Son of John Talman and Phebe Cornell, he was born in 1761 or 1762, probably in Flushing, Queens County, New York.

He was in Hudson by 1785, when he married Heroine Jenkins. He and his wife had ten children, five of whom lived to adulthood.

He was a physician, one of the founders of the Columbia County Medical Society in 1806. He served as an Assessor of Hudson in 1804 and was Mayor of Hudson from 1813 to 1815 and again from 1820 to 1821. He was on the Official Committee to welcome General Lafayette on his visit to Hudson in 1824.

In 1795 he was involved in the effort to establish an Episcopal Church in Hudson and was elected a Warden of the nascent parish of St. Paul, which did not continue. In 1802 he was involved in the second, successful attempt and was elected of the first vestrymen of Christ Church, Hudson and later served as Warden. In 1803 he was on the first board of the "The Episcopal Sunday Charity School," the second Sunday school founded in the State of New York.

He died on August 10, 1834 "in his 73rd year," according to Christ Church Burial Record, "aged 73," according to his gravestone.

Forty years later, he was remembered in a talk given before the Columbia County Medical Society by Dr. P. B. Collar: "Dr. John Talman, of Hudson, was in the early days of the Society, one of the most popular physicians in the city. He was a skillful practitioner, and a man of very pleasing address. Of fine form, tall and well proportioned, with rare social qualities, he was the "beau ideal" of a gentleman. He generally presided at the dinners, and his ready wit and sparkling repartee, made him the spirit of the company. For many years it was the custom of the members of the Society to dine together at their meeting. Dinner was usually served at the "Stockton House," a hotel standing well uptown. At these dinners, beside the feast corporeal there was usually a "flow of soul" as well, and wine and wit circulated freely.
Some of the older men were accustomed to the glass, and made much sport of the younger and more temperate ones, whom they facetiously dubbed, "teaspoon-full men." Sometimes the wine would assert its power, and slang and stories would pass around, but generally the dignity of the occasion would be preserved."
(Hudson Daily Register, Friday, October 9, 1874)