According to ancestry.com we are related to Rowland Taylor. He was my 12th great grandfather. We are related through Bertha McKim. Here is her part of the chart that connects to Sarah Kendrick Taylor.
Figure 1. How we are related to the Taylors
Rowland was the husband of Margaret Tyndale, niece of William Tyndale. Here are some notes from Wikipedia on Rowland Taylor.
Taylor’s troubles began on July 25, 1553. He was arrested just six days after the new queen, Mary I, ascended the throne. Aside from the fact that Taylor had supported Lady Jane Grey, Mary’s rival, he was also charged with heresy for having preached a sermon in Bury St Edmunds denouncing the Roman Catholic practice of clerical celibacy, which required that a priest in holy orders be unmarried. Many English clergymen, including Taylor, had abandoned this teaching since the 1530s as a token of the English Reformation. Taylor also denounced the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, which is the belief that the two elements (bread and wine) taken during Holy Communion, or the Eucharist, actually become the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
The proceedings against Taylor ran over several years. During this time he was kept in the King’s Bench Prison. While in prison he befriended many inmates and was instrumental in many conversions to Anglicanism.
His reaction to his accusers, as recorded by the martyrologist John Foxe, was this:[4]
“And although I know, that there is neither justice nor truth to be looked for at my adversaries hands, but rather imprisonment and cruel death: yet know my cause to be so good and righteous, and the truth so strong upon my side, that I will by God’s grace go and appear before them and to their beards resist their false doings.”
Before he was handed over, he spoke these words to his family:
“I say to my wife, and to my children, The Lord gave you unto me, and the Lord hath taken me from you, and you from me: blessed be the name of the Lord! I believe that they are blessed which die in the Lord. God careth for sparrows, and for the hairs of our heads. I have ever found Him more faithful and favorable, than is any father or husband. Trust ye therefore in Him by the means of our dear Savior Christ’s merits: believe, love, fear, and obey Him: pray to Him, for He hath promised to help. Count me not dead, for I shall certainly live, and never die. I go before, and you shall follow after, to our long home.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowland_Taylor
It looks like president Zachary Taylor as well as the actress Elizabeth Taylor were members of the same Taylor clan.
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That is so interesting! It is neat, too, to see how far back belief in God is in at least part of our family history.
By the way, Dad, do you know if any of our Waldecker/Waalkens family were burried in Bunde or Beerta?
Wow! So interesting!
I am so glad you found that out! How amazing to know we have such a godly heritage. I am so thankful for those who have gone before us and borne witness to God’s faithfulness.