58 



X. — Biographical Notice of the late Richard Taylor, F.L.S. &c. 



It is this month our painful duty to record the death of Mr. 

 Richard Taylor, the founder of these ' Annals/ On a future 

 occasion we shall endeavour to do more ample justice to his 

 memory, but we cannot refrain from taking the earliest oppor- 

 tunity of giving a slight outline of his long, active, and useful 

 career. In so doing we pay, however imperfectly, the tribute 

 which is due to one of our most respected fellow-citizens, who 

 nobly sustained the credit of the profession to which his abilities 

 were devoted, and deservedly acquired the friendship, esteem, 

 and confidence of the large circle of eminent men with whom it 

 brought him into constant and familiar intercourse. 



Richard Taylor was born on the 18th of May, 1781, at Nor- 

 wich. He was the second son (of a family of seven) of John 

 Taylor, wool-comber, and Susan Cooke, and great-grandson of 

 Dr. John Taylor, the author of the celebrated ' Hebrew Con- 

 cordance/ His education was received at a day-school in Nor- 

 wich, kept by the Rev. John Houghton, whom he describes as 

 an excellent grammarian and a severe disciplinarian. Under 

 this able tutor and his son, he made early and considerable pro- 

 gress in classical learning, and also acquired some knowledge of 

 chemistry and other branches of natural philosophy. It seems to 

 have been the wish of the master that his pupil should proceed to 

 the High School of Glasgow (where he had himself received his 

 education), and there qualify himself for the ministry ; but other 

 counsels prevailed, and, principally at the suggestion of Sir 

 James Edward Smith, the founder of the Linnsean Society, and 

 a very intimate friend of his parents, he was induced to adopt 

 the profession of a printer — a profession to which he became 

 ardently attached. On Sir James Smith's recommendation, he 

 was apprenticed to Mr. Davis of Chancery Lane, London, a 

 printer of eminence, from whose press issued many scien- 

 tific works of importance. During this period of his life, his 

 leisure hours seem to have been employed in the study not only 

 of the classics, but also of the mediaeval Latin and Italian authors, 

 especially the poets, of whose writings he formed a curious 

 collection. From these, his "old dumps" as he was wont to 

 call them, he derived great pleasure to the last moments of his life. 

 He also became a proficient scholar in French, Flemish, Anglo- 

 Saxon and several of the kindred Teutonic dialects, — a proficiency 

 which afterwards proved of eminent utility in his professional 

 career, by far the greater number of the Anglo-Saxon works, and 

 works connected with that branch of literature, published in 

 London during the last forty years, having issued from his press. 



On the expiration of his apprenticeship, he carried on business 

 for a short time in Chancery Lane, in partnership with a Mr. 



