Charlotte Tayler

Natural daughter of Simon Taylor (1739-1813), described as a 'quadroon'. Probably the Charlotte Taylor, born in enslavement in 1795 and baptised 17/03/1798 at Golden Grove, St Thomas-in-the-East. Possibly also the "sickly delicate child, with straight light-brown hair, and very black eyes" described by Lady Nugent at Golden Grove in March 1802. In his will, proved 1813, Simon Taylor bequeathed to his executors £700 in trust for Charlotte, to pay for another enslaved person to take her work at Golden Grove and the interest to be used for her maintenance and education.

In 1814, Charlotte had her first child, Margaret Madden Sproull, with James Sproull, owner of Rosemount estate in St Thomas-in-the-East. Charlotte had been manumitted by the time their second child, William Taylor Sproull was baptised in 1816. They had at least 5 more children together. In 1835, James and Charlotte and their children moved to Milmount in County Tyrone, Ireland, where Charlotte died in 1847. In his will, James Sproull described her as his "beloved wife".

Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online]. Will of Simon Taylor, PROB 11/1548/177. Philip Wright (ed.), Lady Nugent's Journal of her residence in Jamaica from 1801 to 1805 (Kingston, Jamaica, 2002) p. 68. Will of James Sproule, PROB 11/1938/182.

For more details of the Sproull family and of Charlotte Tayler see the blog of Kate Tammemagi, 'Sproule Genealogy', http://sproulegenealogy.blogspot.ie/2014/03/the-beginning-of-big-story.html and 8 further episodes [accessed 27/11/2015].