John William Taylor

John William Taylor (6 April 1827–20 November 1906) was a philanthropist and bellfounder and a member of the John Taylor & Co dynasty of bellfounders based in Loughborough in Leicester.

Biography He was born in Buckland Brewer near Bideford in Devon in 1827, the eldest son of Amelia née Jones (1799–1880) and John Taylor (1797–1858), a bellfounder who, soon after his marriage in 1825 went to Buckland Brewer where he set up his bellfoundry. From here he took orders for all over the country and cast the peal of six bells for St Nectan's Church in nearby Hartland, Devon. John William Taylor was baptised in the parish church of St Mary and St Benedict in Buckland Brewer on 24 September 1827. The family lived in Buckland Brewer until at least 1837, when his sister Amelia Jones Taylor was born in Oxford where the family had a bellfoundry. By 1839 the family had removed to Loughborough where John Taylor set up another foundry.

John William Taylor became a bellringer, for a board dated 1847 in the belfry of Loughborough parish church records that in that year there was rung a peal of Grandsire Triples during which John W. Taylor rang the third bell. In 1852 aged 25 he married Eliza Brayley (1827–1910) of Loughborough. For many years Taylor continued with attempting to realise a "true-harmonic" in bell casting until in 1896 the company perfected its five tone principle of bell tuning resulting in the first peal of tuned bells to be hung in Norton church tower near Sheffield. At around this time Taylor made a great advance in the process of moulding bells when he obtained "...a complete set of iron shells for bells up to four tons". With these "bellcases" he was able to mould bells in his foundry and have them cast at "a foundry with which I am connected".

John William Taylor died in Loughborough in 1906 aged 79. In his will he left an estate valued at £47,614 16s 2d. A commemorative plaque in his memory is located on the foundry's tower wall.