William Taswell (1 May 1652 – June 1731) was a parish priest who as a Westminster schoolboy witnessed the Great Fire of London in 1666.
[1][2] He wrote an autobiography giving an account of the fire and other events he witnessed such as the Great Plague of London, which was posthumously published in 1852.
While there he had a beneficial relationship with the Dean, John Fell, who offered him financial support knowing that he received little financial support from his father.
In exchange he assisted Fell in manuscript work, for example translating Thomas Lydiat's Chronological Canons into Latin.
[5] He served as rector of Swanton Novers, and of Wood Norton, Norfolk from 1692 to 1698 and of St. Mary Bermondsey from 1724 to 1727.