John Taylor (1812-1884)

Missionary, immigration agent.

Born in the Barbados in 1812, the son of a commissariat officer of the British government, and educated in Halifax and Oxford. He was married in 1850. He joined the British-American Bible Society in 1865 and worked among lumberjacks near Peterborough.

He visited the Icelandic colonists at Kinmount, Ontario in 1874, and was instrumental in securing a Dominion government grant for an expedition to choose a site for the colony in the West. He also conducted thegroup to Gimli, and in 1876 waselected a member of the first village council of Gimli. He remained asIcelandic agent there until 1880, whenhe moved to another colony at Argyle. His last years were spent in Carberry.

Taylor died on 17 August 1884 at Milwaukee,Wisconsin.

Source:

Profile revised: 27 December 2008

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