1690(?)-1709 TAYLOR John
1690(?)-1709 TAYLOR John
YORKCLICK the (For local directory of sugar houses, click here.) (For national directory of sugar houses, click here.)
The width of this map represents 0.5ml / 0.8km. |
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| 2012 |
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Ongoing Research ...
** Buildings, Skeldergate - west bank of R Ouse, immediately above Skeldergate Bridge - a) A sugarhouse, possibly 1670s to 1730. ** Chronology of Evidence - ? - "Amongst the Friends penalized in York during the 17th century [was] ... John Taylor, a prominent Friend who settled in York as a sugar refiner." [Protestant Nonconformity, VCH City of York, 1961] 1680/1 - John Taylor, sugar refiner, made Freeman of the City. [YCA Freeman's Lists] 1690 - "Further research in connection with the sugar-refining pottery from an excavation on Skeldergate in 1972 (YAT Interim 8/4 1982) has yielded some interesting results. Work by Sarah Croney, the Trust's historian, has revealed the existence of a sugar-refiner named John Taylor, who leased a property on this part of Skeldergate for 19 years until his death in 1709. This neat tying-up of historical and archaeological evidence, the former giving a precise date to the latter, is too rarely encountered in pottery studies." [Catherine Brooks, YAT Interim 9/2, 1983 - unreferenced] 1708 - John Taylor signed his will 15 November. [Borthwick Institute York Prob Reg 65 fo.209] 1709 - John Taylor's will proved 15 April, mentioning his occupation - sugar refiner, his house in Skeldergate, his wife Elizabeth, son Isaac, late son Jonathan and his daughter, and a friend Thomas Hammond bookseller. [Borthwick Institute York Prob Reg 65 fo.209] 1730 - "... the demolition of Mr Taylor's refinery in 1730." [Colin Briden, YAT Interim 9/3 - unreferenced] 1875 - "The property comprises a part four storey, part two storey brick built Grade II listed former bonded warehouse (erected 1875). The property comprises a north building and a south building and its last use was as a nightclub and restaurant." [Eddisons, File Ref. 720.2959a. (their website 2012) - unreferenced] 1970 - "The old [Dutch-gabled] warehouse, Skeldergate is of the 17th century ... probably for a wine merchant ... a modern warehouse has been built against the N. side. A late 19th century bonded warehouse adjoins the E. half of the S. elevation. Demolished in 1970." ['Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of York', Vol III, RCHM. HMSO, 1972 - unreferenced] 1972 - "... from post-medieval levels on a site on Skeldergate excavated in 1972 have come a large number of vessels now seen to be connected with sugar-refining, indicating that an industry important to York today has quite a long history here. The two vessel forms represented are sugar-cone moulds and jars." [Cathy Brooks, YAT Interim 8/4, 1982] 1983 - "As excavation on the two adjacent sites at the south end of Skeldergate draws to an end, a review can be given of the very impressive results obtained from these excavations. On the first site immediately to the north of the Bonding Warehouse, [grid ref: SE60265139], two trenches were laid down through areas straddling the Trust's 1972 excavation (Interim 1/1). ... The purpose of our excavation eleven years later was to see something of a sugar refinery known to have existed here in the late 17th century ... . The basic outline of Taylor's refinery was clear to us although many of the detailed arrangements had been destroyed by later building. One large furnace was excavated, and rooms containing quantities of lime - used in the process - were recorded. Of particular interest to us, however, was the fact that the builders of the refinery had placed their rear building line along the top of the 14th century river wall." [Colin Briden, YAT Interim 9/3 - unreferenced] 2002 - "On a site adjacent to the Bonding Warehouse excavations in 1972 and 1983 uncovered the foundations of a 17th century sugar refinery whose rear wall was on the line of the 14th century river wall. A large furnace was excavated, together with rooms containing quantities of lime used in the refining process. Remains of the distinctive cone-shaped earthenware vessels used in the process were also found (YAT site code 1983.25; Interim 8/4, 43-5, 9/2, 28-30, 9/3, 6-9; YAT 1999, 36-7). The site was aquired in 1690 by John Taylor, a wealthy and influential Quaker who, after some years resident in America and the West Indies, had settled in York as a sugar refiner in the 1670s. The raw molasses was shipped to York from the West Indies and refined here until Taylor's death in 1709." ['The Fairest Arch in England', Barbara Wilson & Frances Mee, YAT 2002 - unreferenced] ** Observations - Far too much of this 'evidence' has not been referenced. Whilst Sarah Croney's main facts have simply been copied from one author to another, little gems like "Taylor in America and West Indies" and "sugarhouse demolished in 1730" just hang there, unsubstantiated. I find it interesting that E Ridsdale Tate in the early 1900s made a conjectural sketch of this exact section of riverside c1700 showing the Dutch-gabled warehouse with, abutting its south wall, a three storey building with crane and watergate ... the 1852 OS map shows it as The Old Crane. Did this building make way for the bonded warehouse ? ['The Fairest Arch in England' - above] Catherine Brooks, in YAT Iterim 9/2 p30 prior to the 1983 dig, questions whether the sugarhouse would have been totally destroyed by the building of the 18th century warehouses ! After all those weeks of digging in 1983, there appears to have been no official, detailed report published - just the notes in Interim. Where are the records - the notes, the measurements, the photographs ? ** Questions ... and further research - 1) If John Taylor became a Freeman in 1680/1 following an apprenticeship (7 years) to a sugar refiner, it implies there was a sugarhouse in York back to the early 1770s. Did he actually lease the established sugarhouse in which he had previously trained and worked, and if so, who ran it before him ? 2) The same Freeman's List shows Taylor's son Isaac becoming a Freeman (merchant taylor) in 1705, suggesting he was born about 1684. He had an elder brother, so just when did John Taylor travel to America and the West Indies ? 3) What were the dimensions of the sugarhouse ? Did the archaeologists record them ? 4) What was the building that replaced the sugarhouse in 1730(?), and when was it demolished ? 5) My assumption had been that the sugarhouse sat between the Dutch-gabled warehouse and the north line of the bonded warehouse, yet the RCHM book (above) states that the Dutch-gabled warehouse and the bonded warehouse touched at the river wall. The archaeologists did not dig beneath the bonded warehouse, so how could the sugarhouse (demolished 1730) be beneath the 17th century Dutch-gabled warehouse ? ... unless, of course, it wasn't 17th century ! |
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** The research continues - Ailsa Mainman of YAT assures me there is an archive for the 1983 dig, but a lack of funding means there has not yet been the opportunity for a full report. My query on the Rootsweb's York Mailing List has provided two excellent replies from York folk ... ... hopefully, more to follow ... |
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for sugar
houses in that street.