sions of Colenso, and a number of short memoirs upon religious personages for the ‘Imperial Dictionary of Biography,’ his only remaining work was ‘Personal Recollections’ (London, 1864, 8vo), a series of papers, in part autobiographical, which had appeared in ‘Good Words.’ He was granted a civil list pension of 200l. in 1862 in acknowledgment of his services to literature, and he died at Stanford Rivers three years later, on 28 June 1865.
He left surviving issue: Jane, who married, first, Dr. Harrison, and secondly, the Rev. S. D. Stubbs; (Canon) Isaac Taylor, the author of ‘Words and Places;’ Phœbe; James Medland Taylor, architect, born 1834; Rosa; Henry Taylor, architect and author, born in 1837; Catherine; Jessie, who married Thomas Wilson; and Euphemia—all born at Stanford Rivers.
Though he joined the Anglican communion at an early stage in his career, Taylor always remained on the best terms with his old friends among the dissenters. Some regarded him as the greatest English lay theologian since Coleridge, and many with greater justice as the successor in the vale of Ongar to associations of piety and lofty religious idealism such as hallowed Bemerton or Olney. He was certainly characterised by great learning, noble aims, and a deep personal piety, but most of his books have fallen into neglect. Sir James Stephen, in his remarkable essay upon ‘The Historian of Enthusiasm,’ thought that he detected the seeds of a decay of Taylor's influence in his ineradicable tendency to superfine writing and in the mutually destructive effect of so much teaching and so much eloquence; yet he concludes that Taylor's books exhibit a character both moral and intellectual, from the study of which the reader can hardly fail to rise a wiser and a better man.
Taylor was always much interested in mechanical devices and inventions, and he spent many hours in the workshop that he fitted up at Stanford Rivers. Early in life he invented a beer-tap (patented 20 Nov. 1824) which came into almost universal use, and in 1848 he brought to perfection a highly ingenious machine for engraving upon copper (pat. 12248, 21 Aug. 1848). The expenses and liabilities involved by this invention made it a disaster financially to the inventor; it was eventually applied on a large scale by a syndicate to engraving patterns upon copper cylinders for calico printing in Manchester. One of his recreations was the making of silhouettes. The fine profile of Edward Irving prefixed to Mrs. Oliphant's ‘Life of Irving’ is from his hand.
A portrait of Isaac Taylor of Stanford Rivers is the property of Henry Taylor of Tunbridge Wells, and a crayon portrait by his nephew, Josiah Gilbert, is in the National Portrait Gallery.
[Gent. Mag. 1865, ii. 387–8; The Taylors of Ongar, 1867, i. 61–76; Mrs. Gilbert's Autobiography; Stephen's Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography, 1868, pp. 585–633; Taylor's Personal Recollections, 1864; Crabb Robinson's Diary, ii. 212, 217–18; Illustrated London News, 12 Aug. 1865 (with portrait); Galton's Hereditary Genius; Macmillan's Mag. October 1865; English Cyclopædia; Imperial Dict. of Biography; Biograph, April 1881; Expositor, August 1885; Woodcroft's Alphabetical Index of Patentees, 1854, p. 558; Colles's Literature and the Pension List, p. 43; Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 19168, f. 196; notes kindly supplied by Henry Taylor, esq.]
TAYLOR, JAMES (1753–1825), engineer, born on 3 May 1753 at Leadhills in the parish of Crawfurd in Lanarkshire, was the son of an overseer employed in the slate-quarries in that place. James was educated at Closeburn in Dumfriesshire, and afterwards at Edinburgh University, where he studied medicine and theology. He also acquired some knowledge of engineering and an acquaintance with botany, geology, and kindred sciences. In 1785 he was engaged by Patrick Miller [q. v.] of Dalswinton, Dumfriesshire, as tutor to his two sons. Miller was at that time engaged in a series of experiments on the feasibility of propelling boats by means of paddle-wheels, and Taylor proved a valuable assistant. At first manual labour was employed to drive the wheels, but, the exertion proving excessive, Taylor suggested the employment of the steam-engine, and made some drawings showing how the engine might be connected with the paddles. Miller, to whom the idea may not have been entirely novel, at first raised objections, but ultimately adopted the plan. By Taylor's recommendation William Symington [q. v.], who had just patented an improved steam-engine, was selected to construct the engine, and Taylor superintended the castings at Edinburgh. Experiments with the boats fitted with the steam-engine were made in 1788 at Dalswinton, and in 1789 on the Forth and Clyde Canal.
Taylor's share in the invention has been much disputed. He appears, however, entitled to the credit of suggesting the employment of the steam-engine to Miller, and of successfully meeting his objections. Although Miller was undoubtedly the sole author of the experiments, he never appears to have had much belief in the application of the steam-
