William Taylor uilleann

Lives of the Pipers Home

William Taylor

player, pipemaker, teacher

b. Drogheda, Co. Louth, Ireland circa 1834
d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Jan. 17, 1892


Ryans Mammoth Collection 1050 Reels and Jigs published by Elias Howe copyright 1883, Henry Mercer's copy, opposite page 3. "The Lady on the Island" notation in William Taylor's hand. In Mercer's hand at top of page, "The Lady on the Island. I had it written for me by Wm Taylor - maker of Bagpipes - at his workshop 714 Shirley st. (18th & Fairmount Ave.) Phila - he was born near Dublin - & had learned it in Ireland & he played it on the pipes - & I had heard John Eagan the piper - play it."
From the Collection of the Mercer Museum Library of the Bucks County Historical Society, Doylestown, Pennsylvania.


See also the entry for the Taylor brothers as pipemakers.


William and Charles Taylor are remembered as the best and most creative of the uilleann pipemakers in America. William Taylor was also regarded as among the best, if not the best, Irish piper of his generation. John Ennis, writing in 1904, said that Taylor "was by long odds the ablest piper of the latter part of the nineteenth century. He was renowned for his marvelous execution on the chanter."

Given his circumstances and the era in which he lived, a fair amount is known - or supposedly known - about William's life. Still, much is unknown, and this about a man whose work still interests many. There are no photographs, no letters, very little known about his pipemaking and its evolution except for what might be gleaned from the surviving pipes themselves.

Best evidence is that William and Charles were half brothers, sons of James Taylor, a piper, pipemaker and organ-builder. William is said to have been born in Drogheda (although Henry Mercer says "he was born near Dublin") about 1834, his mother's name not now known. By 1836 James had remarried, to Mary Byrne. They had at least two children, Maryann, baptized January 1837, and Charles, born in Mullingar, County Westmeath and baptized February 20, 1847. Breandán Breathnach says the family moved around a good deal in William's youth, but came to rest in Drogheda in the 1850s.

Francis O'Neill devotes a page to William Taylor in his book Irish Minstrels and Musicians. He offers information about William and Charles found nowhere else. O'Neill wrote William "grew up in the trade" of pipemaking. When his father realized that his son had become a better performer on the pipes "he lost all taste for playing himself thereafter."

William became well known as a player and teacher. The best of his students, both in Ireland and later in America, became top-notch and well known pipers themselves. In Ireland George McCartney or McCarthy (-1908), Nicholas Markey (1839-1914) and Pat Ward (1846-1928) all claimed to be students of William Taylor. As late as 1910 Markey was advertising as a teacher of Irish pipes, and described himself as "pupil of the celebrated 'Willie' Taylor...." In the United States it is known that William Taylor gave instruction to Pat Touhey and Eddie Joyce. Both became professional pipers and players at the highest level.

In Drogheda the Taylors, father and sons, were presumably making bagpipes. James died around 1856 and the sons continued pipe production. They made Highland as well as Irish pipes. Examples of work made in Ireland are said to survive.

Searchers have found "no trace of the Taylors in Drogheda records after 1861." Nothing is known of William and Charles' activities in the next few years. They emigrated to the United States; Séamus Ó Casaide says 1869, O'Neill says in 1872. O'Neill suggests that emigration was motivated by a general decline in interest in piping in Ireland.

The brothers came to New York City and lived with a friend named Gaffney, about whom nothing is known. They began repairing and making pipes in a basement workshop lent or rented to them by piper Thomas F. Kerrigan. The workshop was in Manhattan, probably at the "corner of Eighth Street and Avenue D." This was in what is now known as the "Alphabet City" neighborhood near Manhattan's Lower East Side. The Taylors supposedly made a set for Kerrigan here, the first set they made in America. (The brothers may have made more than one set for Kerrigan. See "A note on Kerrigan's Taylor set of pipes" at the end of the Kerrigan biography in Lives of the Pipers.)

O'Neill writes that the Taylors moved to Philadelphia about 1874. Why they made the move is unknown. At the time Philadelphia was a big industrial center and a thriving port. Wood, metal, ivory, bone, tools and equipment were probably just as accessible in Philadelphia as in New York City. Philadelphia had a sizable Irish community. It might be that people William and Charles knew back in Ireland now lived in Philadelphia and this was part of the appeal, but this is speculation. They lived in Philadelphia for the rest of their lives.

There is very little solid information about the Taylor brothers between 1874 and 1886. The presumption, first written down by O'Neill, is that during this time the brothers built up a business making and repairing pipes. They developed a reputation as first-class makers of pipes with innovative "improvements." It is not possible to say with any certainty how or when the improvements evolved. It is likely that many of their innovations were in place and their reputation widespread by 1880, but this is a guess.

Taylor pipes were louder and higher pitched than most earlier sets. This supposedly to "meet the requirements of the American stage or dance hall," though many sets were sold to men who did not play in public. Their sets were more compact than earlier designs, and built to be robust, durable. Many Taylor sets are quite heavy. No two Taylor sets are exactly alike, but most have an unusual and similar "modern" look.

