Anna Susannah Taylor

A true riches-to-rags story.  Anna Susannah Taylor was heiress to the richest man in Jamaica, but married a man so profligate, he managed to spend her entire fortune. Her uncle, Simon Taylor, owned four sugar plantations and five cattle ranches (including Prospect Pen - now the official residence of the Jamaican Prime Minister) and enslaved over 2,000 people. Anna Susannah married George Watson.  George became an avid art collector, acquiring works by Rubens, Van Dyck, Reynolds, and Hogarth. They purchased a town house in Cavendish Square, spending £48,000 on its decoration and a country seat at Erlestoke Park, Wiltshire, where they held lavish parties and were visited by the young Princess Victoria.   George ran for Parliament, and was elected as MP for Newport, Isle of Wight (and later MP for Seaford, East Looe and Devises) a vocal opponent of the abolition of enslavement.  When bankruptcy loomed, much of the furniture from Cavendish Square was sold to George IV to refurbish Windsor Castle.  In 1832, the family fled to the Netherlands, then Germany, then a debtors’ sanctuary in Edinburgh to evade their creditors. Anna Susannah remained in control of the Jamaican estates until her death in 1853, however, and the Watson Taylor family continued to live and hold land on the island well into the 20th century.