{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}} '''Silas Taylor''' (16 July 1624–4 November 1678) was an English army officer of the Parliamentarian forces, known also as an antiquary and musical composer.
==Life== 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.<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Domville, Silas|volume=15}}</ref>
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.<ref name="DNB"/> 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.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=7789|title=Taylor, Silas|first=David|last=Whitehead}}</ref>
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 at age 54. He was buried in the chancel of Harwich Church.<ref name="DNB"/>
==Collector== 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''.<ref name="DNB"/> Allegations of the time that he misappropriated the contents on a large scale are now rejected.<ref name="ODNB"/>
Taylor left his collections for a history of Herefordshire at Brampton Bryan, the seat of Sir Edward Harley in the county; some went to the Harleian collection. His collections relating to Harwich fell into the hands of Samuel Dale, by whom they were published under the title of ''The History and Antiquities of Harwich and Dovercourt, … first collected by Silas Taylor alias Domville … and now much enlarged … in all its parts, with notes and observations relating to Natural History … by Samuel Dale'', London, 1730 (second edition) 1732. The manuscript had been previously made use of by Edmund Gibson for his edition of William Camden's ''Britannia'', by Richard Newcourt for ''Repertorium Ecclesiasticum'', and by Thomas Cox for ''Magna Britannia''.<ref name="DNB"/> John Duncumb later used it for his ''Collections towards the History and Antiquities of the County of Hereford'' (1804).<ref name="ODNB"/>
Taylor died in debt, and his remaining collections were sold by his creditors.<ref name="DNB"/>
==Works== The only work Taylor published under his own name was ''The History of Gavel-Kind, with the etymology thereof … With some observations upon many … occurrences of British and English History. To which is added a short history of William the Conqueror, written in Latin by an anonymous author'', i. 2 pts. London, 1663; the Latin tract had been passed to Taylor from the Bodleian Library by Thomas Barlow. He dated gavelkind to an earlier period than William Somner.<ref name="DNB"/> ''Magnus Imposter'' was an anonymous attack on Richard Delamaine the younger. Taylor, his father and John Tombes took against Delamaine for religious and personal reasons, and some linked to the local politics of the quarrel with Benjamin Mason and Wroth Rogers.<ref name="ODNB"/>
Taylor left a manuscript play with Samuel Pepys for his opinion. He knew musicians: the Playfords, Henry Purcell the elder, and Matthew Locke. Two of his own compositions were published in John Playford's ''Court Ayres'', London, 1655. Pepys heard an anthem of Taylor's performed in the Chapel Royal.<ref name="DNB"/>
==Family== {{Empty section|date=November 2013}}
==Notes== {{reflist}}
;Attribution {{DNB|wstitle=Domville, Silas|volume=15}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Silas}} Category:1624 births Category:1678 deaths Category:Roundheads Category:English antiquarians Category:17th-century English composers Category:English male composers Category:Alumni of New Inn Hall, Oxford