Taylor, ISAAC

Taylor, ISAAC, writer of many books on religious and philosophical subjects, was born at Lavenham in Suffolk in 1787. His father, Isaac Taylor the first (1759–1829), was originally a London engraver, but in 1796 became Independent minister at Colchester, in 1811 at Ongar in Essex, and published a score of volumes. Charles Taylor (1756–1821), editor of Calmet's Biblic Dictionary, was an uncle, and two sisters were Jane Taylor (1783–1824), author of the Contributions of Q.Q., and Ann Taylor (Mrs Gilbert of Nottingham, 1782–1866; Autobiography, 1871), joint-authors of the famous Hymns for Infant Minds and Original Poems. After a course of study he settled down to a busy literary life at Ongar, where he died, June 28, 1865. As early as 1818 a writer in the Ecclesiastical Review, he lived to contribute to Good Words—a period of over forty years. In 1862 he was granted a Civil List pension of £100. Of his many books the most important were the Natural History of Enthusiasm (1829), The Natural History of Fanaticism (1833), Spiritual Despotism (1835), Physical Theory of Another Life (1836), and Ultimate Civilisation (1860).—His eldest son, ISAAC TAYLOR, was born at Stanford Rivers, May 2, 1829, had his education at Trinity College, Cambridge, took orders, and after acting as curate in London and elsewhere, and as vicar of St Mathias, Bethnal Green (1865–69), and Holy Trinity, Twickenham (1869–75), was presented to the rectory of Settrington in Yorkshire in 1875, and collated to a canonry of York in 1885. His Words and Places (1864) made him favourably known as a philologist, whilst his great work, The Alphabet, an Account of the Origin and Development of Letters (2 vols. 1883; new ed. 1899), brought him a wide reputation. Other publications are The Family Pen; Memorials of the Taylor Family of Ongar (2 vols. 1867); Etruscan Researches (1874); Greeks and Goths, a Study on the Runes (1879); The Origin of the Aryans (1890); and Names and their Histories (1896). Besides these he has contributed much to the learned journals, and not a few articles on philological questions to the present work.