University of Virginia Library

"FEARNAUGHT'S IMPORTANCE AS A SIRE"

"The importance of the English horse Fearnaught, whose
offspring included Apollo and Regulus, two of the five topnotchers
of the Colonial turf mentioned by Judge DuVal, is thus
asserted by Patrick Nisbett Edgar in a footnote in his pioneer
stud book:

"Until the days of Fearnaught no other than quarter races
were run in Virginia. Speed had been the only quality sought
for. But his progeny were remarkable for their fine figure and
lasting bottom and introduced a taste (in imitation of the English)
for course racing, which led the Virginians to seek for race horses
of size and bottom."

Col. John Baylor, of Newmarket, in Caroline county, who
imported this great sire in 1764 and kept him until the turfman's
death in 1772, rivaled Col. John Tayloe, of Mt. Airy, as a breeder
of race horses. His stud included nearly one hundred horses

when his executor came to sell it. He was a man of wealth and
prominence in the colony and a personal friend of Washington.
Born in 1705, his name appears among the students at Cambridge
University in 1722. He was a Burgess from 1742 to 1765, and
was the father of Col. George Baylor, aid to Washington at the

Colonel George Baylor

outbreak of the Revolution, and later a cavalry leader to whom
Congress gave a charger in appreciation of his services at the
battle of Trenton.

While he was with Washington's Army at Tappan, N. Y.,
Col. George Baylor was shot through the lungs and captured by
the British. He afterward re-entered the service, but this wound
caused his death in 1784. In his "Blooded Horses of Colonial
Days" Francis Barnum Culver says the elder Baylor bequeathed

to his son George "his own riding mare, Jenny Dismal's colt
Godolphin, his gray mare Sprightly, and the young brown English-begotten
mare Stella," showing pretty clearly that the Revolutionary
hero inherited his father's love of blooded horses.

The importer of Fearnaught must have been on very intimate
terms with Washington, judging from an order sent to London
in 1759, just after the Colonel married the widow Custis and made
her mistress of Mount Vernon. This order was addressed to
Robert Cary & Co., and it directed them to procure for him
one-half dozen pairs of shoes, "to be made by one Didsbury, on Col.
Baylor's Last—but a little larger than his—and to have high heels."

To Col. John Baylor, III and Frances (Walker) Baylor were
born eight children: Courtney, Lucy, Frances, Elizabeth, John
IV, George, Walker and Robert. All of the daughters and several
of the sons were educated in England. Lucy married John
Armistead and became the mother of Colonel George Armistead,
"The Hero of Fort McHenry." (See Armistead Family).

George Baylor was born at "Newmarket" January 12, 1752,
and was educated by private tutors at Newmarket plantation
and in England. He was a member of the Caroline Committee
of Safety 1775-76 and entered the military service at the beginning
of the Revolution. He was Lieutenant-Colonel and
Aide-de-Camp to General Washington from August 15, 1775, to
January 9, 1777. He participated in several battles and carried
the news of the victory over the Hessians to Congress then sitting
in Baltimore. By order of Congress of January 1, 1777, it was
"Resolved, That a horse, properly caparisoned for service, be
presented to Lieutenant Colonel Baylor." He was also Colonel
of Third Continental Dragoons from January 9, 1777, to end of year.
In September 1777, his command was surprised near Tappan,
N. Y., at midnight, by a British force under General Grey, with
the loss of sixty-seven killed and the remainder captured. Colonel
Baylor himself received a bayonet thrust through the lungs from
which he never fully recovered,—although he later returned to
the service and commanded the First Continental Dragoons to
the close of the war. He was commissioned Brevet Brigadier-General
September 30, 1783. The would which he received in
his lungs near Tappan brought on pulmonary trouble and he
sought relief in the balmy climate of the West Indies, but in
vain. He died at Bridgetown, Barbadoes, W. I., in March, 1784,
and was buried in the church yard of St. Michael's Cathedral.

Walker Baylor was Lieutenant in Third Light Dragoons in
1777 and was promoted to a captaincy in February 1780. He was
disabled at Germantown by a ball which shattered his foot. He
married Jane, daughter of Joseph Bledsoe, of Caroline, and a
sister of Jesse Bledsoe who was United States Senator from
Kentucky.

Major Walker Baylor

Walker Baylor was the progenitor of the Baylor families of
Kentucky and Texas. One of his sons, Robert Emmett Bledsoe
Baylor, served in the War of 1812 under Colonel Boswell and
was in the battle which was fought near Fort Meigs. In 1819
he was elected to the Kentucky Legislature and the following
year he removed to Alabama where he became prominent in
politics, representing that State in the twenty-first Congress.
During the Creek War he commanded a regiment of Alabama

volunteers which rendered notable service. He removed to the
Republic of Texas in 1839 and was, almost immediately, elected
a Judge of the Supreme Court of the Republic. He was a member
of the Convention which framed the Constitution for the State
of Texas and was District Judge in the State for more than a
quarter of a century. In 1845, just before the State was admitted
into the Union, a charter for a Baptist college, to be located at
Independence, was granted by the Congress of Texas and to this
institution, which was named Baylor University, Judge Baylor
made large gifts of land and money. A county in Texas was
also named for him. Judge Baylor was the father of General
J. R. Baylor, C. S. A.

James Bowen Baylor, son of Dr. John Roy Baylor V, and
Anne Bowen, was born at "Mirador" the home of his maternal
grandfather, James Marshall Bowen, on May 30, 1849, and was
brought up at Newmarket plantation which he now owns.
Mirador later became the home of the Langhorne family and here
Lady Astor and her famous sisters were brought up. James Bowen
Baylor graduated with honors from Virginia Military Institute in
1865 and won B. S., and C. E. Degrees from the University of
Virginia in 1872. Baylor University conferred the degree of
Doctor of Laws on him in 1903, at which time he delivered before
the University a remarkable address on "Education in its Relation
to Production." He was married on January 5, 1881 to Miss
Ellen C. Bruce, of "Staunton Hill" Charlotte county, who was a
sister of William Cabell Bruce, author of "Life of Benjamin
Franklin," "Life of John Randolph, of Roanoke," and who is now
U. S. Senator from Maryland. She had one sister who became
the wife of the famous author, Thomas Nelson Page.

Dr. Baylor was appointed aid in U. S. Coast and Geodetic
Survey of 1874, after a competitive examination, and has been
Field Officer of this department since. He has determined the
elements of earth's magnetism from Canada to Mexico in almost
every State and has done hydrographic, astronomical and geodetic
work for surveys in various sections of the United States. The
"Baylor Survey" of the oyster grounds in Virginia is too well
known to Virginians to need comment here.

In 1900 the United States Supreme Court appointed Dr.
Baylor, Professor Buchanan, of Tennessee and W. C. Hotchkins,
of Massachusetts as Commissioners to settle the Virginia-Tennessee
boundary line dispute which had been in court for nearly one

hundred years. Dr. Baylor made the minority report defining
the boundary line along the middle of Main Street, Bristol, which
report the Supreme Court confirmed. He also served as boundary
engineer in establishing the Virginia-Maryland, New York-Pennsylvania
and United States-Canadian boundaries.

Having served with the cadet corps of Virginia Military
Institute during the last year of the Civil War, Dr. Baylor is a
member of the Confederate Veterans organization and frequently
attends the reunions of the men in grey. He is also a member
of the Society of the Cincinnati, the Philosophical Society of
Washington, The Cosmos, Metropolitan and Army and Navy
Clubs of Washington and of the Westmoreland Club of Richmond.
For a more detailed account of his life and activities
see Who's Who in America, issue of 1923.