Roger Brooke Taney was born on March 16, 1817 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the seventh of eleven children born to Susanna (Thompson) and John Taney. John was a lawyer and state legislator who served as a U.S. Senator from Maryland. Roger Brooke Taney attended one of Baltimore's elite private schools and then the University of Maryland, where he received a law degree in 1837.

Taney started his legal career as a lawyer in Baltimore. He soon became prominent in the state legislature and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1851.