enjoyed her brilliant conversation. A political element was supplied by Sir Thomas Beevor, Lord Albemarle, and Thomas William Coke (afterwards Earl of Leicester) [q. v.], member for Norfolk (1790–1818). Her intimate friends called her ‘Madame Roland,’ from the resemblance she bore to the French champion of liberty. Mrs. Taylor herself instructed her two daughters in philosophy, Latin, and political economy. She also contributed essays and verse to the budget read at periodic meetings of the Taylor and Martineau families, for which many of her husband's verses were composed. She died in June 1823. A monument to her and her husband was erected by their children in the Octagon Chapel, Norwich. A portrait of Mrs. John Taylor by H. Meyer is in Mrs. Ross's ‘Three Generations.’
Their seven children were: (1) John (1779–1863) [see under Taylor, Philip]; (2) Richard (1781–1858) [q. v.]; (3) Edward (1784–1863) [q. v.]; (4) Philip (1786–1870) [q. v.]; (5) Susan (b. 1788), married Dr. Henry Reeve [q. v.]; (6) Arthur (b. 1790), a printer and F.S.A., author of ‘The Glory of Regality’ (London, 1820, 8vo), and ‘Papers in relation to the Antient Topography of the Eastern Counties’ (London, 1869, 4to); and (7) Mrs. Sarah Austin [q. v.], wife of John Austin [q. v.], the jurist.
[Memoir by his son, above mentioned; Janet Ross's Three Generations of Englishwomen, i. 1–43; Turner's Lives of Eminent Unitarians, i. 341, 342; Julian's Dict. of Hymnology, p. 1119; Memoir and Correspondence of Sir J. E. Smith, i. 170, ii. 99, 315; Aikin's Mem. of Mrs. Barbauld, vol. i. p. lv; Le Breton's Memoirs of Lucy Aikin, pp. 124–49; Hare's Gurneys of Earlham, i. 79; Robberds's Mem. of William Taylor, i. 46; Life of Sir J. Mackintosh, i. 147, 215, 439; Crabb Robinson's Diary, i. 14, 254, 256, ii. 376; The Suffolk Bartolomeans, by Edgar Taylor; Principles and Pursuits of an English Presb. Minister, by P. Meadows Taylor; The Story of my Life, by Colonel Meadows Taylor; Egerton MS. 2220 is a book of letters from Arthur Taylor to Charles Yarnold, others are in Addit. MS. 22308, ff. 60, 61, 80.]
TAYLOR, JOHN (1757–1832), miscellaneous writer, eldest son of John Taylor (1724–1787), the younger, oculist, by his wife Ann Price, was born at Highgate on 9 Aug. 1757. John Taylor (1703–1772) [q. v.], the itinerant oculist, was his grandfather. He acquired a slender education under Dr. Crawford in Hatton Garden and at a school at Ponder's End, Middlesex. He at first followed the family profession, and was appointed jointly with his brother, Jeremiah Taylor, M.R.C.S., oculist to George III. But an absorbing devotion to the stage, added to great facility for verse-making, gradually attracted him to journalism. He was for some years dramatic critic to the ‘Morning Post,’ and about 1787 he succeeded William Jackson (1737–1795) [q. v.] as its editor. Subsequently he purchased the ‘True Briton,’ and lastly became in 1813 proprietor of the ‘Sun,’ a violent tory paper. The editor, William Jerdan [q. v.], owned a share in the ‘Sun,’ but a quarrel led to two or three years' litigation, and Jerdan was bought out by Taylor in 1817. In 1825 Taylor sold the paper to Murdo Young, who changed its politics.
At the Turk's Head coffee-house and the ‘Keep the Line’ club Taylor consorted with all the convivial spirits of the day. He wrote innumerable addresses, prologues, and epilogues for the stage, and was familiar, according to Jerdan, with ‘all the quidnuncs, playgoers, performers, artists, and literati in the moving ranks of everyday society.’ According to his own account he made suggestions to Boswell, who met him on the eve of publication of his ‘Life of Johnson.’ Wordsworth sent him his poems. In his later years he wrote from memory ‘Records of my Life’ (2 vols., London, 1832, 8vo), full of redundant gossip and stories mostly discreditable to the persons named. Portions are reprinted in ‘Personal Reminiscences’ (the Bric-a-Brac series, vol. viii. New York, 1875, 8vo). He died in Great Russell Street in May 1832. He was twice married.
A portrait, published by Bull in 1832, is in the ‘Records;’ another, engraved by Daniell from a painting by Dance, is mentioned by Evans (Cat. of Engraved Portraits, ii. 383). A third was painted by A. J. Oliver (Cat. Third Loan Exhib. No. 368).
Taylor is best known by his ‘Monsieur Tonson,’ a dramatic poem suggested by a prank of Thomas King (1730–1805) [q. v.] the actor. An elaborated dramatic version by William Thomas Moncrieff (1794–1857) [q. v.] was read or rehearsed on 8 Sept. 1821, but never played, at Drury Lane (Genest, Hist. of the Stage, ix. 96). The poem, however, recited by John Fawcett at the Freemasons' Tavern, drew crowds—a striking tribute to the actor's powers of elocution. It was illustrated by Richard Cruikshank, London, 1830, 12mo; and was republished in vol. ii. of ‘Facetiæ, or Jeux d'Esprit,’ illustrated by Cruikshank, 1830 (an earlier edition, Glasgow [1800], 12mo).
Other works by Taylor are:
- ‘Statement of Transactions respecting the King's Theatre at the Haymarket,’ 1791, 8vo.
- ‘Verses on Various Occasions,’ London,