O'Neill gives William credit for design changes to make the instrument more compact, and for changes in acoustic design, that is, the way the instrument sounded. ' "Charley" Taylor was a fine mechanic but not a musician.' Otherwise nothing is known of the ways each brother contributed to the design or look of the pipes, or how they divided up the work in making them. There is plenty of speculation, though, some of it based on oral tradition.

Pipemaker Michael J. Anderson (1865-1947) claimed to have worked as apprentice to the Taylor brothers. He emigrated to the United States at age 14 and apprenticeship could have happened any time between 1879 and 1891.

Taylor pipes became very popular and sought after. In Irish Minstrels and Musicians (1913) O'Neill mentions at least ten pipers who obtained sets directly from the Taylors. Of William McCormick, who bought a set second-hand about 1897, O'Neill wrote "and thus equipped he has attained the ambition of his life." The Taylors were active in the United States for almost 20 years, from about 1872 to 1891. Evidence for when individual sets were made is scanty. Barney Delaney ordered a set when he was living in Philadelphia, between 1882 and 1885. A newspaper account from December 1888 says Timothy McCarthy of San Francisco "just got" a Taylor set. Only these two references have been found, besides the ones mentioning Kerrigan.

With popularity came imitation, copying, or homage. The Taylors did not mark or stamp their work. It is unclear if others were making pipes in a Tayloresque style during their lifetime. In subsequent years several makers tried their hand. Very few marked or stamped their productions. Some Tayloresque pipes are clearly by different hands and inferior in quality. Some few are quite good, the best rivaling the quality of Taylor work. This makes identifying "real" Taylor work a challenge and matter of opinion, and in some cases the problem of certain identification will likely never be resolved.

O'Neill writes that "Highland pipes were turned out in the Philadelphia shop." This may be so, but there is no other evidence for this. Likewise O'Neill says that the Taylors were awarded medals, presumably for pipemaking, at the Centennial International Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876. There is no further evidence for this either. The Exposition was a World's Fair celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Hundreds if not thousands of awards were given for all manner of objects, products, produce. Records of the awards survive, arranged by kind. Musical instruments are in Group XXV, Class 327. There is no mention of the Taylors. If they received any award it would have been in another category, perhaps woodturning or metalworking, in which case further work is needed to track such things down.

William and Charles Taylor were listed in Philadelphia city directories on and off from 1877 through 1892. Their occupations were variously listed as laborer, woodturner and finally in 1892, "inst maker." They are associated with five different addresses, three of them in the city center near modern day Franklin Square. The other two are in the near north and near northwest parts of the city, not far distant.

In February 1886 William Taylor was visited in his workshop by Henry Mercer. Mercer was from Doylestown, PA, about 27 miles (43 km) north, wealthy and well-educated. He had recently heard the piping of John Egan and Pat Touhey in his hometown and was smitten by the music. Egan suggested he visit Taylor. Mercer was a great diarist and note-taker, and later a correspondent with Francis O'Neill. In a letter to O'Neill, October 1, 1920, he quotes from his own notebook:

Taylor's written out versions of "The Lady on the Island" and "Rakish Judy" still survive. They are pasted into Mercer's copy of Ryans Mammoth Collection 1050 Reels and Jigs.

Also in 1886, the only known newspaper reference to William Taylor playing in public. He played at a celebration of the birthday of poet and songwriter Thomas Moore at McCaull's Opera House, Philadelphia, May 28.

The Taylor brothers died in poverty, or nearly so. O'Neill writes that business was good, "money came in liberally," but a "gang of leeches" was on hand to help them spend it, and the brothers obliged, due to a misguided sense of hospitality. Neither brother indulged in "liquors which intoxicate" but "A saloonkeeper who contrived to keep track of their mail instinctively knew when a check had arrived." This version of events may be entirely correct, or it may not.

Years later Robert Hutton of Wilmington, Delaware, piper and friend of the Taylors, wrote in a letter to Henry Mercer, "the two taylers had one room above a beer solon on Second st and Chester street and i used to go and see them once a week ... the Beer Soolon belong to barry and John hand...." John and Bernard Hand were probably brothers. City directories show the Taylors and the Hands living at the same addresses in 1890 (233 Chester St.) and 1892 (232 Race St.). John Hand (d. 1892) was a long time liquor or lager dealer, and in 1883 his establishment at Chester and Mackinaw Streets was described in a newspaper as a rough place, a "hotbed of vice." Bernard Hand lived until 1921. "Barney Hand" turns up in a list of Irish Pipers compiled around 1920 by Philadelphia pipemaker James E. Brennan. Hand owned a Taylor chanter. Michael Kelly notes that Hand is a common Drogheda surname, so it is not impossible that there were connections between the four back in Ireland.

William Taylor contracted tuberculosis and was admitted to Philadelphia's Blockley Almshouse Hospital January 12, 1892. The admission ledger gives a reference or contact person as Charles Taylor, address "rear 232 Race St." William died five days later, January 17th.

Robert Hutton recalled, "after William died Charley only lived about one year he niver got over his Brother and niver worked any more" Hutton bought a Taylor set of pipes and pipemaking tools from Charles.

