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{{Short description|English Member of Parliament}}
'''John Bladen Taylor''' (1764–1820), was an English army officer of the [[East India Company]] and merchant. He became an East India Company director in 1810. At the end of his life he was Member of Parliament for [[Hythe (UK Parliament constituency)|Hythe]], in 1818–9.<ref name="HoP">{{cite web |title=Taylor, John Bladen (1764-1820). |url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/taylor-john-bladen-1764-1820 |website=History of Parliament}}</ref>

==Life==
He was the son of John Taylor of [[Townhead]] and [[Abbot Hall, Kendal]], and his wife Dorothy Northall née Rumbold, daughter of William Rumbold and sister of [[Thomas Rumbold]]. They married in 1762, in British India.<ref name="HoP"/> He was born in [[Calcutta]], where at the time his father was in the East India Company Maritime Service.<ref name="Christie">{{cite book |last1=Christie |first1=Ian R. |title=British 'non-elite' MPs, 1715-1820 |date=1995 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-820557-9 |page=111 |language=en}}</ref>

Taylor was in the East India Company [[Madras]] military, from 1778, possibly to 1805.<ref name="Christie"/> He was a cadet in 1778, rising to lieutenant in 1783.<ref name="HoP"/> His father had died by 1787, when Abbot Hall was put up for sale.<ref>{{cite news |title=Estate in Westmorland |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000950/17870725/009/0003 |work=Cumberland Pacquet and Ware's Whitehaven Advertiser |date=25 July 1787|page=3}}</ref> It was recorded in 1821 that Taylor was placed on [[half pay]] in 1783, with the [[87th Foot]] (an anachronism before 1793).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Great Britain War Office |title=A List of the Officers of the Army and of the Corps of Royal Marines |date=1821 |page=418 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D29KAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA418 |language=en}}</ref> He was promoted to captain in 1796, major in 1799, and lieutenant-colonel in 1804, retiring from the military in 1805.<ref name="HoP"/>

Returning to the United Kingdom, Taylor was an East India merchant, later in 1810 becoming an East India Company director as replacement on the death of [[William Bensley]];<ref name="HoP"/><ref name="Christie"/><ref>{{cite book |title=Almanak van Nederlandsch-Indië voor het jaar|volume=2 |date=1816 |publisher=Lands Drukkery |page=91 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z1hVAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP91 |language=en}}</ref> he was re-elected in 1811 and 1816.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Philips |first1=C. H. |title=East India Company |date=1940 |publisher=Manchester University press,London |page=377 |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.csl.7144/page/n342/mode/1up}}</ref> Early in his time as director, under the influence of [[Charles Grant (British East India Company)|Charles Grant]], Taylor was one of the swing votes in a decision to side with [[Sir George Barlow, 1st Baronet]] in his Madras power struggle with [[William Petrie]]. Finding that Grant failed to follow up with an investigation of Barlow, he later reversed his position.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Philips |first1=C. H. |title=East India Company |date=1940 |publisher=Manchester University press,London |page=172 and note 5 |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.csl.7144/page/n178/mode/1up}}</ref>

Taylor joined in 1811 the 3rd Regiment of the Royal East India Volunteers, with rank of major.<ref name="HoP"/> He prepared the ground at Hythe for the [[1818 United Kingdom general election|1818 general election]], as a [[nabob]] candidate supporting the [[Liverpool administration]], and was successful in the two-member constituency with the Tory [[Sir John Perring, 1st Baronet]], keeping out [[Matthew White (MP)|Matthew White]] and [[Sir John Courtenay Honywood, 5th Baronet]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Hythe Borough 1790-1820 |url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/constituencies/hythe |website=historyofparliamentonline.org}}</ref> He was a Member of the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom]] for Hythe 1818 to May 1819.<ref name="HoP"/>

==Family==
Taylor married in 1808 Rachel Dunkin, daughter of [[William Dunkin (judge)|Sir William Dunkin]], as her second husband. The couple had one daughter, Eliza Alicia.<ref name="HoP"/><ref name="LG">{{cite book |last1=Burke |first1=John Bernard |last2=Burke |first2=Sir Bernard |title=A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland|volume=I |date=1898 |publisher=Harrison |page=289 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NcgMkEtYHNYC&pg=PA289 |language=en}}</ref> She made a [[first cousin marriage]] in 1855 to Edmund Hugh Clerk JP (c.1818–1900) of [[Burford]], seventh son of Major Thomas Clerk of the East India Company and his wife Dorothy Taylor, sister of John Bladen Taylor.<ref name="LG"/><ref>{{acad|id=CLRK832EH|name=Clerk, Edmund Hugh}}</ref>

Rachel Dunkin's first marriage was in Bengal in 1792, to George Elliot of the [[Bengal Civil Service]]. He was a nephew of [[John Grant (d. 1804)|Major John Grant]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Bengal Past And Present|volume=37-38 |date=1929 |page=345 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.32676/page/n345/mode/1up}}</ref> [[William Hickey (memoirist)|William Hickey]] in his ''Memoirs'' gave an account of Elliot's death after a lightning strike at Monghyr ([[Munger]]).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hickey |first1=William |title=Memoirs of William Hickey|volume=4 |date=1925 |publisher=Hurst & Blackett |location=London |pages=73–74 |language=en}}</ref> Rachel at the end of 1795 sailed back to Great Britain, taking with her the two eldest children of [[Francis MacNaghten]] and his wife Letitia, her sister.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hickey |first1=William |title=Memoirs of William Hickey|volume=4 |date=1925 |publisher=Hurst & Blackett |location=London |page=128 |language=en}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, John Bladen}}
[[Category:1764 births]]
[[Category:1820 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century English people]]
[[Category:English merchants]]
[[Category:Directors of the British East India Company]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies]]

John Bladen Taylor - Revision history

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