George Watson-Taylor

George Watson-Taylor (1771–1841), of Cavendish Square, Middlesex and Erlestoke Park, near Devizes, Wiltshire, was an English sugar planter, slave owner and politician.

He was the fourth son of George Watson of Saul's River, Jamaica and was educated at Lincoln's Inn from 1788 and St. Mary Hall, Oxford from 1791.[1]

Inheritance from Taylor family

He married in 1810 Anna Susanna Taylor, daughter of Sir John Taylor, 1st Baronet of Lysson Hall, Jamaica,[2] and thus gained considerable wealth from the Jamaican sugar cane plantations, specifically Jamaica, of John's brother Simon Taylor (sugar planter).[3] He was granted the additional surname of Taylor by royal licence of 19 June 1815, following the death earlier that year of Sir Simon Richard Brissett Taylor, 2nd Baronet, whom his wife had succeeded.[4] It was a practice among Jamaican planters to adopt the surname of their wives when they married into a wealthier family.

When Sir Simon Taylor died, the main share of his estate, including the Jamaican plantations, passed to his eldest niece, Anna, and her husband George, making them as wealthy as practically anyone outside of the Royal Family and the aristocracy. From the proceeds of sugar and slavery, the couple bought a large landed estate in Wiltshire for £200,000, and a house in London, and renovated it, the total cost coming to £68,000. This wealth allowed them to socialise with King William IV of the United Kingdom, and to host the future Queen Victoria.[5]

Political career

He was a Member (MP) for Newport, Isle of Wight 15 April 1816 – 1818, Seaford 1818–1820, East Looe 1820 – 23 February 1826 and for Devizes 1 March 1826 – 1832.[2] On arrival in the House of Commons he was immediately elected to the standing committee of the Society of West India Planters and Merchants.[3]

He began his career as a member of the committee of West India planters and merchants, and opposed the abolition of slavery.[6]

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1826.[7]

Death

Despite inheriting great wealth from his wife's family, Watson was a spendthrift. He failed to live within his means, and by 1832 he was heavily in debt, and was compelled to auction off his personal property, having squandered much of the family fortune.[8] He died in financial difficulties in Edinburgh in 1841, his estates at Erlestoke and in Jamaica having passed to his wife. His son Simon Watson-Taylor was also briefly MP for Devizes.

References
  1. "George Watson Taylor (1771-1841)". A Web of English History. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  2. "WATSON TAYLOR, George". History of Parliament. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  3. Ide, Isabel (2000). ""A Very Pretty Seat": Erlestoke Park, 1780-1999". Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine. 93: 9–19. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  4. "No. 17029". The London Gazette. 24 June 1815. p. 1220.
  5. Christer Petley, White Fury: A Jamaican Slaveholder and the Age of Revolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), p. 214.
  6. Petley, White Fury, p. 214.
  7. "Fellows Details". Royal Society. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  8. Petley, White Fury, p. 214.


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