Charles Taylor also died of tuberculosis. He was admitted to the Blockley Almshouse Hospital January 24, 1893 and died March 12. The reference or contact person was John Roantree, a Philadelphia Irish piper.

The Taylors were buried in Cathedral Cemetery, Philadelphia, a Roman Catholic cemetery sometimes known as Old Cathedral Cemetery. Their graves are unmarked, and in an area on the west border of the cemetery known as the "poor ground."

Hutton sold the Taylor set and tools to Henry Mercer in 1928. Mercer added them to the collection of the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, where they remain to this day.

Let Francis O'Neill have the last word. Because neither brother married, "there were neither widows nor orphans to mourn their loss. They were sincerely lamented, however, by all the Irish pipers in the land, for to them the death of the Taylors was a veritable calamity."


Selected References

Breathnach, Breandán "Pipers and Piping in Louth" County Louth Archaeological & Historical Journal XIX 2 (1978) Reprinted in The Man and His Music An Anthology of the writings of Breandán Breathnach Na Píobairí Uilleann 1996 p. 60 etc.

Brennan, James E. The Book of Brennan. [his piping notebook, circa 1920?] "Published by Philly Piper - Copyright 2013" Preface by Chris "Doc" O'Melvin, the publisher; introduction by Bruce Childress. not consistently paged. pp. 41, 89

Ennis, John "Famous Irish Pipers of the Past and Present." Chicago Citizen April 9, 1904 p. 7 column 1
Microfilm from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield IL

"Hotbeds of Vice." Philadelphia [PA] Times Feb. 15, 1883 p. 4 column 3
Access Newspaper Archive

Hutton, Robert letter to Henry Mercer Dec. 30, 1927 From the Collection of the Mercer Museum Library of the Bucks County Historical Society, Doylestown, PA.

"The Irish Bagpipe. Its Present and Future Status as a National Musical Instrument. (Interview with Mr. Patrick Touhey, the celebrated Irish-American Piper.)" [lessons with Taylor] Irish World July 13, 1901 p. 8 column 7
Genealogybank.com
Reprinted in An Píobaire vol. 9 no. 5 Dec. 2013 pp. 27-28
http://https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1018&mediaId=26059

Kelly, Michael "The Taylor brothers of Drogheda & Philadelphia" unpublished article 2019 13 p.

McGuire, Jim "Taylor, William" The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland, Harry White & Barra Boydell, eds. University College Dublin Press, 2013 p. 977

Mercer, Henry, letter to Francis O'Neill Oct. 1, 1920. From the Collection of the Mercer Museum Library of the Bucks County Historical Society, Doylestown, PA.

Murphy, Patrick J. "The Gaels in the Golden West" [McCarthy just got a Taylor set] From the Irish Echo, Boston, January 1889. Reprinted in The Pipers' Review vol. 17 no. 4 Fall 1998 pp. 12-13
https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1036&mediaId=26371

"Musical Instrument Making in Cork." [Michael J. Anderson apprenticed to the Taylor brothers] Dublin Ireland [Evening] Saturday Herald Nov. 28, 1903
Irishnewsarchive.com
Brought to my attention by Emmett Gill of NPU

S. O'C. [Ó Casaide, Séamus] "Former Pipe Makers" [Taylors emigrate in 1869] An Píobaire vol. 1 no. 8-9 Eanair 1972 p. 68
https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1010&mediaId=25884

O'Neill, Francis Irish Minstrels and Musicians Chicago 1913 pp. 160-61, etc. [to Philadelphia about 1874] p. 45 [Markey as pupil of Taylor] p. 297 [McCormick buys a set] p. 337

"The Orphans' Benefit." [Kerrigan plays new set] New York Herald Dec. 7, 1879 p. 12 column 6
New York NY Herald 1879 c - 2049.pdf

Piggott, Richie Cry of a People Gone: Irish Musicians in Chicago 1920-2020 [father James dies around 1856; Piggott tracks down the brothers' gravesites] St. Charles, IL Cnocanglas Productions LLC 2022 410 pp.

Quinn, David M. "Passionate Industry: The Taylor Style." Sean Reid Society Journal vol. 2 March 2002 article 2.09
http://seanreidsociety.org/SRSJ2/passionate%20industry.pdf

Register of Males 1892-1894 Blockley Almshouse [and hospital] ledger book.
City of Philadelphia, Department of Records, City Archives, Record Group 65, Bureau of Charities. Record number "65.69 Men's Register 1887-1920" volume for 1892-1894

"Tom Moore's Birthday" Philadelphia PA Times May 29, 1886 p. 2 column 5
Newspapers.com

U. S. Centennial Commission. [1876] Bureau of Awards. Reports of Awards. Group XXV "Instruments of Precision, Research, etc." Class 327
City of Philadelphia, Department of Records, City Archives, Record Group 230-22.2 Reports of Awards Box A-1515

Walstrom, Mark "Early Pipe Makers in America" Pipers' Review vol. 22 no. 3 Summer 2003 p. 19
http://https://pipers.ie/source/media/?galleryId=1036&mediaId=26390

Nick Whitmer
July 2019, additions Sep. 2020, Oct. Nov. 2022