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The Taylor Family
The Taylor Family
The first Taylor to arrive in the Australian colonies was Robert John Taylor. He had been born at Downpatrick in County Down in 1834. He apparently came to the colony of New South Wales with his brother David, with the brother then heading off to the US.
However, another version had him going to the California gold-rush first and then moving on to the burgeoning mining scene in Australia. We have also seen a version that he was born in Lanarkshire in Scotland.
In any case, he arrived at Wollongong and installed himself at the mines at Woonoona on the NSW South Coast. Later he moved to the East Maitland district where he ran a mine called "Rathluba". In 1860, he married Bridget Gibney, born in 1834 at Saggart in County Dublin, Ireland and had five children. She had arrived in NSW on the "Bee" in January 1856. She died in 1893.
He died on the 22nd of June 1898 of TB at Pyrmont in Sydney. Below can be seen his obituary from the Freeman's Journal of 2 July 1898.
Their son, John Michael Taylor, born in 1861 was the great-grandfather of the author of this site. He proved to be remarkable considering that he began life in a backwoods mining town. First becoming a teacher, then moving to Sydney where he became vice-dean of Sydney University, chairman of the City Mutual Life Association (a leading life insurer) and chief examiner of the NSW Public Service Board. He became a lawyer and founded the firm of Taylor Kearney & Reid.
He married Mary Crowley, who came from a family of go-ahead Irish that broke the mould of second-class citizens into which many Irish fell wherever they emigrated. Her brother, George Crowley, founded not only the City Mutual but also the Mutual Life & Citizens (MLC) in the 1880s. Another close relative became the Treasurer of the Colony of New South Wales.
J.M. Taylor and Mary Crowley had seven children. Of these, Robert went on to become a leading medical specialist and a director of the CML, John Gerald (grandfather of this sites author) became the General Manager of the CML, and Harold became an employee of the insurance group. The other brother, George, went on the become a leading pathologist in Brisbane, Kathleen married the professor of pathology at Queensland University in Brisbane, Genevieve married the NSW member of Parliament Cecil Murphy and Molly married Cyril Kearney, a partner at the law firm of Taylor Kearney & Reid, founded by his father (and her father).
He died in Sydney on the 18th of April 1933.
The influence of the family was felt at CML through until the 1960s. Ironically, the company (renamed Capita) merged with the MLC after Capita sailed too close to the wind in the go-go 1980s.
The City Mutual HQ in Sydney
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