Isaac Taylor (1759–1829)
Encyclopedia
Isaac Taylor of Ongar
was an English engraver and writer of books for the young.
by his wife Sarah, daughter of Josiah Jefferys of Shenfield
, Essex
, he was born in London on 30 January 1759. With his elder brother Charles Taylor (1756–1823), after some education at Brentford grammar school, he was brought up as an engraver in the studio of his father, and worked both in landscape and portraiture.
During his apprenticeship the plates for Abraham Rees
's Cyclopædia were executed under his superintendence at his father's establishment, and he met Rees. In 1781 he commissioned Richard Smirke to paint four small circular subjects representing morning, noon, evening, and night, which he engraved and published; and two years later he painted and engraved a set of views on the Thames near London. In 1783 he moved from Islington
to Red Lion Street, Holborn, and in June 1786 he left London for Lavenham
in Suffolk
, where he rented a house and a large garden.
He continued his work as an engraver. He was commissioned to engrave a number of plates for John Boydell
's Bible and Shakespeare. In 1791 he engraved the assassination of Rizzio after John Opie
(for which the Society of Arts awarded him their gold palette and twenty-five guineas), and in 1796 he completed a book of forty plates illustrating the architectural details of the fifteenth-century church at Lavenham, entitled Specimens of Gothic Ornaments selected from the parish church of Lavenham in Suffolk. He also sketched in watercolours and engraved a series of Suffolk mansions.
the export of English engravings, which had increased rapidly since 1775, as rapidly diminished. Taylor, who had acquired some fame locally as a preacher, moved to Colchester
in 1796 on receiving a call to act as pastor to the independent congregation in Bucklersbury Lane. While there he continued working on aplates for Boydell's Shakespeare which he had commenced at Lavenham. That of Henry VIII’s first sight of Anne Boleyn
, after Charles Alfred Stothard
, was completed in 1802 and brought him £500. In 1812 he engraved a set of designs for James Thomson's Seasons.
In December 1810 Taylor was called as nonconformist pastor to Ongar in Essex, and there he lived during the remaining eighteen years of his life. Taylor died on Saturday, 12 December 1829, and was buried on 19 December at Ongar. A portrait engraved by Blood from a drawing by himself was published in the Evangelical Magazine for 1818.
Hereditary Genius (1869), to illustrate from the history of the family his theory of the distribution through heredity of intellectual capacity. Of a family of eleven, six survived childhood, and from the time of his residence at Lavenham Taylor his spare time to the education of his children; he himself was self-taught. Years of teaching led him to evolve a series of educational manuals. His own books were:
Taylor also issued, with engravings from designs mostly by himself (a few were by his son Isaac), a series of topographies: ‘Scenes in Europe’ and ‘Scenes in England’ (1819), extended to ‘Scenes in Asia,’ ‘Scenes in Africa,’ ‘Scenes in America,’ ‘Scenes in Foreign Lands,’ ‘Scenes of British Wealth,’ and (posthumously in 1830) ‘Scenes of Commerce by Land and Sea.’
Born on 20 June 1757, from the time of the move to Lavenham at in 1786 Mrs. Ann Taylor (1757–1830) shared the educational ideals of her husband. She corresponded with her children during their absences from home, and this correspondence was the nucleus of a series of short manuals of conduct:
Helen Taylor (1818–1885), the daughter of Martin Taylor of Ongar (1788–1867), by his first wife, Elizabeth Venn, made contributions to ‘Missionary Hymns’ and the ‘Teacher’s Treasury,’ and, besides a short devotional work, ‘Sabbath Bells’ was author of ‘The Child’s Books of Homilies’ (London, 1850). She died in 1885, and was buried at Parkstone
, Dorset.
Ongar
Ongar can refer toin England*High Ongar, Essex*Chipping Ongar, Essex **Ongar , an ancient administrative unit**Ongar railway stationin Ireland*Ongar, Dublinin Pakistan...
was an English engraver and writer of books for the young.
Early life
The son of Isaac Taylor (1730–1807)Isaac Taylor (1730–1807)
-Life:The son of William Taylor , a versatile artisan, and Ann Taylor, he was born on 13 December 1730 in the parish of St. Michael in Bedwardine, in the city of Worcester. In the early part of his career he worked successively as a brassfounder, a silversmith, and a surveyor...
by his wife Sarah, daughter of Josiah Jefferys of Shenfield
Shenfield
Shenfield is a former village and now an outer suburb of Brentwood in the borough of the same name in Essex, England.-History:The name originates from the Anglo-Saxon Chenefield, meaning 'good lands'....
