TAYLOR, John, a very learned philologist and civilian, was a native of Shrewsbury, and was baptised on the 22d of June 1704. His father followed the trade of a barber, and the son was destined for the same occupation; but his early and unconquerable love of books, and his strong predilection for literature, recommended him to the patronage of a gentleman of fortune, Edward Owen, of Condoover, to whom he was chiefly indebted for the advantages of an
academical education. He was sent to St John's College, Cambridge; and is supposed to have been assisted by one of the exhibitions founded in that college for the pupils of Shrewsbury school. He took the degree of A.B. in 1724, and that of A.M. in 1728. At the university he speedily distinguished himself by his classical attainments, and especially by his masterly knowledge of the Greek language. He became a fellow and tutor of his college, and was thus placed in a situation of easy competence, extremely favourable to his pursuits. His academical establishment had been rendered more important by an irreconcilable difference with Owen, whose friendship he had forfeited by refusing to drink a Jacobite toast on his bare knees. He was a Tory without being a Jacobite. The Condoover family then enjoyed great patronage in the church; and the dissolution of this connection might perhaps occasion a change in Taylor's views. On the 30th of January 1730, he was appointed to deliver the Latin oration then annually pronounced in St Mary's before the university; and at the ensuing commencement, in the month of July, he was selected to recite the music speech. He was a frequent writer of familiar verses; and several of his juvenile poems have been printed by Nichols. In 1731 he undertook to assist Dr Jortin as a contributor to the Miscellaneous Observations on Authors, Ancient and Modern. For this publication he wrote several articles, signed "Cantabrigiensis," and one without a signature, entitled Animadversions in Luciani Asinum. In 1732 he was appointed librarian, and afterwards registrar of the university. The office of librarian he only retained for a short time. He first distinguished himself among the scholars of the age by the publication of Lysia Orations et Fragmenta, Græcæ et Latine, Lond. 1739, 4to. To his own illustrations he added the conjectures of his friend Jeremiah Markland, an excellent Grecian. This elegant publication was followed by an octavo edition, printed at Cambridge in 1740, and the editor's notes are there given in an abridged form. Taylor had obtained one of the two law-fellowships in his college; and, according to the academic phraseology, he proceeded in the law-line, and took the degree of LL.D. in the year 1741. On this occasion he wrote an elaborate dissertation, which was soon afterwards published under the title of Commentarius ad L. Decemviralem de inope Debitore in partis dissecando, Cantab. 1742, 4to. On the 15th of February 1741-2, Dr Taylor was admitted an advocate at Doctors' Commons. After a short interval, he exhibited a new proof of his profound knowledge of classical antiquity, by the publication of his Marmor Sandwichense, cum commentario et notis, Cantab. 1743, 4to. The very ancient marble, on which he supplies so learned a commentary, Lord Sandwich had brought from Athens in the year 1739. About the beginning of the year 1744, Bishop Thomas appointed Dr Taylor chancellor of the diocese of Lincoln. He was now occupied in preparing a most elaborate edition of Demosthenes and other Attic orators. As a specimen, he had already published the oration of Demosthenes against Midias, and that of Lycurgus against Leocrates, Cantab. 1743, 8vo. After much laborious preparation, he at length published, not the first, but the third volume of his projected edition of Demosthenes, Æschines, Dinarchus, and Demades, Cantab. 1748, 4to. The second volume made its appearance in 1757. It contains the controversial orations of Demosthenes and Æschines, together with the epistles ascribed to the latter. The third volume includes ten orations of Demosthenes. His plan extended to five volumes, but he left it in this incomplete state. Dr Taylor having long continued a layman, was at length induced to take orders by the prospect of a speedy vacancy in a valuable college-living. The rectory of Lawford in Essex became vacant in April 1751; and being then in the forty-seventh year of his age, he preferred his claim, which
was not admitted without considerable doubt and hesitation. He became archdeacon of Buckingham in 1753, and canon residentiary of St Paul's in July 1757. During the latter year he was elected prolocutor of the lower house of convocation. He was also appointed commissary of Lincoln and of Stowe. Although he was so late in commencing his ecclesiastical career, he is said to have been eminent as a preacher. He printed two sermons; one preached at Bishop-Stortford School-feast, 26th August 1749, and the other before the House of Commons on the fast-day, 11th February 1757. In 1822 they were both reprinted at the suggestion of Dr Parr, who has added notes to the first. He resigned the office of registrar in 1758, and quitted Cambridge to reside in London. Although he ceased to be an advocate, he did not cease to be a lawyer; and the next considerable work which he produced bears the title of Elements of the Civil Law, Camb. 1775, 4to.
During the last ten years of his life, he seems to have experienced the usual effects of a large participation in the emoluments of the church. His career was no longer marked by a succession of elaborate publications, but he kept his equipage, and lived like a prosperous gentleman. He was kind and liberal in his disposition; and although he enjoyed a very ample income, he did not accumulate much wealth. Having only attained the sixty-sixth year of his age, he died very generally beloved and lamented, at his residentiary house, on the 4th of April 1766. His remains were deposited in one of the vaults of St Paul's, nearly under the litany-desk. To the school where he had been educated he bequeathed his large and valuable library, together with the residue of his fortune, for the maintenance of an exhibitioner at St John's College. He, however, reserved to his friend Dr Askew all his MSS. and his marginal annotations.