Library Guides: Lynchings on Maryland's Lower Eastern Shore: Henry Taylor, 1908

Biography

Henry Taylor
Pocomoke City, Maryland

Henry Taylor was nearly lynched in Pocomoke City in Worcester County, Maryland in January 1908. He was convicted of second degree murder of a White man. Little is known about Taylor before his arrest and conviction, other than that he was employed at the Marvil Package Company lumber mill and also went by the alias of Henry Tink.

On January 11, 1908, Henry Taylor got into an altercation with fellow Marvil Package Company employee William Lankford. Lankford had thrown a nail keg that had hit Taylor in the leg as he passed by. After Taylor had thrown the keg back at Lankford, the latter disappeared. Lankford was later discovered unconscious on the floor of the company supply room with a head injury. He later died from his wounds. Taylor was identified by witnesses as a suspect, and arrested hiding under a bed at his lodging house. While Taylor admitted to hitting Lankford with a piece of lumber, he holds that his intent was not to kill.

Taylor received a hearing by Judge William Quinn in Pocomoke after his arrest. The judge ordered his confinement to jail until a later date. Word of the murder soon spread around Pocomoke City, leading to talks of lynching Taylor for his crime. However, the Worcester County Sheriff made the decision to move Taylor to the county jail in Snow Hill to prevent such a lynching. Taylor remained there until his conviction and sentencing in May. Taylor was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 18 years in Maryland State Penitentiary.