Benjamin Ogle Tayloe

Benjamin Ogle Tayloe
Portrait of Benjamin Ogle Tayloe by Thomas Sully
Born	(1796-05-21)May 21, 1796 Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.
Died	February 25, 1868(1868-02-25) (aged 71) Rome, Italy
Nationality	American

Benjamin Ogle Tayloe (May 21, 1796 — February 25, 1868) was an American businessman, bon vivant, diplomat, and influential political activist in Washington, D.C. during the first half of the 19th century. Although he never held elective office, he was a prominent Whig and influential in presidential electoral politics in the 1840s and 1850s. His home, the Tayloe House, became a salon for politically powerful people in the federal government and socially influential individuals in the United States and abroad. Tayloe was also a party in the important 1869 contract law case, Willard v. Tayloe, 75 U.S. 557.

Tayloe was born on May 21, 1796, at Ogle Hall in Annapolis, Maryland, a home belonging to his maternal grandfather, Benjamin Ogle, the ninth governor of Maryland. His maternal great-grandfather was former provincial governor Samuel Ogle. Tayloe's father was Colonel John Tayloe III, one of the richest people in Virginia. Colonel Tayloe had built The Octagon House in 1800, and his great-grandfather had built the great country estate house of Mount Airy in Richmond County, Virginia, in 1762. His mother, Anne Ogle Tayloe, was the granddaughter of Governor Benjamin Ogle.