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George Watson Taylor

1771 - 1841

This person is the subject of ongoing research. We have started by researching their relationship to the enslavement of people.

Biographical notes

Politician and art collector.

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
Checked and foundItem on publisher's website

C. Matthew et al. (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford 1992-, https://www.oxforddnb.com/
Checked and not foundItem on publisher's website

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
Checked and foundItem on publisher's website

J. Turner et al. (eds), Grove Art Online, Oxford 1998-, https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/
Checked and not foundItem on publisher's website

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
Checked and foundItem on publisher's website