Excerpts from the Memior of Elizabeth S.W. Taylor regarding the sisters, Catherine and Mary Ware and brothers James and Marshall Ware; all the children of James Ware and Harriot Milton Taylor.  James was the son of Dr. James Ware and Virginia Catherine Todd and grandson of James Ware and Agnes Todd of Virginia.  After Harriot died, James later married Elizabeth Taliaferro Alexander, and had three more children; their last was Josiah William Ware, of whom there are several interesting posts by Judy Ware on this site.

Pages:  31-33  “On March 17th, 1818, Betsey lost her father; he died at Milton Valley, ‘beloved and respected by all who knew him,’ so says the Winchester Gazette of that date.  His children were very devoted to him, and their sorrow was great at his death.  A change at Milton Valley was now necessitated by the decision of the widow, Mrs. Milton, to leave there and go to the White Post neighborhood to live, that she might be near to her married daughters, Mrs. Meade and Mrs. Washington.  Milton Valley became then, partly by inheritance and partly by purchase, the property of Captain William Taylor, and ‘Sister Harriot’ returned to her birthplace and girlhood home, and the old house once more resounded with the glad and happy voices of a growing young family.  This removal of the William Taylor family placed a greater distance between the homes of the two sisters, and Betsey turned oftener than ever to the dear sister-in-law at hand.  The most affectionate friendship and trust grew up between them, and when, in a few years time, Mrs. Ware died in the very prime of a young and valuable life, it was found that she had let an expression of her wish that her children should be placed in the care of the young sister-in-law.  Betsey did not hesitate to accept this great responsibility, and it came to her hand in hand with great expected enjoyment.  The lack in her life was the presence of children in her home; and now this was to be filled, pressed down and overflowing, but not too many for her heart– it was large enough to hold all.  Her husband, their Uncle Bushrod, was the guardian, and she Aunt Betsey by title, but mother ex-officio to these four orphan children, James, Marshall, Catherine and Mary Ware.  They were all frail in health, but little Mary extremely so, and thus she came in for a double amount of care and petting, sleeping in a little bed beside Aunt Betsey’s own high-poster.

Page: 44  The two eldest nieces, Catherine Ware and Sarah Ann Taylor (my mother), were now absent at Mrs. Porter’s boarding school in Alexandria, Virginia; and Aunt Betsey’s motherly solicitude was expending itself watching over the waning health of the two nephews, James and Marshall Ware, who as they grew to manhood, seemed to be developing symptoms of the disease that had been fatal to their parents, pulmonary consumption.  The second year after the removal to Winchester, and almost immediately upon his return from wintering in Florida, James, the older brother, died.

Pages: 53-54  The winter of 1835 was spent by Uncle Bushrod and his niece Catherine Ware in New Orleans and its neighborhood, that she might escape the rigour of that season in the Valley of Virginia.  The result of the visit was very satisfactory in her much improved health.  Soon after their return home she married Dr. William McGuire and went to live upon his estate at River Side, the home of her early childhood.  This, the first marriage in Aunt Betsey’s circle of adopted children, was followed the next winter, 1836, by the marriage of Sarah Ann Taylor, eldest daughter of Captain William Taylor of Milton Valley, to George W. Hammond.  This young couple began their married life at ‘The Happy Retreat,’ near Charles’ Town, Jefferson County, Virginia, now West Virginia.  These two marriages made a great change in Aunt Betsey’s immediate family circle; they did, however, but expand the radius of her loving interest and affection, for the newly planted household of her nieces were as offshoots from her own, and as time went on the children born to them looked upon their yearly migration to Aunt Betsey’s as a time of indulgence and pleasure usually associated with a visit to ‘Grandmama’s.”

Reference Data:

The Story of a Long Life: A Memoir of Elizabeth S.W. Taylor, "Aunt Bet.", by Harriot Milton Hammond, 1900