Politician and art collector.
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
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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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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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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Paintings previously owned by George Watson Taylor
A merchant ship, probably an Indiaman, comes to anchor. After a long and dangerous journey, perhaps to the Far East or the West Indies, the white sails are being lowered one by one. The flag on the foremast suggests that this is the vessel of the vice admiral of a small fleet. The crew is busy an...
Not on display
This is an affectionate portrayal of one of Murillo’s most devoted patrons, Don Justino de Neve. The inscribed tablet on the wall reveals that the portrait was made in 1665 and was a gift from the artist – a gesture of friendship.Murillo’s regard for his friend is obvious in the way he presents h...
These are the four Graham children. Their father was Royal Apothecary to George I and George II. Thomas, in his gilded baby carriage adorned with a bird, had already died when Hogarth was working on the picture. The crossed carnations (funeral flowers) beside him are a tender reminder of death. A...
This altarpiece was commissioned for a burial chapel in San Salvatore in Lauro in Rome. However, the political turmoil following the Sack of Rome in 1527 meant that it was never installed there. According to the art biographer Vasari, Parmigianino was working on this picture when imperial troops...
Not on display
Hogarth certainly painted this sketch from life, and although he may never have known the girl’s name, this is definitely a portrait of an individual. For at least a century before and after Hogarth painted The Shrimp Girl, most of the travelling sellers of shellfish in London were women, usually...
Not on display