Parnel Taylor, a life-long resident of Bristol, RI, was born April 13,1747, and died December 1789, is a documented Daughter of Liberty. This association was not social fluff. In Rhode Island in 1766, a Daughter of Liberty referred to women publicly and deliberately protesting Parliamentary taxation (Stamp Act, then Townshend Acts) by making and wearing homespun, refusing British imports, and pledging not to buy taxed goods (especially tea).
According to the Newport Mercury the spinning matches in which she and other young women participated took place April 10 and April 15, 1766, and produced many skeins of “good linen thread”.
There is little else documented about her life. She married Nathaniel Smith October 17,1766. Together they had at least seven children although several died young.
