Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/447

 1766, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. He bequeathed to Shrewsbury school his library, and a fund to found an exhibition to St. John's College. His manuscripts and books, with marginal notes in manuscript, he left to Anthony Askew [q. v.], his executor. Askew handed over the manuscript notes on Demosthenes to Reiske (, Introduction to Demosthenes), who deals somewhat severely with their author. The books were mostly purchased at Askew's death for the university libraries of Oxford, Cambridge, and for the British Museum.

In 1732 Taylor issued the prospectus of his edition of Lysias, but the work did not appear till 1739. It embodies Markland's conjectures. In 1741 he published an edition of ‘Demosthenes contra Leptinem,’ intended as a specimen of a projected complete edition of Demosthenes and Æschines. The third volume of the work appeared, with a dedication to his patron Carteret, in 1748, and the second volume in 1757. The first is represented only by the notes that Askew gave to Reiske. The excellence of Taylor's editions of the Greek orators is now generally acknowledged, and they rank with the best productions of English scholars.

In addition to the above works Taylor published: 1. ‘Commentarius ad legem decemviralem de inope debitore in partes dissecando,’ 1742. 2. ‘Demosthenes contra Midiam and Lycurgus contra Leocratem,’ 1743. 3. ‘Marmor Sandvicense,’ 1744. This is an explanation of the marble brought from Athens to England by Lord Sandwich in 1739. It was the first inscription discovered that contained any account of the contributions levied by Athens upon her allies. The marble was presented to Trinity College, Cambridge. 4. ‘Elements of the Civil Law,’ 1755, a work made up from papers that he had written for Carteret's grandsons; new edit. 1769; abridged under the title ‘Summary of Roman Law,’ 1773. Warburton severely attacked it on its first publication in the ‘Divine Legation,’ 1755. The cause was a difference of opinion concerning the reason of the persecutions of the early Christians. Taylor made no reply, but in 1758 an anonymous pamphlet appeared entitled ‘Impartial Remarks on the Preface of Dr. Warburton,’ in which some attempt at retaliation was made. Taylor also published sermons and contributed to the transactions of the Royal Society (Nos. xliv. 344, xlvi. 649, liii. 133). He was joint editor of the London edition of R. Stephens's ‘Latin Thesaurus,’ contributed to Foster's ‘Essay on Accent and Quantity,’ and began an appendix to ‘Suidas.’

[Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vi. 490; Gent. Mag. 1778 ii. 456, 1804 ii. 646; Chalmers's Biogr. Dict.; Baker's Hist. of St. John's College, passim; Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. Hill, iii. 318.] 

TAYLOR, JOHN (1703–1772), itinerant oculist, elder son of John Taylor, a surgeon and apothecary of Norwich, was born on 16 Aug. 1703. In 1722 he obtained employment as an apothecary's assistant in London, and studied surgery under William Cheselden [q. v.] at St. Thomas's Hospital, devoting especial attention to diseases of the eye. He afterwards practised at Norwich for some time as a general surgeon and oculist, but, encountering considerable opposition, he resolved to enlarge the sphere of his operations. In 1727 he began to journey through the country, and before 1734 had traversed the greater part of the British Isles. He obtained the degree of M.D. at Basle in 1733, and was made a fellow of the College of Physicians there. In 1734 he received the degree of M.D. from the universities of Liège and Cologne. In the same year he made a tour through France and Holland, visiting Paris, and returning to London in November 1735. In 1736 he was appointed oculist to George II. For more than thirty years he continued his itinerant method of practice, making London his headquarters, but visiting in turn nearly every court in Europe.

Taylor, who was commonly known as the ‘Chevalier,’ possessed considerable skill as an operator, but his methods of advertisement were those of a charlatan. He was accustomed to make bombastic orations before performing his cures, couched in what he called ‘the true Ciceronian, prodigiously difficult and never attempted in our language before.’ The peculiarity of his style consisted in commencing each sentence with the genitive case and concluding with the verb. He made great pretensions to learning; but Johnson declared him ‘an instance of how far impudence will carry ignorance’ (, Life of Johnson, ed. Croker, 1848, p. 630). Among other illustrious patients he tried his skill on Gibbon (, Miscellaneous Works, 1797, i. 19). About 1767 he finally quitted England, and, after visiting Paris, died in a convent at Prague in 1772. He is said to have become blind before his death. By his wife, Ann King, he had an only son, John Taylor, who is mentioned below.

Taylor was the subject of many satires and pasquinades, among which may be mentioned ‘The Operator: a Ballad Opera,’ London, 1740, 4to; and ‘The English Imposter detected, or the Life and Fumigation