John Taylor

“ Such was the character of President John Taylor; such the qualities of his mind; such his public and domestic virtues: and if, as an old English writer hath it, the great man is he who chooses the right with invincible resolution; who resists the sorest temptations from within and without; who bears the heaviest burdens cheerfully; who is calmest in storms, and most fearless under menace and frowns ”

“ The next day the sad event of President Taylor's death was announced to the Church and the world in the following communication from his counselors to the Deseret News:
"Once more the Latter-day Saints are called upon to mourn the death of their leader—the man who has held the keys of the kingdom of God upon earth. President John Taylor departed this life at five minutes to eight o'clock on the evening of Monday, July 25th, 1887, aged 78 years, 8 months and 25 days. ”

“ Some commendatory verses by Taylor are prefixed to the first edition of Massinger's ‘Roman Actor,’ published in 1629. The assertion that he was the painter and the first owner of the Chandos portrait of Shakespeare (now in the National Portrait Gallery, London) is supported by no evidence. It is possible that the statement is due to a confusion of the actor with a contemporary portrait-painter, John Taylor, nephew of John Taylor (1580–1653) [q. v.] , the water poet, who may possibly be the painter of the portrait. ”

“ Yet what office created by man—pontifical, princely, kingly—how graced so ever with the formal pomp and show in the bestowal of it, can equal that conferred on John Taylor, by the voice of God and the common consent of his brethren? ”

“ Testimony of the Great Powers for Poesy, innate in MICHAEL ANGELO TAYLOR, Esq.
DR. BURNEY. I shall myself compose Mr. Taylor’s Ode——His merit I admire——his origin I have traced.—He is descended from Mr. John Taylor, the famous Water Poet, who with good natural talents, never proceeded farther in education than his accidence.—John Taylor was born in Gloucestershire.—I find that he was bound apprentice to a Waterman—but in process of time kept a public house in Phœnix-alley, Long-acre [1] . ”

“ She was buried with her husband, who refers to her in terms of affection. A portrait of Taylor is at Watermen's Hall, which shows him, as Wood remarks, to have been of a ‘quick and smart countenance.’ Another picture of him is in the Bodleian Library, to which it was presented in 1655 by the artist, his nephew, John Taylor, a portrait-painter practising at Oxford; this has been engraved. The nephew's portrait, painted by himself, is also in the Bodleian, and has also been engraved. A whole-length portrait of Taylor is before his ‘Memorial of all the English Monarchs,’ 1622 ”

“ He was an expert in the art of self-advertisement, and achieved notoriety by a series of eccentric journeys. With a companion as feather-brained as himself he journeyed from London to Quecnborough in a paper boat, with two stockfish tied to canes for oars. The Pennyles Pilgrimage, or the Moneylesse Perambulation of John Taylor . . . how he travailed on foot from London to Edenborough in Scotland . . . 1618, contains the account of a journey perhaps suggested by Ben Jonson's celebrated undertaking, though Taylor emphatically denies any intention of burlesque. ”

“ The trying ordeal through which he had passed with the martyrs, his devotion and faithfulness to them in those fearful scenes in the jail, his undaunted courage, the cruel wounds he himself had received, and the patience with which he endured his suffering—all bound Elder Taylor in still stronger bands of affection to the Saints in Nauvoo and throughout the world. ”

“ John Taylor, a most intelligent and excellent woman, mild and unassuming, quiet and meek, sitting amidst her large family, occupied with her needle and domestic occupations, but always assisting, by her great knowledge, the advancement of kind and dignified sentiment and conduct. ”

“ Resolved, That in the departure from this life of one so good, noble and useful as the late President John Taylor, we have sustained a great loss, in which the community widely participates and while fully sensing this effect of his decease, we extend to his family, in the hour of their bereavement, our most heart-felt sympathy. ”

