Peter Alfred Taylor
Date of birth: 1819.07.13
Place of birth: London
Date of death: 1891.12.20
Place of death: 18 Eaton Place, Brighton
Category: collector
Identity:
Peter Taylor was an MP, Unitarian and social reformer, and a partner in Courtauld & Taylor, silk manufacturers. He was the brother-in-law of James Stansfield M.P. for Halifax and related to .
Life:
In 1849 Taylor joined his father in Courtauld & Taylor as a partner. However he eventually abandoned business for politics and in 1860 was elected a Radical MP for Leicester. With John Stuart Mill and Henry Fawcett, Taylor was a keen supporter of universal suffrage and had as a young man been involved with Giuseppi Mazzini's People's International League and its campaign for universal suffrage. His wife Clementia Taylor was also an active suffragist and philanthropist. He published many speeches - on censorship, the opening of public museums and on vaccination and was proprietor of the Examiner newspaper. He served as an MP until his resignation in 1884.
The Taylors owned works by Whistler including Symphony in Grey and Green: The Ocean y072 and The Lily m0364.
Bibliography:
Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 2004; Crawford, E., Enterprising Women. The Garretts and their Circle, London 2000.
