Initial service Polycarpus Taylor was born in 1706 or 1707; nothing else is recorded about his family or upbringing. Having at some point joined the
Royal Navy, Taylor became
lieutenant of the 8-gun
sloop HMS Wolf on 4 May 1733.
Wolf was serving on the
Jamaica Station, based at
Port Royal. The ship had been heavily hit by fevers, and routinely cycled through commanding officers; in September 1735 Taylor had to apply directly to the
Admiralty for his wages because his most recent captain had died before being able to sign off on them. Taylor continued in
Wolf, including when she was
paid off in August 1735. He finally left the ship on 10 April 1738 as she was being recommissioned. After around a year without a position, Taylor was appointed to serve as second lieutenant of the 60-gun
ship of the line HMS Augusta on 21 June 1739. From 11 July
Augusta served off
Cape St Vincent, forming part of Rear-Admiral
Nicholas Haddock's
Mediterranean Fleet. The ship was under the command of Captain
Chaloner Ogle, who was promoted to
rear-admiral but continued with
Augusta as his
flagship. In the summer of 1740
Augusta moved to serve in Admiral
Sir John Norris'
Channel Fleet. On 10 September Ogle was sent with a large squadron to escort an
expeditionary force to the
West Indies, sent there to reinforce Vice-Admiral
Edward Vernon on the Jamaica Station. Taylor moved from
Augusta to the 80-gun ship of the line
HMS Russell, part of the same squadron, as her
first lieutenant on 3 October. They reached the
West Indies Station on 23 October, with
Russell serving as Ogle's new flagship. , in which Taylor fought at the
Battle of Cartagena de Indias|thumb As part of
Russells crew, Taylor participated in the unsuccessful attack on
Cartagena at the
Battle of Cartagena de Indias between March and April the following year. Then on 19 June Vernon moved Taylor to serve on board his flagship, the 80-gun ship of the line
HMS Boyne, as her fourth lieutenant.
First commands Boyne participated in the unsuccessful
Invasion of Cuba between July and October. Taylor became her third lieutenant on 6 October, and first lieutenant on 6 February 1742. The ship was present during
operations at Porto Bello in March, but after this further offensives were halted because the British fleet had been considerably weakened. Taylor was promoted to
commander in around August of the same year, and was given command of the 8-gun
bomb vessel HMS Basilisk. He commanded the bomb until 2 May 1743 when he was promoted to
post-captain and appointed to command the 44-gun
frigate HMS Fowey. Taylor sailed home in
Fowey in June 1744, escorting a convoy. It was expected at the time that news of
war with France would soon reach the West Indies, and to ensure that the convoy was not reported to French authorities and attacked, the French
Martinique-based merchant ship
Mentor was forced to sail with the convoy. Part way through the journey the British
privateer Thurloe, which knew that war had been declared, came up with the convoy and declared that she had captured
Mentor. An argument then ensued over whether
Thurloe had legitimately captured the ship or if
Fowey had already taken her into custody. Taylor appealed
Thurloes capture of behalf of his crew at a
prize court in 1750. The Admiralty had previously ordered that a new ship be built in the place of
Fowey, and accordingly Taylor paid her off upon reaching England with his convoy. Taylor transferred to the new ship, also a 44-gun frigate named
HMS Fowey, in August 1744. In 1745 the new
Fowey was sent to
cruise in the
English Channel. On 12 June Taylor was sailing off
Cape Antifer when the French 24-gun
Saint Malo privateer
Griffon attempted to chase him, being ignorant of
Foweys greater strength. When
Griffon discovered her mistake, the ship ran from
Fowey to the nearby Feschampe Bay. Taylor followed
Griffon into the bay, forcing the French ship to take cover under a 4-gun
shore battery.
Griffon and the battery fired at
Fowey, and the French ship then made sail to reach a nearby
pier. Both of her
pilots had however been incapacitated by
Foweys return fire, and after an hour Taylor forced
Griffon to run ashore without reaching her goal. The majority of the crew drowned, with
Fowey rescuing around forty survivors. The French ship had lost her
foremast and was
bilged, with the
guns spiked. Taylor sent boats in to burn
Griffon, but 150 Frenchmen had garrisoned the wreck and they were unable to board it.
Fowey took the French survivors to
Spithead. In November Taylor's ship escorted a troop convoy to
Louisbourg and was subsequently kept on station there under the governor, Commodore
Charles Knowles. For 1746
Fowey spent the summer months patrolling off Virginia, and in the winter did similar work at Jamaica.
