Capt. William Taylor
1794 - 1846 (52 years)
-
Name William Taylor Title Capt. Born 11 Apr 1794 Manchester, Lancashire, England 
Gender Male Emigration Bef 10 Sep 1826 From England Occupation pioneer, miller, merchant, ship builder _MILT 1837 Captain for the British Loyalists during the 1837 Rebellion Died 19 May 1846 Dawn Mills, Camden Township, Kent County, Ontario, Canada Buried Dawn Mills Cemetery, Dawn Mills, Kent County, Ontario Person ID I19128 Brown Genealogy Last Modified 19 Sep 2024
Father Thomas Taylor, b. Abt 1765, England , d. UNKNOWN, Probably New York, USA Relationship natural Mother Alice Hulme, b. Abt 1771, England , d. UNKNOWN, Probably New York, USA Relationship natural Married 11 May 1792 Manchester, Lancashire, England Family ID F4920 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family Sarah Chew, b. Abt 18 Oct 1797, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England , d. 26 Feb 1858, Dawn Mills, Camden Township, Kent County, Ontario, Canada (Age ~ 60 years) Married 30 Mar 1815 Christ's Church Cathedral, Rye, Westchester, New York, USA Children 1. Elizabeth A. Taylor, b. 11 Mar 1816, New York, New York, USA , d. 27 Jan 1889, Dawn Mills, Camden Township, Kent County, Ontario, Canada (Age 72 years) [natural]2. Alice Ann Taylor, b. 16 Feb 1819, New York, New York, USA , d. 3 Oct 1906, Dresden, Kent, Ontario, Canada (Age 87 years) [natural]3. Mary Ann Taylor, b. 27 Aug 1822, New York City, New York, USA , d. 25 May 1900, Kent County, Ontario, Canada (Age 77 years) [natural]4. William C. Taylor, b. 22 Aug 1824, New York City, New York, USA , d. 18 Jun 1894, Wallaceburg, Kent County, Ontario, Canada (Age 69 years) [natural]5. Catherine M. Taylor, b. 1826, Toronto (Probably Weston), York, Ontario, Canada , d. 29 Mar 1861, Dawn Mills, Camden Township, Kent County, Ontario, Canada (Age 35 years) [natural]6. Thomas Hulme Taylor, b. 10 Sep 1826, Toronto (Probably Weston), York, Ontario, Canada , d. 3 Nov 1891, Chatham, Kent County, Ontario, Canada (Age 65 years) [natural]7. Anny M. Taylor, b. 1830, Ontario, Canada , d. 27 May 1865, Dawn Mills, Camden Township, Kent County, Ontario, Canada (Age 35 years) [natural]8. Sarah Ann Taylor, b. 14 Mar 1830, Ontario, Canada , d. 17 Jun 1886, Kent County, Ontario, Canada (Age 56 years) [natural]9. Jane Ann Taylor, b. 16 May 1832, Dawn Mills, Camden Township, Kent County, Ontario, Canada , d. 20 May 1851, Dawn Mills, Camden Township, Kent County, Ontario, Canada (Age 19 years) [natural]10. Samuel Chew Taylor, b. 18 Feb 1834, Dawn Mills, Camden Township, Kent County, Ontario, Canada , d. 28 Oct 1873, Wallaceburg, Chatham Township, Kent County, Ontario, Canada (Age 39 years) [natural]Last Modified 19 Sep 2024 Family ID F4931 Group Sheet | Family Chart
-
Notes - William Taylor was born in England, probably in Manchester. It is believed that he was the son of Thomas Taylor and Alice Hulme who were married in Manchester on 11 MAY 1792 (according to an LDS member entry). No official record of William's birth has been found. (An erroneous baptism had previously been identified as 25 MAY 1794 Saint Mary, Bury, Lancashire, England however this same child is recorded as having died 6 JUN 1794.)
William immigrated to New York, USA sometime prior to 1815 when he is recorded as having married Sarah Chew in Rye, Westchester, New York, USA. Early census records and church records show no indication of any Taylor family in Rye prior to 1810, and post-1810 records imply only one family named Taylor resided in Rye prior to 1850. Careful interpretation of these records would appear to indicate that William probably came to the USA as a young boy with his parents and siblings and possibly an uncle. (A detailed analysis of these early records is presented below.)
In 1815, William married Sarah Chew whose family also came from Manchester, England. She had immigrated with her brothers and widowed mother sometime between 1810-1815. It is not known if the Chews and Taylors knew each other back in Manchester or not.
