Taylor, William

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: D M. Young, “TAYLOR, WILLIAM (d. 1834),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/taylor_william_1834_6E.html#citations
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Businessman, office holder, and politician; b. c. 1789 in Fredericton, eldest son of James Taylor “the Elder” and Jane – ; m. first 27 Nov. 1816, in Fredericton, Ann Cameron, daughter of Stephen Cameron, a merchant; m. secondly 25 Aug. 1819, in Saint John, Sally Hatfield, daughter of merchant David Hatfield; d. 27 March 1834 in Fredericton, survived by his second wife and four children.
    • William 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, James 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.
    • In 1822 Taylor was a member of a five-man committee authorized to raise money, from among the citizens most likely to benefit, for the creation of a reservoir for the fighting of fires; a well was dug and a tank-house erected over it to prevent the water freezing, a civic building that was a forerunner of the city hall established when Fredericton was incorporated in 1848.
    • Taylor was elected to the House of Assembly in a by-election in 1822, following the death of Stair Agnew. He was re-elected in the general elections of 1827 and 1830. 
  • 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/61844632/william-taylor