Jamaica Station , in which Taylor commanded
HMS Elizabeth In January 1747
Fowey sailed with Knowles to formally join the Jamaica Station, with the latter being appointed commander-in-chief. On 1 February Taylor was part of a
court martial board that dismissed Captain
John Crookshanks from his command of the 44-gun frigate
HMS Lark and
cashiered him. Taylor left
Fowey on 3 November, moving into the 60-gun ship of the line
HMS Warwick which was on the same station. This was a brief appointment for Taylor, as the now Rear-Admiral Knowles translated him into the 64-gun ship of the line
HMS Elizabeth on 29 January 1748. Knowles' squadron sailed to the south coast of Cuba on 13 February, but contrary winds meant they instead first went to attack Port Louis,
Hispaniola, at the
Battle of Saint-Louis-du-Sud on 22 March. Led into the harbour by
Elizabeth, the squadron cannonaded the Spanish 76-gun island castle protecting the area, which in response sent a
fireship to attack
Elizabeth and Knowles' flagship, the 80-gun ship of the line
HMS Cornwall. Boats from the squadron towed the fireship away before it could inflict any damage, but
Elizabeth pre-emptively cut her cables and
warped out of danger. The other ships continued to bombard the castle, and the Spanish governor surrendered soon afterwards. With the winds back in their favour, in April the squadron moved to attack
Santiago, but on 9 April the
Battle of Santiago de Cuba ended in failure when the leading British ship was unable to breach a defensive
boom spread across the entrance to the harbour. The squadron afterwards returned to Jamaica, and in June Knowles appointed Taylor to command
Cornwall. After a
refit the squadron went to sail off
Havana to intercept the
Spanish treasure fleet in August. On 12 October Knowles encountered a squadron of Spanish warships, beginning the
Battle of Havana. While the Spanish immediately formed
line of battle, Knowles' force took longer to do so, and the battle only commenced at 2.30 p.m. after a chase of several hours, when the two fastest British ships came into range of the Spaniards.
Cornwall reached the engagement at 4 p.m. and at pistol-range attacked the 70-gun ship of the line
Africa, Vice-Admiral
Andrés Reggio's flagship. Taylor's ship was heavily damaged in the exchange, losing her
maintopmast. This forced
Cornwall to leave the line of battle to begin repairs, but while these were being completed the Spanish 64-gun ship of the line
Conquistador neared her having also fallen out of the line.
Cornwall attacked
Conquistador and set her on fire three times with
coehorns, forcing the Spaniard to surrender. The rest of the Spanish squadron escaped.
Africa had been heavily damaged in the fight, and anchored in a bay to make repairs before she could reach a friendly port; Knowles' squadron found her on 15 October, and the Spaniards burned the flagship to avoid capture. , commanded by Taylor, leads the British squadron at the beginning of the
Battle of Havana|thumb The squadron afterwards continued to patrol off Havana in the hope of discovering the treasure fleet, but on 16 October Knowles was informed that Britain and Spain were entering peace preliminaries to end the
War of the Austrian Succession and
War of Jenkins' Ear. After the battle Knowles reported the "bashfulness" of several of his captains to Admiral
Lord Anson, but listed Taylor among those he thought were good seamen. Taylor had spent much of the battle in a small boat rowing the length of the British line of battle, ordering and threatening the captains of the other ships. On 29 October Knowles moved him to command the 60-gun ship of the line
HMS Rippon. In the meantime Knowles' captains had sent their own complaints to Anson, arguing that he had stayed in Taylor's
Cornwall when he could have moved into a faster ship, and had been slow to form line of battle. With the war over, Knowles and most of the squadron returned to England towards the end of the year, where the admiral and four of his captains were court martialled.
Rippon, however, stayed in the West Indies, and with Knowles' departure Taylor became the senior officer on the Jamaica Station. His period in command was brief, and he was recalled to England at the end of 1749.
Later service and retirement Taylor reached Spithead in
Rippon and paid the ship off on 12 December. He did not receive a new command until 7 June 1756, when he was appointed to the 74-gun ship of the line
HMS Culloden at the start of the
Seven Years' War.
Culloden was part of the Mediterranean Fleet and based at
Gibraltar, and to join her Taylor sailed out with Vice-Admiral
Sir Edward Hawke, who had been one of Taylor's captains in
Wolf and was assuming command of the fleet. Having arrived at Gibraltar on 2 July, Hawke took the fleet to
Minorca. This was to attempt to reverse the result of the
Battle of Minorca where the island had been lost to the French, but Hawke was unable to facilitate this. Taylor relinquished his command of
Culloden in favour of Captain
Smith Callis in August, instead joining the 50-gun ship of the line
HMS Deptford on 3 October.
Deptford was also part of the Mediterranean Fleet, and Taylor continued with it until his ship returned home to undergo a refit at
Chatham Dockyard from December 1757. On 25 January 1758, just before this was completed, Taylor left the ship. This was Taylor's last active service in the Royal Navy. On 6 December 1762 he was made a
superannuated rear-admiral, and in his retirement he continued to live at his home in
Norton,
County Durham. He died there on 23 January 1781, aged 74, and was buried at St Mary the Virgin, Norton. ==Personal life==