As a youth he was apprenticed to a blacksmith named John Higginson. Still in his teens, he and his brother, Edmund, sailed for America, arriving in Maryland. On 6 May 1721, when he was 21, he married Mary Williston in St. Paul's Church, Baltimore. Their son, Charles Moyle Talbot was born in 1723. He went into the merchant mariner trade with Nicholas Hale. After heavy losses at sea, the Talbot and Hale families moved to Virginia. In September 1828 he bought 251 acres in Prince George County. In 1729 his son, Matthew was born and in 1832 his son, James was born. In 1735 his wife, Mary, bore their last son, John Williston Talbot. She died fourteen months later. In 1736 he remarried to Jane Clayton. Together they had two more children, Isham, from her side of the family, and Martha, after his mother. In about 1742 the family moved about 100 miles west into wilderness near what is now Bedford, Virginia. Over twenty years he bought 10,000 acres. He was a respected leader, swore allegiance to King George II, was a devout Church of England member, and served on the Vestry. He helped define the boundaries of Lunenburg and Bedford counties, made a list of the tithables property, collected money owed to Lunenburg County, and served as the Clerk of the Chapel. The first meeting of the Bedford County Court was held at his house. Until a modest courthouse and prison were erected in November of 1754, the meetings continued to be held at his house, and he served as one of the justices of the court. Hostile Natives were a problem and the settlers formed a militia. The French allied with Native tribes to drive out the English and the French and Indian War began in 1754, the American branch of the Thirty Years War in Europe. Matthew was commissioned as a colonel of the Bedford Militia in 1755, and his sons served as officers. Indeed in 1756 Natives killed his neighbor, Ambrose Arthur and his wife, Keziah, in-laws of his daughter, Martha, orphaning Ambrose and Keziah's son, Benjamin, who was Martha's foster brother-in-law. Later Benjamin Arthur became a Captain in the Patriot Army in the Revolutionary War. On 4 January 1758 he made his Will, confessing himself to be sick and weak of body. He died of ill health and his Will was proved on 27 November 1758. He was the grandfather of U. S. Senator for Kentucky, Isham Talbot and of Matthew Talbot, Governor of Georgia.