“ In the midst of the feasting and dancing, singing and rejoicing, the Saints did not forget to thank and praise the Power which had given them the rich fruits of the earth; and expressions of gratitude—soul-felt and universal—in prayer and speech, occurred as frequently as song or dance.
In all these anxieties, labors, fears, hopes and rejoicings, Elder Taylor took part. Many leaned on his strength in those days. When despair settled over the colony he infused it with hope; when the weak faltered, he strengthened them; when the fearful trembled, he encouraged them ”

“ Her intimate friends called her ‘Madame Roland,’ from the resemblance she bore to the French champion of liberty. Mrs. Taylor herself instructed her two daughters in philosophy, Latin, and political economy. She also contributed essays and verse to the budget read at periodic meetings of the Taylor and Martineau families, for which many of her husband's verses were composed. She died in June 1823. A monument to her and her husband was erected by their children in the Octagon Chapel, Norwich. A portrait of Mrs. John Taylor by H. Meyer is in Mrs. ”

“ President Taylor was a man who could not get down to grovel with the low-lived, the vicious, the ribald, nor any who indulged in the follies and vanities of mortal life. When the gospel found him, he was aspiring from the measure of grace that existed among the most devout religious worshipers, and hungering and thirsting for something nobler and better; and the testimony of the glorious truths again revealed came to his ears by the Elders of the Church, and soon by the blessed testimony of the Prophet Joseph. ”

“ Taylor is rapt and solitary, living in the world of his own ideas. Nevertheless, his singleness of purpose, accuracy of statement, genuine humor, originality of ideas, and clear, effective speaking never fail to secure for him a respectful hearing, however distasteful may be the subject of his address. At home he is a delightful host, an inveterate joker of jokes. His wife, a lady of great accomplishments, is hardly behind him in zeal for the public good. Every post brings heaps of letters from aggrieved subjects of her Majesty in all parts of the world. ”

“ How many a poor Englishman, toiling over the plains in the next succeeding years, and, arriving in arid Utah to find himself in the clutches of an organization from which he could not escape, had reason to curse the man who drew this picture!
* John Taylor was born in England in 1808, and emigrated to Canada in 1829, where, after joining the Methodists, he, like Joseph Smith, found existing churches unsatisfactory, and was easily secured as a convert by P. P. Pratt. He was elected to the Quorum, and was sent to Great Britain as a missionary in 1840, writing several pamphlets while there. ”

“ He has been the champion of human rights, the champion of liberty, truth and freedom. He has lived a noble, useful life, full of honor and credit to himself and family, a satisfaction to the people and a glory to God. I take pleasure in bearing this testimony to the faithfulness and devotion of President Taylor, to his integrity to God and the love of his people. I knew him to be a man determined to do right, to see justice administered, truth upheld, and honor sustained among this people. He has lived to see this people pass through many changes. ”

“ Some of his more amusing productions were edited (1872) by Charles Hindley as The Works of John Taylor. They provide some very entertaining reading, but in spite of the legend on one of his title-pages, "Lastly that (which is Rare in a Travailer) all is true," it is permissible to exercise some mental reservations in accepting his statements. Mr Hindley edited other tracts of Taylor's in his Miscellanea Antigua Anglicana (1873) . ”

“ TAYLOR, Brook (1685–1731) , a distinguished mathematician of Newton's school, was the son of John Taylor, of Bifrons House, Kent, by Olivia, daughter of Sir Nicholas Tempest, Bart., of Durham, and was born at Edmonton in Middlesex, August 18, 1685. ”

“ With what joy the storm-tossed, ship-wrecked sailor enters the port from whence he sailed! How buoyant with delight is the soldier who, after many a hard-fought field, and a thousand dangers past, returns at last, weary and worn perhaps, to his native village! But more grateful, and more joyous than either of these was Elder Taylor to return into the midst of his friends, after passing through the fearful ordeal at Carthage jail. ”

“ Then there was John Taylor of Revolutionary fame. He and many of his descendants have occupied high and enviable stations in Sanbornton, and their biography and good deeds have been ably commemorated by the historian, Rev. M.T. Runnels. In adhering to the Taylor families Mr. Webster obeyed the injunction of Solomon who said, "Thine own friend, and thy father's friend forsake not." Mr. Webster's letter furnishes strong evidence, that he did not forsake "his own friend," Parker Noyes. The friendship between these men commenced when Mr. ”

