John James Tayler (1797–1869) was an English Unitarian Minister.
Background The eldest son of James Tayler (1765–1831) by his wife Elizabeth (1774–1847), daughter of John Venning of Walthamstow, he was born at 12, Church Row, Newington Butts, in Surrey, on 15 August 1797. His father, was Unitarian minister successively at Walthamstow, Southwark, and Nottingham; and made him a Latinist. Tayler's father, following the death of his father, Richard Tayler (†1784), himself a non-conformist minister, was adopted by Andrew Kippis (1725–1795), editor of the Biographia Britannica (1778) who assumed the role of guardian and tutor and helped him about 1788 enter New College at Hackney (where, Kippis was appointed one of the tutors, together with Richard Price, Joseph Priestley, and Gilbert Wakefield). Tayler wrote in his obituary of his father, that "domestic occurrences" had prevented him from completing his course at Hackney and he continued his studies in private, under the direction of Dr. Kippis. "At the recommendation of Kippis he officiated at Nottingham, as a supply, for several months, in 1793 or 1794; after which he preached for some time at Walthamstow, where in 1795, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. John Venning, of that place. In the beginning of 1797, he succeeded the Rev. Thomas Jervis, as sole minister of St. Thomas's Meeting-house, Southwark.""Obituary.―Rev. James Tayler." In: The Monthly Repository of Theology and General Literature. New Series, No. LVI, Vol. V, August 1831, Intelligence, p.561-566.
At Hackney his classical tutor was Gilbert Wakefield (1756–1801), and Tayler attributed his father's "exact and solid knowledge" of the Greek and Latin languages to Wakefield's influence.We know that Tayler's father also studied Anglo-Saxon, "The Saxon Chronicle was one of the last books which engaged him". Tayler's father also "took a lively interest in the discoveries of natural philosophy; and works on chemistry and physiology". In 1802 his father moved to Nottingham as one of the Ministers of the High Pavement Chapel a post he held until 1831.
In the spring of 1808 his father started a school situated in his own home. Tayler refers to "the expenses of a large and increasing family" as the main reason for doing so- Tayler had two brothers, Andrew and William and three sisters Emily, Elizabeth and Clara. It was this first schooling that had a profound effect on him, and it was his father's pronounced "philological habits" that "led to a scrupulous and anxious habit of mind in matters of minute accuracy" that made a deep and lasting impression on the young Tayler who was closely taught by his father.
Education Manchester College, York
In September 1814 he entered Manchester College, York, then under the triumvirate of Charles Wellbeloved (1769–1858) the principal, William Turner (1788–1853) tutor in mathematics and philosophy and John Kenrick (1788–1877) tutor in classics and history. After his father, probably the greatest influence on the young Tayler was Kenrick. His father, at first sceptical of Manchester College, took a very keen interest and closely watched his education at York, personally negotiating with Kenrick about the structure of some of his sons lessons. By March 1816, he was already aware of the plans his father had made for him to study at the University of Glasgow, "It is now determined that my father—intends me to spend my next session at Glasgow, before I enter in my third year here."J. J. Tayler to Richard Tayler, 18 March 1816. In the same letter, he declares an interest in Belles Lettres and thinks that "philosophical criticism," is ultimately the path he wishes to pursue.
University of Glasgow
From November 1816 at Glasgow University it was a further triumvirate of teachers, George Jardine (1742–1827) professor of logic, John Young (1750?–1820), professor of Greek, the so-called 'Pseudo-Johnson', and the philosopher James Mylne (1757–1839) who influenced him. His correspondence at this time with his childhood friend, the Persian scholar Samuel Robinson (1794–1894), who would later translate Friedrich Schiller's Wilhelm Tell (1824), reveal details of the lectures. Following his graduation as B.A. at Glasgow he returned to Manchester College, York, and as early as November 1818 he was made aware of John Kenrick's "wish to spend a complete year abroad at some German university"J. J. Tayler to Sam. Robinson, 20 November 1818, in: Letters, vol. I, 25.
Career Classical Tutor at Manchester College, York
He was appointed classical tutor at York (1819–1820) as Kenrick's substitute.in the Monthly Repository from June of that year we read : "Mr John James Tayler, who, during Mr. Kenricks residence at Göttingen, where he proposes to spend the ensuing winter, has undertaken the office of Classical Tutor, will also reside within the College." "The Annual Examination of the Students educated at Manchester College, York, 22–24th June 1819" MR, 1819, Intelligence, p.449. During this time he was "thinking of becoming a physician as well as a dissenting minister” receiving an undisclosed offer from his friend the economist and antiquary, Robert Hyde Greg (1795–1875).We hear Tayler's father in an early letter encouraging Greg's Greek studies as well, see J. J. Tayler to R. H. Greg, Nottingham, 14 March 1813, Letters (1872) vol. I, p. 6. According to the entry by Mary B. Rose in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004) the fourth surviving son, of Samuel Greg(1804–1876), mill owner and philanthropist "From 1811 to 1819 he attended the Unitarian school of the Revd J. J. Taylor (Sic) of Nottingham". Later that year he visited Edinburgh (where it appears he met Thomas Southwood Smith (1788–1861) the Unitarian minister who had also studied medicine, and graduated MD in 1816. By August 1820 whilst visiting George William Wood (1781–1843) at Platt, near Manchester, the questioning of combining the two subjects had moved on to a simple choice between the two.J. J. Tayler to his Father. Platt, near Manchester, 31 August 1820, Letters (1872), vol. I, 39–40, "it must now be a decision between the two, which I will finally adopt, medicine or divinity" Dr.Peter Mark Roget, the physician and lexicographer, and Dr.William Henry, both advised Tayler against the choice of medicine.
