John Taylor (manufacturer)
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John Taylor | |
|---|---|
_OfBordesleyBirmingham.jpg) Portrait by unknown artist | |
| Born | 1711 |
| Died | 1775 (aged 63–64) |
| Occupations | Manufacturer, banker, High Sheriff of Warwickshire |
John Taylor (1711–1775)[2] of Bordesley Hall near Birmingham (then a small town in Warwickshire), was an English manufacturer and banker. He served as High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1756–57.
John Taylor was the eldest son and heir of Jonathan Taylor (died 1733) of Bordesley by his wife Rebecca Kettle.[3]
Career
Taylor became a cabinet maker in Birmingham. There he set up a factory in what is now Union Street to manufacturer "Brummagem toys", such as buttons, buckles, snuff boxes and jewellery boxes. He made a fortune selling silver-plated articles, and he used the plating process devised by Thomas Boulsover.[4] He eventually employed 500 people and became one of Birmingham's leading industrialists. The output of buttons from his works was estimated at £800 per week. Taylor invested the profits of his business in local land and property, buying Sheldon Hall in 1752 and Moseley Hall and the manor of Yardley in 1768, and eventually owned about 2,000 acres. In 1765, in partnership with his neighbour, the Quaker iron merchant Sampson Lloyd II (1699–1779) (who in 1742 purchased as his country residence the estate of "Farm" within the manor of Bordesley), Taylor founded Taylor and Lloyd's Bank in Dale End, Birmingham, which eventually grew into Lloyds Banking Group, one of the largest banks in the United Kingdom.[5]
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