Taylor, James

• DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Phillip Buckner and D. Murray Young, “TAYLOR, JAMES (d. 1856),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 8, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/taylor_james_1856_8E.html#citations
• DCB profile notes:
  • businessman, politician, office holder, justice of the peace, and militia officer; b. c. 1794 in Fredericton, second son of James Taylor and Jane —; m. 26 Aug. 1829 Nancy Hatfield, widow of William Fortune, a master mariner, and they had one daughter and two sons; d. 4 Feb. 1856 in Fredericton.
  • James Taylor’s father, James (1756–1834), born in Port Glasgow, Scotland, was described as a man of undeviating integrity. He moved to New York early in life and served in the British forces during the American revolution. He was one of the first loyalist settlers at St Anne’s Point (Fredericton) in 1783, building the third house in the town. An enterprising merchant, he erected the first public market there in 1814. Two years later he chartered a Saint John-built ship, the Favorite, to bring Scots settlers to New Brunswick on a government contract.
  • Following his escape on 23 July, he gradually re-established himself as a merchant at New York and in 1780 became a captain in the city militia. In 1783 he left for England to seek compensation for the loss of personal effects and property in Connecticut, which he estimated to be worth about £1,500. He also hoped to be able to speed the settlement of a case in the Court of Chancery that involved a legacy to his wife. Bureaucratic and legal complications delayed his return to North America until October 1786, when he arrived at Quebec.
  • Taylor entered into a formal partnership with his father and his younger brothers,William and John F., in 1821, under the name of James Taylor Senior and Company. Its main business was the supplying of provisions to lumbermen and the forwarding of timber and lumber to Saint John, but it also became extensively involved in property transactions and had mills on the Tobique River.
  • James Taylor was also a director of the Nashwaak Mill and Manufacturing Company, founded during the heady atmosphere of the 1836 boom. When the operating manager fled to the United States in 1840 after having allowed the firm to go bankrupt, Robert Rankin and Company, which had been responsible for providing its supplies and marketing its lumber, took the business over. By the early 1840s the firm was producing between seven and eight million feet annually. In October 1835 James and John had sold two mill reserves and some land on the Tobique River to Ephraim H. Lombard of Saint John. Backed by American capital, Lombard then organized the Tobique Mill Company. He leased some 100,000 acres of crown land and made plans for the erection of several sawmills. On 9 Jan. 1838 James became president of the milling operations. Unfortunately, with only one sawmill in production, this firm also collapsed in 1840.
  • Taylor had run in 1830 for York County in the general election, but was defeated. Following his protest of the by-election results in September 1832, he was declared a winner and on 11 March 1833 he entered the House of Assembly. He continued to hold the seat for the rest of his life, frequently topping the polls for the constituency. Taylor had family connections in politics. His brother William had represented York since 1822 and his wife’s sister’s husband, Charles Fisher, would join him in the house in 1838. 
• Son of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=8314
• Find A Grave : https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/61844564/james-taylor