Page:A Picturesque Tour of the Island of Jamaica.djvu/45



, in St. Thomas in the East, the property of George Watson Taylor, Esq. M.P., occupies a very great portion of the easternmost extremity of the valley of Plantain Garden River. The works are situated on the northern bank of the stream, and give employ to upwards of six hundred negroes, who are now settled on the sea-shore in a village recently erected at a very great expense. Although the situation of the former settlement was known and felt by the negroes themselves to be unhealthy, so great was their attachment to it, that no persuasion could induce them to abandon it. Fortunately the elements came in aid of the efforts of the proprietor. A flood, unusual in extent, even where floods are far from uncommon, cleared the village of its inhabitants, who took up with their new and much more commodious habitations, merely as temporary residences, till the effects of the partial deluge should have passed away. A few weeks, however, reconciled them to their new abode. The greater convenience was every day more apparent, and they remained contentedly in a spot to which probably nothing short of the accidental circumstance above-mentioned could have driven them.

The family of Taylor was originally of Norman extraction, and settled in Scotland early in the fourteenth century, acquiring lands at Burrowfield near Montrose. The first we find on record is Robert Tailzour, of Tailzourtown, who married Mary, daughter of Sir Alexander Strachan, Bart. Approaching our own time, Patrick Tailzour, Esq. settled in Jamaica, and married Martha, daughter of George Taylor, Esq. of Camanas in that Island (upon which marriage he assumed the name of Taylor), by whom he had two sons and four daughters. John, the second son, was created a Baronet on the 25th July 1778. The elder son, Simon, died unmarried; and his estates descended to his nephew, Sir Simon, upon whose death without children the whole centred in George Watson Taylor, Esq., only son of G. Watson, Esq. of Saul’s River, Jamaica, in right of his wife, Anne Susanna, eldest sister of Sir Simon and sole heiress of her uncle. The original family estate is Lyssons, near Port Morant; to which Mr. Simon Taylor added, Holland, Llanrumney in St. Mary’s, with the pens of Montrose and Flint River. The estates of Haughton Court and Haughton Grove were the patrimony of the late Lady Taylor, widow of Sir John, descended from a younger branch of the ancient family of Haughton of Lancashire, Baronets. Mr. Simon Taylor was educated at Eton, and going early in life to visit his patrimonial estates in Jamaica, engaged actively in the public concerns of the Island, audand [sic] continued his residence there during the remainder of his life, making only one visit to England, when he was received by Mr. Pitt, the Minister, with marked consideration, and was introduced to His Majesty George III.

The view before us presents the approach to the works from the South. On the left is the Barrack, or residence of the book-keepers and other white people attached to the estate, beyond which is the boiling-house and still-house. On the right is the overseer’s house, and in the distance, upon the hill, is the change-of-air house, for the use of convalescents on the estate.