sketcher, teacher, draughtsman and farmer, came to Western Australia from London in the Sterling , arriving at Fremantle on 14 March 1841 and settling at Guildford where he conducted a school. In 1848 he applied for a position as draughtsman with the Lands and Survey Department and that year became a churchwarden in the Middle Swan area; at a fund-raising concert for the church he played the flute. While living at Perth in 1850 Taylor drew his only known picture, a very competent pencil and watercolour sketch of Perth from St. George’s Terrace (Art Gallery of Western Australia). He was at West Guildford from at least 1852-68 (when employing ticket-of-leave men) and he leased and purchased both rural and town land over the years. He seems to have prospered as a landowner and farmer, qualifying as a juror with real estate worth £1000 in 1860. Taylor’s wife Sibella, née Stephen, widow of Captain Robert Robinson, died in 1864 and some years later Alexander apparently moved to Melbourne, Victoria, where his brother William was a civil engineer. He died on 21 May 1877.
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- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