William and Sarah began their family in New York where they had their first four children, concluding with their son, William C Taylor who was born in 1824. Sometime shortly after William Jr's birth, William Sr and Sarah and their family (including Sarah's widowed mother Ann Chew nee Walker) removed from New York and came to Canada. According to a later biography they stayed briefly in "Toronto", however it is believed that "Toronto" should be interpreted loosely. Sarah Chew's brothers had settled in Weston, Ontario, Canada (present-day Etobicoke, a suburb of Toronto), where they were prospering as pioneer settlers and had a thriving mill business. It is presumed that William Taylor and Sarah Chew stayed with Sarah's brothers in Weston.
On October 19, 1826 William Taylor acquired from Col. Talbot a land grant of 100 acres of undeveloped wilderness land along Bear Creek (present-day Sydenham River) in Kent county, southwestern Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) where he built a grist mill. The Sydenham waterway was the only transportation route from Kent county to the city of Detroit. The town of Dawn Mills, near present-day Dresden (not to be confused with Don Mills, near Toronto) grew up around the mill. William quickly expanded his land grants to an eventual 1000 acre area along the north shore of Bear Creek. As business at the mill prospered William opened a general store, a lumber mill, and a ship yard. He eventually added a fourth mill to his holdings. (It's not known what kind of mill.)
By 1830 Captain Taylor was living in Kent County where he appears to have been a entrepreneurial pioneer-extraordinaire. He is almost solely responsible for founding the village of Dawn Mills which grew up around his saw mill, grist mill, general store and other businesses. Not only is the Taylor family responsible for the birth of the village of Dawn Mills but also they are responsible for its subsequent demise. However, we will come to that later.
The following article from Romantic Kent -- The Story of a County 1626-1952 by Victor Lauriston, recounts the life of William Taylor:
"[The plentiful natural resources helped the early settlers in Camden West township] eke out a livelihood, all unsuspicious of the early advent of a man who was to change their lives.
"Captain William Taylor, born in England on April 11, 1794, settled in Toronto when it was still "muddy York". Whether his marriage to 18-year-old Sara Chew on March 30, 1815 took place before or after he emigrated, we do not know. [Although the author of the article did not know, it has now been confirmed that they were married in New York City, and their early children were born in New York.] He was still resident in Toronto when his fifth child and second son, Thomas Hulme Taylor was born on September 10, 1826.
"...About 1830, or perhaps a little earlier, Taylor moved to his new demesne. With James Smith he built a grist mill on the south bank at a bend in the river, where a series of rapids not merely marked the head of navigation, but provided good water power. Prior to that time settlers had gone to the Detroit River in canoes with their grain, the only nearer mills, on the Thames, being difficult to access through the forests and swamps. Taylor also established a general store and a saw-mill; and from these enterprises the resulting community took the name of Dawn Mills. He also engaged in shipbuilding, his craft, the 'Sara Taylor' and the 'Dawn', being operated as adjuncts to his business enterprises, not merely on the river, but on the upper lakes.
"New settlers came in, and a village gradually clustered around the mills. It was in 1835 that A. B. Baxter came. A year later he became partner in Taylor's store, the first in the community.
"In the rebellion of 1837, William Taylor was commissioned captain and raised a militia company in which young James Smith served as lieutenant...."
By the mid-1800s the railroad was transforming the transportation industry. No longer were waterways the means of travel. When the railroad lines were being considered for the Kent County area, the Taylor family campaigned vigorously to have the railroad come through Dawn Mills. They were not successful and the local business economy suffered badly as commerce followed the railway lines.
After the death of Captain William Taylor, his business interests passed to his second son, Thomas Hulme Taylor. Thomas made a valiant effort to maintain his father's businesses in Dawn Mills, at least while his mother remained alive. When Sarah Chew died Thomas Hulme Taylor sold most of his father's businesses and moved the woolen mill to Chatham where the Taylor Mills Company continued in the family until well into the mid-20th century.
Thomas sold one mill to his brother-in-law, Charles Prangley (below), and another to the McVeans of Dresden. (Coincidentally, it is interesting to note that one of the McVean descendants today is a colleague and best friend of the author of this work.) Today there is nothing left of the village of Dawn Mills except a few houses and the ruins of the foundations of the old mills.
- William Taylor was born in England, probably in Manchester. It is believed that he was the son of Thomas Taylor and Alice Hulme who were married in Manchester on 11 MAY 1792 (according to an LDS member entry). No official record of William's birth has been found. (An erroneous baptism had previously been identified as 25 MAY 1794 Saint Mary, Bury, Lancashire, England however this same child is recorded as having died 6 JUN 1794.)