Sir Simon Taylor (c.1633 – 25 December 1689) was an English wine merchant and

Tory A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...

politician.

Biography

Taylor was born in

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

, Norfolk, the eldest surviving son of Simon Taylor and Susan Greene. In 1657 he became a freeman of Lynn and in 1660 he was made an

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

. In 1675 he served as the town's mayor. As a wine merchant, he specialised in the growing port trade and built a large house with capacious cellars in Wyndgate, now Queen Street. He also purchased the manor of Shingham, 15 miles outside Lynn. Taylor first stood for election for the

constituency in 1673, but was defeated by Francis North by 100 votes. In February 1675 he was defeated a second time, this time by Robert Coke, after a protracted and very expensive contest. In the 1679 election, Taylor was successfully elected to the

House of Commons of England The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England (which Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, incorporated Wales) from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was re ...

as a Member of Parliament for King's Lynn and continued to represent the seat until his death. He voted for the first

Exclusion Bill The Exclusion Crisis ran from 1679 until 1681 in the reign of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. Three Exclusion Bills sought to exclude the King's brother and heir presumptive, James, Duke of York, from the thrones of England, S ...

, but by November 1680 he was firmly aligned with the

Court A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...

faction. Taylor was knighted at

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a List of British royal residences, royal residence at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about west of central London. It is strongly associated with the Kingdom of England, English and succee ...

by Charles II in 1684. He supported the repeal of the

Test Acts The Test Acts were a series of penal laws originating in Restoration England, passed by the Parliament of England, that served as a religious test for public office and imposed various civil disabilities on Catholics and nonconformist Protes ...

and in June 1688 he was recommended as a court candidate for Lynn in support of James II. On 29 March 1660 he married Mary, daughter of Samuel Baron, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. He died on 25 December 1689, aged 56, and was buried in St Margaret's, Lynn.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Simon 1630s births 1689 deaths 17th-century English merchants English MPs 1679 English MPs 1680–1681 English MPs 1681 English MPs 1685–1687 Tory MPs (pre-1834) Year of birth uncertain