“ Says Jesus, "The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also." On the same occasion He said to His disciples, after commanding them to love one another, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." ”

“ Subsequently, though in an early number of The Mormon, Elder Taylor made a further announcement of his principles, and what he meant to sustain, as follows:
"We believe in good, sound, healthy morals, in matter of fact philosophy, in politics uncorrupted, and that secure the greatest good to all. We believe in the God of heaven and certainly in religion. We believe in a religion that will make a man go down to the grave with a clear conscience, and an unfaltering step, to meet his God as a Father and a Friend without fear." ”

“ Of the deep religious convictions of President Taylor it is scarcely necessary to speak. His whole life demonstrates how deep was the religious soil in his nature, into which the seeds of truth were sown to bring forth an hundred fold. His devotion to his religion was not only sincere, it was without reserve. He gave himself and his whole life to it. His faith, his trust and confidence in God were complete. "I do not believe in a religion that cannot have all my affections," he would sometimes remark, "but I believe in a religion that I can live for, or die for. ”

“ I would not control the actions of men, God does not do it, he leaves them to their own agency to combat with the trials, temptations, adversities and evils of every kind that are in the world, to which humanity is, or can be incident. He put within their reach, however, certain principles and would like to lead them to himself if they would be led. If not, he then does the very best with them that he can. In some instances he has had to come out, as it is said, "in his fierce wrath," upon the peoples and upon the nations of the earth; and many other things have been in his programme ”

“ At the age of twenty, having mastered the business of turner, young Taylor left Penrith, and in the town of Hale started business for himself, under the auspices of his father. Shortly after this, in 1830, his father and family emigrated to Upper Canada, leaving him to dispose of some unsold property and settle the affairs of the estate. ”

“ But President Taylor, by the blessing of God was placed in a position in which he was not only a father and protector to his family, but God made him a great benefactor to many of the human race. There are numbers here today before me, who have been brought from distant lands—lands where poverty and want looked them in the face—and they have been brought to this land where there is room for enterprise and industry, whereby multitudes of the poor have come to have homes and the comforts of life around them. ”

“ Young Salt Lake City Children. Name. When Born. Where Born. When Died. Where died. Father's Name Mother's Name George John Taylor Jan. 31, 1834 Near Toronto, Canada John Taylor Leonora Taylor Mary Ann Taylor Jan. 23, 1836 Toronto, Canada Dec. 9, 1890 San Francisco do do Joseph James Taylor June 8, 1838 Near Indianapolis, Ind. do do Leonora Agnes Taylor June 1, 1842 Nauvoo, Ills. Sep. 10, 1843 Nauvoo, Ills. do do Josephine Taylor March 15, 1846 Nauvoo, Ills. do Elizabeth Taylor Thomas Edward Taylor Nov. 7, 1849 Salt Lake City, Utah do do Arthur Bruce Taylor Oct. ”

“ It often praises those least worthy; it neglects or abuses those who are its chief benefactors. Our generation like many that have preceded it, garnishes the sepulchres of the ancient prophets, saying, "Had we lived in their day, we would not have persecuted and killed them." And yet with strange inconsistency they hunt to the death the living prophets whose memory future generations will honor. But the praise or censure of the world had little influence over the mind of John Taylor where truth was concerned. The more men despised it the more intense seemed his devotion. ”

“ Whilst they could ne'er find time to turn again.
The shire of gentlemen is scarce and dainty,
Yet there's relief in great abundance plenty,
Twixt it and England, little odds I see,
They eat, and live, and strong and able be,
So much in verse, and now I'll change my style,
And seriously I'll write in prose awhile.
↑ Edmund Branthwaite.—Robert Branthwaite, William Branthwaite Cant., and "Thy assured friend" R. B., have each written Commendatory Verses to all the Works of John Taylor. London 1630. ”