Politician and art collector.
George Watson Taylor
This person is the subject of ongoing research. We have started by researching their relationship to the enslavement of people.
Biographical notes
Slavery connections
Slave- and plantation-owner. Husband of Anna Susannah Taylor, niece of Simon Taylor of Jamaica (UCL Department of History, ‘Simon Taylor of Jamaica’, in UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership [online], London 2020, <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146634174> accessed 4 August 2021), from whom she indirectly inherited a fortune, including his Jamaican sugar cane plantations. He squandered his wife’s inheritance. On the death of her brother Simon Richard Brissett Taylor (UCL Department of History, ‘Sir Simon Richard Brissett Taylor’, in UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership [online], London 2020, <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146634178> accessed 4 August 2021), the Watson Taylors were reported to have inherited ‘£500,000 in the funds of this country for the purchase of an estate’, and were rumoured to be looking at Houghton, Sir Robert Walpole’s Norfolk estate (UCL Department of History, ‘George Watson Taylor (née Watson)’, in UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership [online], London 2020, <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/-1221895888> accessed 4 August 2021).
Abolition connections
No known connections with abolition.
National Gallery painting connections
Former owner of works subsequently accessioned into the NG’s collection: NG33, NG1162, NG4756.
Bibliography
S. Farrell, 'WATSON TAYLOR, George (1771-1841), of Cavendish Square, Mdx. and Erlestoke Park, nr. Devizes, Wilts.', in History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History, London 1964-, 1820-1832, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/watson-taylor-george-1771-1841
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Item on publisher's website
C. Matthew et al. (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford 1992-, https://www.oxforddnb.com/
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R. G. Thorne, 'WATSON TAYLOR, George (?1770-1841), of Cavendish Square, Mdx. and Erlestoke Park, nr. Devizes, Wilts.', in History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History, London 1964-, 1790-1820, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/watson-taylor-george-1770-1841
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Item on publisher's website
J. Turner et al. (eds), Grove Art Online, Oxford 1998-, https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/
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UCL Department of History, 'George Watson Taylor (nee Watson)', in UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership, London 2020, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/-1221895888
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Item on publisher's website