John Taylor

John Taylor was an English manufacturer and banker based in Birmingham. He was born in London and moved to Birmingham as a cabinet maker. There he set up a factory in what is now Union Street to manufacturer "Brummagem toys", such as buttons, buckles, snuffboxes and jewellery boxes. He eventually employed 500 people and became one of Birmingham's leading industrialists. The output of buttons from his works was estimated at £800 per week In 1734 he married Mary Baker of Bordesley Park and established Bordesley Hall as the family seat. He invested the profits of his business in local land and property, buying Sheldon Hall in 1752 and Moseley Hall and the manor of Yardley in 1768, ending up owning some 2000 acres. He was appointed High Sheriff of Warwickshire for 1756–57. In 1765, in partnership with his neighbour, the Quaker iron merchant Sampson Lloyd II, Taylor founded the profitable Taylor and Lloyd's Bank in Dale End, Birmingham, which eventually grew into the large Lloyds Banking Group. He died in 1775 and was buried in a vault at St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham. James Watt commented that at his death Taylor was worth some £200,000.