Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/497

 of the Buenos Ayres Great Southern Railway Co.

Taylor was best known to the public as a connoisseur. He was one of the guarantors of the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition in 1857. For many years he collected pictures and objects of art, some few of which he lent to the Manchester Exhibition of 1887, to the old masters at Burlington House, and to the Burlington Fine Arts Club (of which he was a member). The sale of his collection in 1545 lots occupied twelve days at Christie's in July 1912, and realised 358,499l. 11s. 3d. (works of art, 231,937l. 13s.; pictures, 103,891l. 8s. 6d.; silver, 15,418l. 17s. 3d.; and engravings and books, 7251l. 12s. 6d.), a total only exceeded in this country by the Hamilton Palace sale in 1882 (The Times, 17 July; Nineteenth Century, August 1912).

Taylor presented a large number of pictures and drawings by modern English artists, notably twenty-four drawings by Turner, to the Manchester Whitworth Institute (official catalogue, 1909); in 1893 he was largely instrumental in raising funds for the purchase of a magnificent carpet from the mosque at Ardebil in Persia, for the Victoria and Albert Museum; and he gave a complete set of Turner's 'Liber Studiorum' to the British Museum.

Taylor lived for some time at Platt Cottage, Rusholme, and built The Towers, Didsbury, but never lived there. A few years after his marriage in 1861 he removed to London, and resided at 20 Kensington Palace Gardens. He died at Eastbourne on 5 Oct. 1905, and was buried at Kensal Green. The net value of his estate was provisionally sworn at 354,130l. He married in 1861 Martha Elizabeth, youngest daughter of R. W. Warner of Thetford. She continued to occupy Taylor's London house till her death on 10 May 1912. Many of Taylor's legacies then became payable, including 20,000l. to Owens College.  TAYLOR, LOUISA (d. 1903), novelist. [See .]

TAYLOR, WALTER ROSS (1838–1907), Scottish ecclesiastic, born 11 April 1838 in the manse of Thurso, was only son in a family of five children of Walter Ross Taylor, D.D,, minister of the parish. who at the disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843 joined the Free Church, and became moderator of its general assembly in 1884. Taylor's mother was Isabella, daughter of William Murray of Geannes, Ross-shire. Educated at the Free Church school at Thurso, he in 1853 entered Edinburgh University, where he won prizes in Greek and natural philosophy, the medal in moral philosophy, and the Stratton scholarship. Leaving without a degree, he entered the ministry of the Free Church, studying theology at New College, Edinburgh. In 1861 he was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Caithness. In the following year he became minister of the Free Church at East Kilbride, and in 1868 was translated to Kelvinside Free Church, Glasgow, where he ministered until his death.

Taylo played a leading part in denominational affairs. As convener of the sustentation fund (1890-1900) and joint-convener of the sustentation and augment tation funds (1900-7), he sought to raise ministerial stipends within his church to a minimum of 200l. A powerful advocate and practical organiser of the union of the Free and United Presbyterian Churches of 1900, he was elected. May 1900, moderator of the last general assembly of the Free Church, and in October he constituted the first general assembly of the United Free Church. Taylor steadily favoured a conciliatory attitude towards those who were opposed to the union, and with Robert Rainy [q. v. Suppl. II] he shared the burden of the work connected with the crisis of 1904, when a judgment of the House of Lords handed over the whole property of the undivided Free Church to a small minority who resisted the union. At meetings throughout the country he eloquently defended the 'amalgamation, and was largely responsible for the passing of the Act of Parliament of 1905, which aimed at an equitable division of the property of the Free Church between the majority and the dissentient minority.

Taylor was made hon. D.D. of Glasgow University in 1891. He died, after a protracted illness, at his residence in Glasgow, on 6 Dec. 1907, and was buried in Glasgow necropolis three days later. In 1876 he married Margaret, daughter of Dr. Joshua Paterson, Glasgow, who survived him with three sons and two daughters. A full-length portrait of Taylor hangs in the United Free Church assembly buildings in Edinburgh. He published a volume of addresses, 'Religious Thought 