john and charles wesley, the methodist preachers who were friends of john taylor, the great-grandson of william taylor, visited the house. charlotte brontë, who had been a pupil at roe head with mary taylor, the daughter of joshua taylor, a banker and wool merchant was also a visitor. she immortalised the family as the yorkes and the house as "briarmains" in her novel "shirley". reverend lauten of gomersal moravian church, a visitor in the 1840s, may have been the inspiration for the moravian minister in "shirley".