Taylor, PHILIP MEADOWS, Indian administrator and author, was born at Liverpool 25th September 1808, held a mercantile post in Calcutta, but obtained a commission in the army of the Nizam of Hyderabad, whom he served from 1826 as administrator of various large territories, one of them the tributary state of Sherapur. In this capacity he showed marvellous insight, tact, and kindness, establishing order and justice in place of mere barbarous tyranny, and maintained peace during the mutiny of 1857. The British government gave him charge of some of the ceded districts; in 1866 he retired colonel and C.S.I.; and he died at Mentone, 13th May 1876. He left vivid pictures of Indian history, life, and manners in his romances,
Confessions of a Thug (1839; new ed. 1858); Tippoo Sultaun (1840); Tara (the story of Sivaji, 1863); Ralph Darnell (1865); Setta (1873); and A Noble Queen (1878). See his Story of my Life, edited by his daughter (1877; new ed. 1881).