Roger Brooke Taney's Grave

“Plagued all of his life with ill health and never a rich man, Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney died on October 12, 1864, unmourned by most Northern supporters of a war against rebellion he believed privately the Union had no legal right to wage. He was 87 years old.” —Encyclopedia Dickinsonia.

His grave can be found in St. John's Catholic Cemetery in Frederick, Maryland.

J. Thomas Scharf says:

“He died Oct. 12, 1864 in possession of his intellectual faculties, and to the last retained the keenest interest in public affairs. In the summer of 1870, Judge Richard H. Marshall, of Frederick City, and Gen. James H. Coale, of Liberty, both distinguished members of the Frederick bar, caused a marble slab to be erected over the grave of Judge Taney, which occupies a secluded spot in the old Catholic graveyard immediately in the rear of the Novitiate, between East Second Street and Third Streets of Frederick City. The slab is Italian Marble, highly polished, about three and half feet in width and six in length, set in brownstone. It is neat and unpretentious…”

The marble slab is no longer highly polished or even readable, but a nearby plaque repeats the words.






✟
Roger B. Taney
Fifth Chief Justice of
The Supreme Court of the United States
Born in Calvert County, Maryland,   March 17, 1777
Died in the City of Washington,   October 12, 1864
Aged 87 Years, 6 Months and 25 Days.
He was a profound and able lawyer
An upright and feerless judge
A pious and exemplary Christian
At his own request he is buried in this
secluded spot near the grave of his mother
The orginal began with “IHS” ending with “May He Rest in Peace” and, of course, ‘fearless’ was spelled correctly in the original epitaph.

Monica Brooke Taney, Roger's mother, has this marble headstone.

✟
Monica Taney
of Calvert County
Who died in Frederick
November 29, 1814
Aged 51 Years

As Scharf notes Taney (and his mother) were originally buried in the cemetery of St. Stanislaus Novitiate in Frederick.

Messenger Monthly Magazine, 1903, Vol. 35, Part 2.
Helen West Ridgely says that:

“A graveyard, until within recent years attached to the Novitiate at Frederick, was from 1763 to 1837 the churchyard of St. John's Roman Catholic church, and many distinguished members of that faith were buried there. A row of modern cottages now covers the spot, and the dead are scattered. … In 1900, the grave of Roger Brooke Taney, once the principal object of interest in this graveyard, was removed with that of his mother to the Roman Catholic cemetery.”

Columbia Encylodpedia says that:

“There was much antipathy to Taney at his death, but there has been a gradual increase in appreciation of his contributions to constitutional law.”

The Supreme Court History has this to say of Taney's reputation:

“Chief Justice Taney died, aged 87, in October 1864. Lincoln’s Attorney General Edward Bates wrote that his ‘great error’ in the Dred Scott case should not forever ‘tarnish his otherwise well earned fame.’ And not long after Taney’s death, victory for the Union brought vindication of his defiant stand for the rule of law.”

They were refering to Taney's opinion in ex parte Merryman.