[2][3] John's eldest brother, Simon Taylor, used their father's inheritance to purchase a number of sugar plantations, bought slaves, and increased the family wealth.
[5] While Simon carefully built up his sugar plantations in Jamaica, he was often critical of his younger brother's extravagant lifestyle.
[6] Simon persuaded his brother John to return to Jamaica to take control of his estates in Hanover, which were failing without his close attention.
However, within a year of arriving in Jamaica, John Taylor died in 1786 during a visit to Simon's Lyssons plantation in the eastern end of the island.
[9] The fortune was inherited by John Taylor's daughter, Anna Susannah, who had married George Watson, who then added her surname to his.