(Vol. v., p. 370.)
The first person of the name as Mayor of Worcester, occurring in 1648,
is James Taylor, Esq.; in 1666, Henry Taylor, Esq.; in 1675, Rowland
Taylor, Esq.; in 1731, Samuel Taylor, Esq. In 1732, James Saunders,
Esq., was elected, but, dying in his mayoralty, Samuel Taylor, Esq., was
re-elected, to serve the remainder of the year; and in 1737, a Samuel
Taylor, Esq., was again elected, and this is no doubt the same person,
making his third election.
It is, I think, evident from the following, which may be found in
Green's History of that city, vol. ii. p. 106. of Appendix, that their
burial-place was in a vault at the west end of the north aisle of St.
Helen's Church:--
"Opposite the pulpit--Richard Taylor, Alderman of this city, died
Nov. 11th, 1754, aged sixty-eight. There are several more of the
same family interred under this stone."
In 1718, a Mr. Thomas Taylor, lay clerk, and in 1719, Elizabeth, wife of
Mr. Thomas Taylor, a lay clerk of this church (Worcester Cathedral),
were buried therein.
I think it very probable, from the orthography of the names being alike,
that the above parties were connected by family ties.
I do not find, either in my own MS., in Green's History, or any other
work, memorials of the same name in any other of the Worcester churches.
Nash, in his County History, gives the arms of Taylor of Welland, a
small village near Upton-on-Severn: "sable, a lion passant, argent."
On flat stones within the communion-rails of that (Welland) church are
the following inscriptions:--
"Edmund Taylor, Esq., died 10 Jan., 1721, aged 55.
"'Hic jacet Radulphus Taylor vir nullo non doctrinæ genere
instructissimus uxorem duxit Penelopen filiam natu secundam
Nicholai Lechmere de Hanleycastle, armigeri, quarto die Junii,
obiit, A.D. 1676, æt. 39;' and several of their children are here
buried.
"Penelope Taylor, died 29 May, 1710, aged 62."
Arms on the stone.
I know of no family of the name resident in that city; but, having left
it many years, I am almost a stranger to its inhabitants. But I
recollect a gentleman of that name resident at Strensham, the
birth-place of the poet Butler (_Hudibras_), and who, to his honour, in
1843, erected a monument to the memory of that celebrated man, in the
church of his native village. His name was John Taylor, Esq.