Mosley Street Unitarian Chapel, Manchester 1821
The position at Mosley Street Unitarian chapel, Manchester was facilitated for him, and on 4 October 1820 Tayler became minister, in succession to William Hawkes (1759–1820), at Mosley Street Chapel, Manchester, where he was ordained on 20 April 1821. It was not a difficult choice moving to Manchester (lodging at first as a guest at John Gooch Robberds' (1789–1854) home). Manchester was a place, he wrote "where the Dissenters enjoy a degree of weight and respectability above any other part of the kingdom, and where some of them are men most distinguished for science and literature, and who consequently would form most valuable associates for a young man eager for intellectual improvement."Letter to his Father, Platt, near Manchester, 31 August 1820, Letters (1872), I, 39–40. It was upon Mosley Street Chapel's sixty-eight pews, that the elite of Manchester's commercial and industrial middle class sat listening to him.John Seed, "Unitarianism, Political Economy, and the Antinomies of Liberal Culture in Manchester, 1830–1850,"in: Social History, vol. 7, 1982, p. 4. He was elected a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society on 26 January 1821. Later that year he met Thomas Belsham (1750–1829) in August 1821.J. J. Tayler to Richard Tayler, Manchester, 24 August 1821. Belsham was corresponding with Thomas Jefferson at this time. See "Unitarianism in the United States of America." MR, Vol. XVIII, No. CCXIII, September 1823, pp.533–536. He also took private lessons in Classics, History, belles Lettres, at No. 7, Dickenson-Street, to supplement his income. In April 1822, Tayler began a series of lectures at the rooms of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, George-Street, entitled On the Rise and Progress of our National Poetry.
With Wordsworth in the Lake District In July 1826 July Tayler met William Wordsworth in the Lake District (Ambleside, Rydal).An account of his conversation is contained in J. J. Tayler to his Father, Spring Cottage, Loughrigg, Ambleside, 26 July 1826, Letters (1872), I, 72–74. In July 1830 he wrote to his wife "I am solacing myself with Wordsworth. Do you know I shall become a thorough convert to him. Much of his poetry is delicious, and I perfectly adore his philosophy. To me he seems the purest, the most elevated and the most Christian of poets. I delight in his deep and tender piety, and his spirit of exquisite sympathy with whatever is lovely and grand in the breathing universe around us."J. J. Tayler to his Wife, Manchester, 16 July 1830, Letters (1872), I, 86. In September 1827 Tayler contemplated applying as a candidate for the professorship of the English language and literature in the newly founded London University (University College London) that would acquire the nickname 'The Godless Institution of Gower Street'.He wrote to his father that his friend Joseph Hutton, then Minister of Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds, thought "I stood a tolerably fair chance." J. J. Tayler to his Father, Manchester, 27 September 1827, Letters (1872), I, 76.
The 'apologist of infidelity' Tayler delivered a radical sermon "On Communion with Unbelievers" on 30 March 1828 that acquired some notoriety, The Manchester Chronicle (5 April) branded him an "apologist of infidelity" and the clerical establishment in the pages of The Congregational Magazine described him as the "arch-fiend", who in proposing to welcome Free-thinkers into his church had revealed "the hideous and malignant features of the apostate spirit".See The Congregational Magazine, For the Year 1829. New Series. Vol. V. Twelfth Volume From the Commencement. (London, 1829). The Unitarian William J. Fox had given a sermon in 1819 on The duties of Christians towards Deists. Following Robert Carlile's persecution for the republication of Thomas Paine's Age of Reason he had been dismayed at the "joyous congratulation, as if a Waterloo victory had been gained over infidelity" Tayler may have been influenced by Jonathan Edward's grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, Massachusetts, and the doctrine of "the Half-Way Covenant System". At the beginning of May 1831, the tragic news of the loss of his brother Andrew at sea, en route to Calcutta, hastily brought on his father's death some weeks later on 15 May. At the time of his father's funeral (at which John Kentish, a fellow student from New College, Hackney, gave a sermon), Tayler was also approached to become the minister of the New Meeting Congregation at Birmingham, a position which he turned down.