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, he was born in London on 30 January 1759. With his elder brother Charles Taylor (1756–1823), after some education at Brentford grammar school, he was brought up as an engraver in the studio of his father, and worked both in landscape and portraiture.
During his apprenticeship the plates for Abraham Rees
Abraham Rees
Abraham Rees was a Welsh nonconformist minister, and compiler of Rees's Cyclopaedia .- Life :He was the second son of Lewis Rees, by his wife Esther, daughter of Abraham Penry, and was born at born in Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire. Lewis Rees Abraham Rees (1743 – 9 June 1825) was a Welsh...
's Cyclopædia were executed under his superintendence at his father's establishment, and he met Rees. In 1781 he commissioned Richard Smirke to paint four small circular subjects representing morning, noon, evening, and night, which he engraved and published; and two years later he painted and engraved a set of views on the Thames near London. In 1783 he moved from Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
to Red Lion Street, Holborn, and in June 1786 he left London for Lavenham
Lavenham
Lavenham is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England. It is noted for its 15th century church, half-timbered medieval cottages and circular walk. In the medieval period it was among the 20 wealthiest settlements in England...
in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, where he rented a house and a large garden.
He continued his work as an engraver. He was commissioned to engrave a number of plates for John Boydell
John Boydell
John Boydell was an 18th-century British publisher noted for his reproductions of engravings. He helped alter the trade imbalance between Britain and France in engravings and initiated a British tradition in the art form...
's Bible and Shakespeare. In 1791 he engraved the assassination of Rizzio after John Opie
John Opie
John Opie was an English historical and portrait painter. He painted many great men and women of his day, most notably in the artistic and literary professions.-Life and work:...
(for which the Society of Arts awarded him their gold palette and twenty-five guineas), and in 1796 he completed a book of forty plates illustrating the architectural details of the fifteenth-century church at Lavenham, entitled Specimens of Gothic Ornaments selected from the parish church of Lavenham in Suffolk. He also sketched in watercolours and engraved a series of Suffolk mansions.
Pastor
From beginning of the Napoleonic WarsNapoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
the export of English engravings, which had increased rapidly since 1775, as rapidly diminished. Taylor, who had acquired some fame locally as a preacher, moved to Colchester
Colchester
Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...
in 1796 on receiving a call to act as pastor to the independent congregation in Bucklersbury Lane. While there he continued working on aplates for Boydell's Shakespeare which he had commenced at Lavenham. That of Henry VIII’s first sight of Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...
, after Charles Alfred Stothard
Charles Alfred Stothard
Charles Alfred Stothard was an antiquarian draughtsman.Stothard was born in London, the son of the painter, Thomas Stothard. After studying in the schools of the Royal Academy, he began, in 1810, his first historical picture, the Death of Richard II in Pomfret Castle...
, was completed in 1802 and brought him £500. In 1812 he engraved a set of designs for James Thomson's Seasons.
In December 1810 Taylor was called as nonconformist pastor to Ongar in Essex, and there he lived during the remaining eighteen years of his life. Taylor died on Saturday, 12 December 1829, and was buried on 19 December at Ongar. A portrait engraved by Blood from a drawing by himself was published in the Evangelical Magazine for 1818.
Works
The long series of books from Ongar by members of the family had them talked of as "Taylors of Ongar", to distinguish them from the contemporary literary family, the "Taylors of Norwich". The literary productiveness of the extended family of Isaac Taylor of Ongar, led Francis GaltonFrancis Galton
Sir Francis Galton /ˈfrɑːnsɪs ˈgɔːltn̩/ FRS , cousin of Douglas Strutt Galton, half-cousin of Charles Darwin, was an English Victorian polymath: anthropologist, eugenicist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, psychometrician, and statistician...
Hereditary Genius (1869), to illustrate from the history of the family his theory of the distribution through heredity of intellectual capacity. Of a family of eleven, six survived childhood, and from the time of his residence at Lavenham Taylor his spare time to the education of his children; he himself was self-taught. Years of teaching led him to evolve a series of educational manuals. His own books were:
- ‘The Biography of a Brown Loaf’ (London, n.d.);
- ‘Self-cultivation recommended, or hints to a youth on leaving school’ (1817,; 4th ed. 1820);
- ‘Advice to the Teens’ (1818, two editions);
- ‘Character essential to Success in Life’ (London, 1820);
- ‘Picturesque Piety, or Scripture Truths illustrated by forty-eight engravings, designed and engraved by the author’ (London, 1821);
- ‘Beginnings of British Biography: Lives of one hundred persons eminent in British Story’ (London, 2 vols., 1824, two editions);
- Beginnings of European Biography’ (London, 2 vols. 1824–5; 3 vols. 1828–9);
- ‘Bunyan explained to a Child’ (London, 1824, 2 vols., and 1825);
- ‘The Balance of Criminality, or Mental Error, compared with Immoral Conduct’ (London, 1828).
