Silas Taylor

Silas Taylor (1624–1678) was an English army officer of the Parliamentarian forces, known also as an antiquary and musical composer.

The son of Silvanus Taylor, a parliamentary committee-man for Herefordshire and supporter of Oliver Cromwell, he was born at Harley, near Much Wenlock, Shropshire, on 16 July 1624. Anthony Wood calls him Domville or D'omville by surname, but it is not clear that Taylor ever used that name himself. After Shrewsbury School, he entered New Inn Hall, Oxford, at the beginning of 1641.

Taylor left Oxford to join the parliamentary army, in which he bore a captain's commission under Edward Massey. After the First English Civil War he became, by his father's influence, a sequestrator in Herefordshire. Initially the position was joint with Captain Benjamin Mason; after a sharp quarrel over the details of distraining money, and the accounts, Taylor emerged as the sole holder of the office. He was accommodating to the local gentry.

At the Restoration of 1660, Taylor had to rely on patronage. Sir Edward Harley, appointed governor of Dunkirk in June of that year, took Taylor with him in the capacity of commissary for ammunition. He returned to London in 1663, out of work for nearly two years. Sir Paul Neile with others found him the keepership of naval stores at Harwich. He held the post until his death, which took place on 4 November 1678. He was buried in the chancel of Harwich Church.

Under the Commonwealth Taylor had access to the cathedral libraries of Hereford and Worcester for manuscripts; from the latter he copied an original grant of King Edgar dated 964, printed in John Selden's Mare Clausum. Allegations of the time that he misappropriated the contents on a large scale are now rejected.

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