According to the Dictionary of National Biography, John Taylor, that “factious papist” and diplomatist, was born about 1600, and was the eldest son of John Taylor of Kingsnorth, Kent, by Anne daughter of William Austen of Goudhurst. It is true that Berry's Kentish Genealogies, pp. 162-3, to which DNB refers, gives John Taylor and Anne Austen a son John, but it gives the younger John's wife's name as Elizabeth whereas DNB calls her Jane, as indeed she calls herself (Cal. S. P. Dom., 1649-50, p. 208). Also, Berry mentions no brothers, while DNB states that he had a brother who was chaplain to the same Emperor to whom he was accredited as agent.