Sir John Taylor, 1st Baronet FRS (1745 – 8 May 1786) was a Jamaican-born planter who was a fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

and was created a baronet of Lysson Hall in Jamaica. He lived in London but he died in Jamaica.

Background

Taylor was born in the

Colony of Jamaica The Crown Colony of Jamaica and Dependencies was a British colony from 1655, when it was captured by the English Protectorate from the Spanish Empire. Jamaica became a British colony from 1707 and a Crown colony in 1866. The Colony was prima ...

in 1745 to Patrick Talizour and Martha Taylor, the daughter of George Taylor of Caymanas, Jamaica. His Scottish father had been born with the surname ''Tailzour'' in Borrowfield, but he Anglicised his name to Taylor when they married.Taylor family of Jamaica (1770–1835)
, Casbah.ac.uk, retrieved 23 October 2014

Relationship with his brother

John's eldest brother, Simon Taylor, used their father's inheritance to purchase a number of sugar plantations, bought slaves, and increased the family wealth. He also became an attorney in Jamaica who represented a large number of absentee plantation owners. Simon became reputedly the richest person in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

, becoming a member of the

House of Assembly of Jamaica The House of Assembly was the legislature of the British colony of Jamaica. It held its first meeting on 20 January 1664 at Spanish Town. Cundall, Frank. (1915''Historic Jamaica''.London: Institute of Jamaica. p. 15. As a result of the Morant ...

in the process. Simon's wealth, derived from sugar plantations, funded John's extravagant lifestyle in Europe. John Taylor became a baronet on 1 September 1778. In the same year he married an heiress, Elizabeth Goddin Haughton only daughter of Philip Haughton and Mary Brissett, owners of sugar plantations Orange, Venture and Unity in

Hanover Parish Hanover is a parish located on the northwestern tip of the island of Jamaica. It is a part of the county of Cornwall, bordered by St. James in the east and Westmoreland in the south. With the exception of Kingston, it is the smallest paris ...

, in western Jamaica. They eventually had six children. While Simon carefully built up his sugar plantations in Jamaica, he was often critical of his younger brother's extravagant lifestyle.

John Taylor's death

Simon persuaded his brother John to return to Jamaica to take control of his estates in Hanover, which were failing without his close attention. However, within a year of arriving in Jamaica, John Taylor died in 1786 during a visit to Simon's Lyssons plantation in the eastern end of the island. His title was taken by his son, Simon.

Simon's inheritance

The elder Simon Taylor died in 1813 and left most of his estates to John's son, Sir Simon Richard Brissett Taylor, 2nd baronet. However, Simon the elder also made some provisions for his mixed-race family. John Taylor's son lived only until 1815 which meant the end of the baronetcy. The fortune was inherited by John Taylor's daughter, Anna Susannah, who had married George Watson, who then added her surname to his.

Legacy

John Taylor was captured in a painting by Johann Zoffany of the Tribuna of the Uffizi in Florence in the 1770s. He appears to the right of the painting with Thomas Patch and

Sir Horace Mann, 1st Baronet Sir Horace (Horatio) Mann, 1st Baronet KB (8 August 1706 – 6 November 1786), was a long-standing British resident and diplomat in Florence. Life and career Mann was the second son of Robert Mann (1678–1751), a successful London merchant, an ...

. A key to the people shown
oneonta.edu, retrieved 17 October 2014 The year before he died, John Taylor and his family were sketched in pastels by

Daniel Gardner Daniel Gardner (1750 – 8 July 1805) was a British painter, best known for his work as a portraitist. He established a fashionable studio in Bond Street in London, specializing in small scale portraits in pastel, crayons or gouache, often bo ...

. The group consisted of Taylor, his wife Elizabeth, his brother Simon Taylor, and four of his children; Simon Richard Brisset, Anna Susanna, Elizabeth and Maria. Simon became the second and last baronet of Lysson Hall. In addition to the paintings, Taylor is also a key figure in correspondence that is now preserved as a record of life in Jamaica. The letters are from Simon to John and they record world events, the state of the plantations and complaints from Simon that he is doing all the work and John is spending all the money.Simon Taylors papers
retrieved 25 October 2014

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, John 1745 births 1786 deaths Jamaican businesspeople Sugar plantation owners Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain Fellows of the Royal Society