Matthew Taylor

Born 2 February 1837
Died 9 July 1889

Active: 1861 - 1889

Country of birth and death: England

Sculptor, architectural sculptor, monumental sculptor, stone carver

Born and died in Leeds, Yorkshire. He was the son of William Taylor (c.1793-1874, born in Grewelthorpe, Yorkshire) a moderately successful joiner and carpenter.

Taylor entered into a partnership with Benjamin Burstall (1835-76) working under the name of Burstall & Taylor, Sculptors. The firm is listed in several Leeds City directories from the 1860s and 1870s. Their business was located in Cookridge Street near Woodhouse Lane.

Amongst the known projects that Burstall & Taylor executed were the stone carving for: the renovation of St. Stephen's Church, Kirkstall (1864); the building of the Church of St. Mary, Hunslet, Yorkshire (1864); the building of St. Oswald's Church, Fulford, Yorkshire (1866); the building of Christchurch Congregational Church, Ilkley, Yorkshire (1868); the renovation of the Parish Church of Sandal, Wakefield, Yorkshire (1873); and the main staircase and portico of the Bolton, Lancashire, Town Hall, including the recumbent lions flanking the stairs as well as additional external and internal sculpture (1870).

It is presumed, based on the value of his effects, that Taylor continued the business successfully after Burstall's death in 1876. One of Taylor's executors was a neighbor in the village of Arthington, William Henry Beever, architect. Matthew left five children, his oldest surviving son, Francis B Taylor (born c.1869 in Leeds) is listed as an artist in the Census Returns of 1891.

This record includes information supplied by Kurt Etchingham.

Wealth at death: £2,437 14s. 5d.
Probate date: 1 August 1889

Citing this record

'Matthew Taylor', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib5_1204818972, accessed 21 Mar 2023]