Taylor

Eleanor Cheshire was the youngest daughter of Richard Cheshire and Ann Taylor, who married in 1851 in Upton Magna church. A witness at the wedding was James Maddox, a neighbour in the village and presumably Richard’s friend and best man. Richard, Ann, James and Richard’s mother Jane all signed the register with their marks.

Taylor ancestors are more difficult to identify, being quite a common surname. DNA helps to establish connections, but they may be tentative, as illustrated below. All of the descendants in this chart lead to DNA matches.

Jane and Elizabeth Taylor married their partners on the same day in 1819 in different churches in Shrewsbury. Before her marriage to George Harris, a flax dresser in Castle Foregate, Elizabeth Taylor had a son Henry in 1812 in Coleham; she married Thomas Barnett in 1815 and they had a daughter Harriett. George’s son John Harris married Jane Price but they were separated before 1901.

William Taylor married Elizabeth Peters of Somerwood, Upton Magna in 1826 in St Mary’s Church Shrewsbury. William was an agricultural labourer / gardener in Haughmond then Hadnall where he died of heart disease in 1863. His wife Elizabeth died four years later, certified “worn out” in Astley, her daughter Eliza Taylor present at her death. William and Elizabeth’s son William married Eleanor Higginson in 1854 and they lived in Bagley Bridge, an area of interest with many newspaper stories of accidents, court cases and life on the River Severn.

Jane’s son John Hayes married Eliza Taylor in Wombridge in 1850 with witnesses Richard Cheshire and Ann Taylor who married less than a year later. John and Eliza had three children but John, though noted as “married” was living at his parents’ home in Haughmond in 1851, then still with his parents “unmarried” by 1861. No divorce record has been found. In 1871, Eliza was housekeeper for Henry Hope with the three Hayes children; they appear in the 1881 census with surname Hope. No marriage record has been found for Henry and Eliza but her death certificate in 1903 shows her as Henry Hope’s wife with her son William Hope in attendance.