When Joseph Taylor was born on 25 December 1796, in Shenandoah, Virginia, United States, his father, John "Westville John" Taylor, was 24 and his mother, Barbara Strickler, was 21. He married Lucy Harper on 25 February 1819, in Champaign, Ohio, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 son. He died on 3 October 1884, in Defiance, Defiance Township, Defiance, Ohio, United States, at the age of 87.