engine to navigation. In fact, in the specification of a patent (No. 2106) which he took out on 3 May 1796 for propelling ships in light winds by paddle-wheels, there is no mention of steam power. It is not unlikely, however, that Taylor was previously acquainted with Symington, and he certainly knew of his steam-engine. Under these circumstances it is difficult to determine whether the idea of applying the steam-engine to navigation was entirely his own, or came originally from Symington.
Taylor was afterwards engaged in superintending the working of coal, lime, and other minerals on the estate of the Earl of Dumfries. Subsequently he established a pottery at Cumnock, which did not prove very remunerative. Being in straitened circumstances, he addressed a memorial, dated April 1824, to the committee of the House of Commons on steamboats, stating his share in the invention of the steamboat, but failed to obtain any recompense. He died at Cumnock on 18 Sept. 1825, leaving a widow and four daughters. The government granted his widow a pension of 50l. a year and presented his daughters with 50l. each.
[Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, 1833, pp. 43–4; New Monthly Mag. 1825, iii. 520; English Cyclopædia, 1873 (Biogr. Suppl.); Anderson's Scottish Nation, iii. 551–2; Woodcroft's Origin and Progress of Steam Navigation, pp. 31–53, 57; Major-General Miller's Letter to Bennet Woodcroft vindicating the right of Patrick Miller as first inventor of the steamboat, London, 1862; Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 1825, xiii. 88–9.]
TAYLOR, JAMES (1813–1892), divine and author, was born in Greenlaw, Berwickshire, on 18 March 1813. From the parochial school of his native district he passed to the university of Edinburgh, and afterwards to the theological hall of the united secession church with a view to the ministry. On 29 May 1839 he was ordained minister of the united secession church in St. Andrews. He graduated M.A. at Edinburgh University on 20 April 1843.
On 26 Feb. 1846 Taylor was translated to Regent Place Church, Glasgow, and on 11 July 1848, with the greater portion of the members, he left for the new church erected in Renfield Street. Resigning his charge in 1872, he was appointed secretary to the new education board for Scotland. In his new office he laboured with discretion and energy, and when the Scottish board of education ceased to exist in 1885 he had the satisfaction of witnessing in Scotland the universal prevalence of popularly elected educational authorities—a result largely due to his own persistent advocacy in synod, in public meeting, and in the lobby of the House of Commons.
The rest of his days were spent in Edinburgh in literary work. He died at Corstorphine, near Edinburgh, on 16 March 1892.
He received the degrees of D.D. from St. Andrews University in 1849 and of LL.D. from Edinburgh University in 1892. He was an effective preacher, a forcible debater, and a clear and accurate historian. Lord Beaconsfield, in his humorous mention in ‘Lothair’ of the united presbyterian church of Scotland as being founded in recent times by two jesuits, made sarcastic reference to Taylor as one who had a wide knowledge of the statesmen and statecraft of his time and urged his views on members of parliament and other leaders in church and state with unflagging pertinacity.
Besides numerous articles in the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ ‘Imperial Dictionary of Biography,’ ‘United Presbyterian Magazine,’ and individual sermons and pamphlets, Taylor published:
- ‘The Pictorial History of Scotland,’ London, 1852–9, 2 vols. 8vo; enlarged edition, 1884–8, 6 vols. 4to.
- ‘The Scottish Covenanters,’ London, 1881, 8vo.
- ‘The Age we live in: a History of the Nineteenth Century,’ Glasgow, 1884, 8vo.
- ‘Curling, the ancient Scottish Game,’ Edinburgh, 1884, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1887.
- ‘The Great Historic Families of Scotland,’ London, 1887, 2 vols. 4to; 2nd edit. 1891–4.
He also enlarged and continued Tytler's ‘History of Scotland,’ 1845 8vo, 1851 8vo, 1863 12mo; abridged Kitto's ‘Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature,’ 1849, 8vo; and edited ‘The Family History of England,’ London, 1870–5, 6 vols. 4to.
[Personal knowledge and newspaper notices.]
TAYLOR, JANE (1783–1824), writer for the young, the second daughter of Isaac Taylor (1759–1829) [q. v.] of Ongar, was born in Red Lion Street, London, on 23 Sept. 1783. Her constitution was delicate from the first, but upon the family removing to Suffolk in 1786 she took a new lease of life. Her vivacity as a child was great. She used to preach and recite for the amusement of the neighbours at Lavenham, and was ‘the spirited foremost in every youthful plan.’ Apart from a natural diffidence, however, she was protected from self-conceit by an abundant measure of common-sense. The children concentrated a great deal of energy into the small amount of spare time that was allowed to them under their father's
