ancestry of William Howard Taft The first known American ancestor of the Taft family is Robert Taft, or Taffe, who was born about 1640. The date of his coming to New England is unknown, but he was one of the Braintree men who formed the new village of Mendon, Massachusetts, when the latter was set off from Braintree, in 1667. In 1678 he still owned a lot in Braintree, which he sold to Caleb Hobart, 18 November, 1679. At Mendon he was a man of influence in the conduct of affairs. An indication of this is the title of respect given to him in the early records, for to be called "Mr." was always a distinction among our democratie forebears. He served on the first Board of Selectmen in 1680, and in the same year was a member of the committee appointed to build a house for the minister. This office, in the good old New England days when the minister was the great man of the community, was one of trust and dignity, and, in Robert Taft's case, it was also bestowed upon him because of his technical fitness, his trade being that of a housewright. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."