David Taylor SRA SFM

[ottobottle]

I'd hazard a guess that SFM might have some connection with Free Masons. Society of Free Masons maybe? SRA might be something similar.

[JDGen]

Hmm, just found this:

Liverpool Mercury 26 April 1853:

I hereby give notice that I will NOT be ANSWERABLE for any DEBT or DEBTS that my Wife MARY TAYLOR (late Mary Naisby of Oxton Hill Cheshire) may contract on or after this date.
DAVID HANNAH TAYLOR
Witness Joseph Carter, 6 Camden St Birkenhead, April 25 1853

Added:  that may explain why he died at his fathers residence.  In the obituary the only letters shown after his name are SRA.....

[JDGen]

The London Gazette of 7th January 1853 has this:

Partnerships dissolved:
James Taylor and David Hannah Taylor of Liverpool, Woollen Merchants

Could James be a brother?

Jean

[JDGen]

It appears that James is his brother.  1861 census, RG9 2647-7 Page 8, Bidston Hill, Bidston:

David Taylor, Head, Mar, 64, Retired from Woollen Cloth Trade born Scotland
Ellen Taylor, Wife, Mar, 60 born Lancashire Liverpool
James Taylor, Son, Unm, 46, Cashier born Lancashire Liverpool
Catherine Williams, Serv, Unm, 32, Domestic Servant

Jean

[Neptune]

Hi

The marriage is in the familysearch pilot site.

David Taylor - father David
Mary Toft Naisby (age 21)  - father William
Birkenhead St Mary's June 1849

http://search.labs.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#start

Regards


Neptune

[Greygirl]

Thank you all!
Yes, David Hannah Taylor's father was David. The familysearch info may not be quite correct. I have a newspaper cutting from the Manchester Times 27th June 1849 which states that the marriage was "On the 23rd inst at the Abbey Church Birkenhead, by the Rev Mr Taylor, David H. Taylor S.R.A. S.F.M., second son of David Taylor Esq Birkenhead, to Mary, second daughter of William Naisby Esq, Oxton, Cheshire." The death notice in the Liverpool Mercury 19th November 1861 says "Nov 18 at the residence of his father, David Taylor Esq, Grove Villa, Bidston aged 30, Mr David Hannah Taylor, S.R.A."
The S must stand for Society. Maybe the M is for Merchants and the A for Agents? I didn't think that the freemasons used letters after their name.
The newspaper notice about Mary's debts is intriguing. I haven't found any other references to debts and Mary's father left her a fair share of his property in his Will of 1862.

[Greygirl]

Well, curiouser and curiouser, as Alice said.
From searching the London Gazette archive it appears that our David Hannah Taylor was the problem in the family, not his wife Mary. He was carrying on a number of businesses while insolvent and seems to have had quite a number of different addresses, presumably trying to avoid his creditors who finally caught up with him in 1854. No wonder Mary and her two children moved back in with her father. I can't help feeling that David's end at such a young age might not have been a very happy one...

[JDGen]

How interesting - it's surprising how much you can find out.

I think that this is one occasion when I might be tempted to invest in that death certificate....

Jean

[Greygirl]

I think I might have found David Taylor in 1861 b1823 Cheshire living in Cheshire (I think Oxton). Could someone look up the deails of this address and if anyone was living with him at the time, please?