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James Cooke Taylor was born in Clerkenwell, Middlesex around 1833. His father was William Cooke Taylor, but the identity of his mother is not known.
He first married in 1859 to Hannah Forster [Marriage Index: Whitechapel 1c 846, 1859 (Dec) - she is indexed as "Foster"]. She was born at Loughton in Essex on May 8th 1832 to parents Thomas Forster and his wife Sybil, who appear to have been Baptists [IGI: Batch C091241]. It appears that James and Hannah had already produced at least two children before they married, unless these were Hannah's by some previous partner.
The 1861 Census finds them, together with the first four children listed below, living at 3, Suffolk Place in Hackney. James was occupied as a butcher and Hannah's birthplace is given correctly as Loughton.
At some point during 1862-71, Susannah (nee Miller) - the first wife of Richard William (1) Woodhurst (RWW) - parted from RWW and went to live with James. It is not impossible that one or two of James' later children were produced by Susannah, but until the date of Hannah's death is known (assuming she did die in this period) this cannot be ascertained. Hannah may have died in 1864 [Death Index: Hackney 1b 274, 1864 (Dec)].
In both the 1871 and 1881 Censuses Susannah purported to be James' wife, but she had not actually married him. On both occasions they were living in Blanchard Road in Hackney, formerly at No. 18 and latterly at No. 17. James was occupied as a hackney carriage driver.
On January 25th 1888, just six weeks after RWW had died, Susannah finally married James. He was then occupied again as a butcher.
The 1891 census finds them still living at 17, Blanchard Road, when he was occupied as a laundryman.
The 1901 Census finds them still living at 17, Blanchard Road and running a laundry business. Also present was Susannah's unmarried niece Mary Jane Angold aged "40".
It is not known when or where Susannah died, but her GRO death reference is probably either [Hackney 1b 330, 1904 (Dec) : aged "78"] or [Hackney 1b 282, 1906 (June) : aged "80"].
The 1911 Census finds James living at 6, Blanchard Road and described as a retired laundryman. Mary Jane Angold was still living with him.
James died aged "79" in 1912 [Death Index: Hackney 1b 535, 1912 (March)].
Mary Ann may have been born to Hannah, but was otherwise born to Susannah.