Taylor also issued, with engravings from designs mostly by himself (a few were by his son Isaac), a series of topographies: ‘Scenes in Europe’ and ‘Scenes in England’ (1819), extended to ‘Scenes in Asia,’ ‘Scenes in Africa,’ ‘Scenes in America,’ ‘Scenes in Foreign Lands,’ ‘Scenes of British Wealth,’ and (posthumously in 1830) ‘Scenes of Commerce by Land and Sea.’
Family
On 18 April 1781 Taylor married at Islington Ann Martin, and had issue:- AnnAnn Taylor (poet)Ann Taylor was an English poet and literary critic. In her youth she was a writer of verse for children, for which she achieved long-lasting popularity. In the years immediately preceding her marriage, she became an astringent literary critic of growing reputation...
born at Islington on 30 January 1782, who married Joseph GilbertJoseph Gilbert (minister)-Life:Born in the parish of Wrangle, Lincolnshire, on 20 March 1779, he was son of a farmer who had come under the influence of John Wesley. After receiving some education at a nearby free school, he was apprenticed to a general shopkeeper at Burgh. On the expiration of his term he became assistant...
; - Jane TaylorJane Taylor (poet)Jane Taylor , was an English poet and novelist. She wrote the words for the song Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star in 1806 at age 23, while living in Shilling Street, Lavenham, Suffolk....
; - two Isaacs who died in infancy;
- IsaacIsaac TaylorIsaac Taylor was an English philosophical and historical writer, artist, and inventor.-Life:He was the eldest surviving son of Isaac Taylor of Ongar. He was born at Lavenham, Suffolk, on 17 August 1787, and moved with his family to Colchester and, at the end of 1810, to Ongar. In the family...
(1787–1865); - Martin Taylor (1788–1867), the father of Helen Taylor (see below);
- Harriet, Eliza, and Decimus, who died in infancy;
- Jefferys;
- and Jemima (1798–1886), who married, on 14 August 1832, Thomas Herbert.
Born on 20 June 1757, from the time of the move to Lavenham at in 1786 Mrs. Ann Taylor (1757–1830) shared the educational ideals of her husband. She corresponded with her children during their absences from home, and this correspondence was the nucleus of a series of short manuals of conduct:
- ‘Advice to Mothers’ (London, n.d.);
- ‘Maternal Solicitude for a Daughter’s best Interests’ (London, 1813; 12th ed. 1830);
- ‘Practical Hints to Young Females, or the duties of a wife, a mother, and a mistress of a family’ (London, 1815; 11th ed. 1822);
- ‘The Present of a Mistress to a Young Servant’ (London, 1816; several editions);
- ‘Reciprocal Duties of Parents and Children’ (London, 1818; 3rd ed. 1819);
- ‘The Family Mansion’ (London, 1819; a French version appeared in the same year; 2nd ed. 1820);
- ‘Retrospection, a Tale’ (London, 1821);
- ‘The Itinerary of a Traveller in the Wilderness’ (London, 1825,); and also
- ‘Correspondence between a Mother and her Daughter [Jane] at School’ (London, 1817; 6th ed. 1821). Ann Taylor died at Ongar on 4 June 1830; she was buried beside her husband under the vestry floor of Ongar chapel.
Helen Taylor (1818–1885), the daughter of Martin Taylor of Ongar (1788–1867), by his first wife, Elizabeth Venn, made contributions to ‘Missionary Hymns’ and the ‘Teacher’s Treasury,’ and, besides a short devotional work, ‘Sabbath Bells’ was author of ‘The Child’s Books of Homilies’ (London, 1850). She died in 1885, and was buried at Parkstone
Parkstone
Parkstone is an area of Poole, Dorset. It is divided into 'Lower' and 'Upper' Parkstone. Upper Parkstone - "Up-on-'ill" as it used to be known in local parlance - is so-called because it is largely on higher ground slightly to the north of the lower-lying area of Lower Parkstone - "The Village" -...
, Dorset.