What is "taliaferro"

Taliaferro , also spelled Tagliaferro, Talifero, Tellifero, Taliferro, Tolliver, or Toliver, is a prominent family in eastern Virginia and Maryland. The Taliaferros (originally Tagliaferro, , which means "ironcutter" in Italian) are one of the early families who settled in Virginia in the 17th century. They migrated from London, where an ancestor had served as a musician in the court of Queen Elizabeth I. The surname in that line is believed to trace back to Bartholomew Taliaferro, a native of Venice who settled in London and was made a denizen in 1562.

The origins of the Taliaferro name were of interest to George Wythe, a Virginia colonial lawyer and classical scholar, who had married a Taliaferro. Wythe urged his former student and friend Thomas Jefferson to investigate the name when Jefferson traveled to Italy. Jefferson later reported to Wythe that he had found two families of the name in Tuscany, and that the family was of Italian origin. Jefferson enclosed his sketch of the coat of arms of the Tagliaferro family as reported to him by a friend in Florence, Italy.

The 'Taliaferro' (pr. "Tolliver"), 'Robinson' or 'Robertson' was a small-sized apple grown at Monticello by Thomas Jefferson. This cultivar appears to be extinct, though some horticulturalists assert that the 'Highland County' cultivar may be related, or even the same cultivar under a different name.

Jefferson called the variety "Taliaferro" in reference to a Major Taliaferro from whom he got his first samples of the fruit. Taliaferro himself claimed that the apples came from a farm owned by the Robertson or Robinson family, hence the other varietal names.

Jefferson stated the 'Taliaferro' apple was very juicy and good for eating. He praised it as the best cider apple he had tasted, producing a hard cider similar to wine or Champagne. In 1835, a gentleman named William Kenrick described the fruits as being small, only 1-2 inches in diameter, with white, red-streaked skin. Kenrick claimed the apples were unfit for eating, but reaffirmed their value in cidermaking.