Taliaferro

Taliaferro (/ˈtɒlɪvər/ TOL-i-vər), also spelled Tagliaferro, Talifero, Tellifero, Taliferro, Tolliver, or Toliver,^[1] is a prominent family in eastern Virginia and Maryland. The Taliaferros (originally Tagliaferro, Italian pronunciation: [ˌtaʎʎaˈfɛrro], which means "ironcutter" in Italian) are one of the early families who settled in Virginia in the 17th century. They migrated from London, where an ancestor had served as a musician in the court of Queen Elizabeth I. The surname in that line is believed to trace back to Bartholomew Taliaferro, a native of Venice who settled in London and was made a denizen in 1562.^[2]

Arms of Tagliaferro family of Tuscany. Sketch sent from Thomas Jefferson to George Wythe, 1786

The origins of the Taliaferro name were of interest to George Wythe, a Virginia colonial lawyer and classical scholar, who had married a Taliaferro. Wythe urged his former student and friend Thomas Jefferson to investigate the name when Jefferson traveled to Italy. Jefferson later reported to Wythe that he had found two families of the name in Tuscany, and that the family was of Italian origin.^[3] Jefferson enclosed his sketch of the coat of arms of the Tagliaferro family as reported to him by a friend in Florence, Italy.^[4]

People

Surname

It is the surname of the following persons:

Taliaferro

A. A. Taliferro, was a well-known, 20th century Rosicrucian in Dallas, Texas.

• Adam Taliaferro, American college football player severely injured during a game
• Al Taliaferro, American comic-strip artist
• Benjamin Taliaferro, early 19th-century U.S. Representative from Georgia
• Charles Taliaferro, American philosopher
• Edith Taliaferro, American actress
• George Taliaferro, American football player
• Hardin E. Taliaferro, American humorist and Baptist preacher
• James Taliaferro, early 20th-century U.S. Senator from Florida
• John Taliaferro, antebellum U.S. Representative from Virginia
• Lawrence Taliaferro, United States frontier agent
• Lorenzo Taliaferro, running back for the Baltimore Ravens
• Mabel Taliaferro, American actress
• Ray Taliaferro, American radio host
• Richard Taliaferro, colonial architect in Williamsburg, Virginia
• R. Catesby Taliaferro, American philosopher and mathematician
• Walter R. Taliaferro, pioneer U.S. Army aviator
• William B. Taliaferro, Confederate States of America general

Toliver

• Kay Toliver, American teacher

Tolliver

• Anthony Tolliver, American basketball player
• Billy Joe Tolliver, American football player
• Charles Tolliver, American musician and composer
• Lisa Tolliver, American academic-practitioner and media personality
• Melba Tolliver, American journalist
• Mose Tolliver, American primitive artist

Middle name

It is the middle name of the following persons:

• William Taliaferro Close, late surgeon who worked in Africa, father of actress Glenn Close
• Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter, U.S. Senator and Confederate Secretary of State
• Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn, 20th-century Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
• John Taliaferro Thompson, early 20th-century U.S. Army officer who invented Thompson submachine gun
• Booker Taliaferro Washington, postbellum African-American political leader, educator, orator, author, and ex-slave
• Booker T. Jones, musician, composer, frontman for Booker T. and the MGs
• T. Lee Witcher, mayor, district atty. of Canon City, Colo.

Given name

It is the first name of the following persons:

• Toliver Craig, Jr., representative in the Kentucky General Assembly
• Toliver Craig, Sr. (first called Taliaferro Craig), 18th-century American frontiersman and militia officer

Places

• Camp Taliaferro, Texas, United States, named for Walter R. Taliaferro
• T. C. Taliaferro House, Florida, United States
• Taliaferro County, Georgia, United States, named for Benjamin Taliaferro
• Taliaferro Hall, College of William and Mary, Virginia, United States
• Taliaferro Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States, Named for Thomas Hardy Taliaferro. Dean/College of Engineering; Dean/College of Arts and Sciences

Art, entertainment, and media

Fictitious characters

Surname

Tagliaferro

• Roy Tagliaferro, an alias of serial killer Red John, in The Mentalist

Taliaferro

• Paul Taliaferro, a character in David Weber and Steve White's science-fiction novel The Shiva Option (2002)
• Peachey Taliaferro Carnehan, a character in Rudyard Kipling's short story "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888)
• Penelope Taliaferro Russell, secretary to John Joseph Bonforte in Robert A. Heinlein's Double Star (1956)
• Roderick Taliaferro, the title character in George Cram Cook's first novel, Roderick Taliaferro: A Story of Maximilian's Empire (1903), with illustrations by Seymour M. Stone

Tolliver

• Ben Tolliver, a recurring character in the Gunsmoke radio and television series and the protagonist of the episode, "Ben Tolliver's Stud" (ep. 206×11 on television and ep. 166(46) on radio)
• Crane Tolliver, a character played by Wiley Harker on the ABC soap opera General Hospital
• Cy Tolliver, a character played by Powers Boothe on HBO's Deadwood TV series
• Dan Tolliver, a desperado in J.R. Roberts' Western novel, Tolliver's Deputies (The Gunsmith, #153)
• Jeffrey Tolliver, a recurring character in crime writer Karin Slaughter's Grant County series
• June Tolliver, the "girl" in John Fox, Jr.'s romance/Western novel, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1908)
• Kenny "Captain Peacock" Tolliver, a character in Sara M. Barton's Miz Scarlet and the Vanishing Visitor (A Scarlet Wilson Mystery, #2), published in September 2013 on Smashwords
• Lorenzo "Guts" Tolliver, protagonist of Jabari Asim's novel Only the Strong (May 12, 2015)
• Michael Tolliver, a gardener, who is a recurring character in Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series
• Mister Tolliver, a Genesis comics character
• Pendleton Tolliver, a fictional character in Ted Bell's short story "The Powder Monkey", compiled in the anthology Thriller: Stories to Keep You Up All Night
• Steven Tolliver, owner of a sailing ship line in Cecil B. DeMille's film Reap the Wild Wind (1942)
• Timothy Tolliver, protagonist of Aaron Shepard's children's book Timothy Tolliver and the Bully Basher (2014), distributed by Amazon Digital Services (ASIN B004I1KRTQ)
• Toby Tolliver, a character in early 20th-century American theatrical tent shows

Given name

• Tolliver Groat, Junior Postman, later Senior Postman and Postal Inspector in Ankh-Morpork, the fictional capital of Discworld
• Tolliver Lang, the stepbrother of the protagonist of The Harper Connelly Mysteries

Literature

• Tolliver's Deputies (The Gunsmith, #153), a Western novel by J.R. Roberts

Other uses

• Taliaferro (apple), an apple cultivar grown by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello

See also

• First Families of Virginia

Notes

1. Toms, Gary R. & Pylant, James (April 9, 2006). "Talliaferro is Tolliver: Surnames Sound a Challenge for Researchers" 13 (1 & 2). Retrieved January 6, 2007.
2. Wagner, Anthony Wagner & Andrus, F. S. Andrus (January 1969). "The Origin of the Family of Taliaferro". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 77 (1): 22. Part One.
3. Harris, Malcolm Hart Harris (2006). Old Kent County, Some Account of the Planters, Vol. 1. Baltimore, Md.: Reissued by Genealogical Publishing Company.
4. The American Heraldry Society (2008). "Taliferro Coat of Arms". The American Herald (3).