Henry Wyllys Taylor (1796-1888) was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, to the Reverend John Taylor and Elizabeth Terry. After graduating from Yale University, he was admitted to the bar in 1819 and a year later he opened his own law office in Canandaigua, New York, where he became a prominent attorney and judge. In 1832, he married Martha Caldwell Masters, the daughter of Thomas Masters and Isabella Caldwell. Taylor was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1837, 1838, 1839, and 1840, and to the Michigan Senate in 1846. He served as a justice of the New York State Supreme Court from 1856-1860. In 1869 he received an honorary law degree from his alma mater Yale. Though the family was rooted in Canandaigua, they lived in Marshall, Michigan between 1840 and 1847, before returning to Canandaigua.