Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/429

 had not been open ten years; Lovering's name occurs as master in 1619. Taylor matriculated on 17 March 1627, was elected a scholar on the Perse foundation at Michaelmas 1628, graduated B.A. 1630–1, and was elected a Perse fellow about Michaelmas 1633. He took orders before he was twenty-one, and proceeded M.A. in 1633–4.

Visiting London, he did duty three or four times for Thomas Risden, his former chamber-fellow, then divinity lecturer at St. Paul's. His preaching at once attracted the notice of Laud, who sent him to Oxford, where he was admitted M.A. from University College on 20 Oct. 1635. As visitor of All Souls', Laud wrote (23 Oct.) to the warden and fellows, recommending Taylor to a vacant fellowship. Sheldon, the warden, objected on statutable grounds, and, though a majority of the fellows was ready to comply, there was no election. Taylor, however, was admitted probationary fellow on 5 Nov., was presented by Laud (to whom the right had lapsed) on 21 Nov., and admitted perpetual fellow on 14 Jan. 1636. He vacated his Cambridge fellowship at Lady-day, 1636. Laud made him his chaplain, and he was shortly afterwards appointed chaplain in ordinary to Charles I. At Oxford he had high repute as a casuistical preacher; he studied books rather than men; it was said of him, he ‘slights too much many times the arguments of those he discourses with’ (, Chillingworth, 1725, p. 50). On 23 March 1638 he was instituted to the rectory of Uppingham, Rutland. Juxon gave him the living, and he at once went into residence; the previous rector, Edward Martin, D.D. [q. v.], had been non-resident, and the cure had been served by Peter Hausted [q. v.], the dramatist.

On 5 Nov. 1638 Taylor preached his ‘gunpowder treason’ sermon in St. Mary's, Oxford. He welcomed the opportunity, inasmuch as his intimacy with Christopher Davenport [q. v.], the Franciscan, had raised suspicions of a leaning to Rome on his part. The sermon, dedicated to Laud, is a sustained indictment of recusancy as treasonable; the penal legislation of Elizabeth is upheld as not merely just, but mild; and the seal of confession is treated as a mere pretence for treason. Wood intimates that the sermon, as printed, owed something to additions by the vice-chancellor; nor is this inconsistent with the language of the dedication. Davenport told Wood ‘several times’ that Taylor had ‘expressed some sorrow for those things he had said against them;’ this may well be, but Taylor's own emphatic disclaimer disposes of the fancy that he at any time had ‘inclinations to go over to Rome.’ The Uppingham registers testify to his assiduous care for the concerns of his parish; his pulpit, and a paten used by him, still remain. His Uppingham entries cease after the summer of 1642; his biographers have supposed that he then, as king's chaplain, proceeded to Oxford with the royal forces. On 1 Nov. 1642 he was admitted D.D. at Oxford by royal mandate. But in 1643 he was instituted to the rectory of Overstone, Northamptonshire. His living of Uppingham was not sequestered till the beginning of May 1644 (Mercurius Aulicus, 6 May 1644), and his connection with the royal army probably began in that year. He was taken prisoner in the defeat of Colonel Charles Gerard before Cardigan Castle on 4 Feb. 1644–5, but was not long detained (for a vague ‘tradition’ of his retirement to Maidley Hall, near Tamworth, see Gentleman's Magazine, 1783 i. 144, 1792 i. 109).

From 1645 may probably be dated Taylor's connection with William Nicholson (1591–1672) [q. v.] and William Wyatt [q. v.] as conductors of a school, in preparation for the universities, at Newton Hall (Collegium Newtoniense) in the parish of Llanfihangel-Aberbythych, Carmarthenshire. While thus engaged he lived with his family at Golden Grove in the same parish, the seat of Richard Vaughan, second earl of Carbery [q. v.], who paid him a salary as his chaplain. Some of his best work, including the ‘Liberty of Prophesying,’ the ‘Holy Living,’ and ‘Holy Dying,’ was done at Golden Grove, a name preserved in the title of his rich manual of devotional prose and verse. It would seem that the business of publication brought him frequently to London. He appears to have been in London in the last days of Charles I, who gave him his watch (described by Bonney, and now, with Taylor's seal, in the possession of Colonel Jeremy Marsh, R.E., London), and ‘a few pearls and rubies’ from the ebony case of his bible (Hughes's date for this, August 1647, is evidently too early). Mr. J. J. Roberts, of New York, who claims to have inherited these gems, says they are ‘two diamonds and a ruby, set in a ring, bearing the date of 1649’ (Letter of 6 July 1897). Taylor is said also to have suggested the title of ‘Eikon Basilike’.

In 1653 Taylor was in London; the date of his letter thence to Langsdale, his brother-in-law, on ‘Novemb: 24, 1653’ (Sloane MS. 4274, No. 125) has been misread 1643. On 15 April 1654 Evelyn heard him preach in London; at the end of that year he was for