of the Renown'd Mr. J—— T——,’ Dublin, 1732, 12mo.
Taylor was the author of numerous treatises on the eye in various languages, mainly filled with accounts of cures effected by him. Among them may be mentioned: 1. ‘An Account of the Mechanism of the Eye,’ Norwich, 1727, 8vo. 2. ‘Traité sur l'Organe immédiate de la vue,’ Paris, 1735, 8vo. 3. ‘Treatise on the Chrystalline Humour of the Human Eye,’ London, 1736, 8vo. 4. ‘An Impartial Enquiry into the seat of the Immediate Organ of Sight,’ London, 1743, 8vo (Raccolta delle Opere scritte e pubblicate in differenti lingue dal Cavaliere Giovanni di Taylor, Rome, 1757). Taylor also published an autobiography dedicated to his son and written in the most inflated style, entitled ‘The History of the Travels and Adventures of the Chevalier John Taylor, Opthalmiater,’ London, 1761, 8vo.
His portrait, painted at Rome by the ‘Chevalier Riche,’ and engraved by Jean-Baptiste Scotin, is prefixed to his ‘Nouveau Traité de l'Anatomie du Globe de l'Œil,’ 1738. He was engraved from life by Philip Endlich in 1735. He is also a prominent figure in Hogarth's ‘Consultation of Physicians,’ where he is depicted leering at Mrs. Mapp, the bone-setter.
His son, John Taylor (1724–1787), oculist, born in London in 1724, was educated at the Collège du Plessis in Paris. About 1739 he came to London, and, after studying under his father, practised independently as an oculist. On the death of the Baron de Wenzel he succeeded him as oculist to George III. In 1761 a ‘Life and Extraordinary History of the Chevalier John Taylor’ was published in his name. It was of an exceedingly scurrilous character, representing the chevalier's conduct as insensately profligate and his alleged cures as mere frauds committed in collusion with the patients. No serious attempt to disown the book was made by the younger Taylor at the time, but according to John Taylor, the chevalier's grandson, the life was really the production of Henry Jones (1721–1770) [q. v.], who, after being entrusted with the materials, had betrayed his trust. Taylor died at Hatton Garden, London, on 17 Sept. 1787, and was buried in the new burying-ground of St. Andrew's. By his wife, Ann Price, he had three sons, of whom the eldest, John Taylor (1757–1832) [q. v.], was afterwards oculist to George III and George IV (Gent. Mag. 1787, ii. 841, 932).
[Taylor's Works; Records of my Life, by John Taylor (the chevalier's grandson); Nichols's Lit. Anecd. viii. 400, 410, ix. 696; Scots Mag. 1744 pp. 295, 322, 344, 1749 p. 252; Gent. Mag. 1736 p. 647, 1761 p. 226, 1781 p. 356; London Mag. 1762, pp. 5, 88; Disputationes Chirurgicæ Selectæ, 1755, ii. 194; Notes and Queries, I. xii. 184, II. vii. 115, VII. vii. 82, 273; Edinburgh Medical Essays and Observations, iv. 383; Smith's Mezzotint Portraits, p. 429; Norfolk Archæology, viii. 314; Haller's Bibliotheca Chirurgica, ii. 80; King's Anecdotes of his own Times, p. 131; Horace Walpole's Letters, ed. Cunningham, 1861, ii. 422, iii. 181.]
TAYLOR, JOHN (1711–1788), friend of Dr. Johnson, baptised at Ashbourne, Derbyshire, on 18 March 1710–11, was son of Thomas Taylor (1671–1730?) of Ashbourne and his wife Mary, daughter of Thomas Wood. He was educated with Samuel Johnson by the Rev. John Hunter at Lichfield grammar school, and he and Edmund Hector were the last survivors of Johnson's school friends. Taylor would have followed Johnson to Pembroke College, but was dissuaded by his friend's report of the ignorance of William Jorden, the tutor, and on the same advice matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 10 March 1728–9, with a view to studying the law and becoming an attorney. He left without taking a degree, and apparently for some years practised as an attorney. On 9 April 1732 he married at Croxall, Derbyshire, Elizabeth, daughter of William Webb of that parish. She was buried at Ashbourne on 13 Jan. 1745–6.
At some date later than 1736 Taylor was ordained in the English church, and in July 1740 he was presented, on the nomination of the family of Dixie, and, as it is believed, by purchase from them, to the valuable rectory of Market Bosworth in Leicestershire. This preferment he retained until death, although he was unpopular with his parishioners. As a whig in politics and the possessor of much political interest in Derbyshire, he was made chaplain to the Duke of Devonshire, lord-lieutenant of Ireland from 1737 to 1745. He returned to Oxford and graduated B.A. and M.A. in 1742. In 1752, as a grand-compounder, he proceeded LL.B. and LL.D.
On 11 July 1746 he obtained, no doubt through the influence of the Duke of Devonshire, a prebendal stall at Westminster, which he retained for life. By the appointment of the chapter he held in succession a series of preferments, all of which were tenable with his stall and with his living of Market Bosworth. These were the post of minister of the chapel in the Broadway, Westminster, 1748; the perpetual curacy of St. Botolph, Aldersgate, 1769; and the place of minister of St. Margaret's, Westminster, which he held from April 1784 to his death. Johnson remarked of this position: ‘It is of no great
