Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/468

 [q. v.], then bishop of London, who replied cautiously, and to Buckner, who answered by Lloyd that he must expect to remain in ‘the background.’ His scholastic advertisement had introduced him to a Bristol family named May, who, on pretence of helping him to a school, got hold of his money (‘a few hundred pounds’) and his acceptance to a hundred-pound bill. One of the Mays was afterwards hanged at Newgate for forgery.

At this juncture an old friend put Taylor into the curacy of Yardley, near Birmingham, where he hoped to rehabilitate his clerical reputation. But the Bishop of Worcester (Cornwall) insisted on his dismissal, and Taylor, under notice to quit, indulged in ‘the open preaching of deism in the parish church.’ His brothers offered him a monthly allowance if he left England. He went to the Isle of Man; in a month or two the allowance was stopped, and he tried to get employment on local newspapers. For an article justifying suicide, he was brought before the bishop, George Murray [see under, (1761–1803)]. Making off to Whitehaven, he got 10l. from Partridge, his old master, and sailed for Dublin, where he became assistant in Jones's school at Nutgrove. Engaged for temporary duty by the rector of Rathfarnham, co. Dublin, he was inhibited (1822) by William Magee [q. v.], archbishop of Dublin, and (contrary to Magee's advice) dismissed from Nutgrove. He began a series of attacks on the church, under the title of ‘The Clerical Review,’ and was noticed by Archibald Hamilton Rowan [q. v.] and Henry Augustus Dillon-Lee, thirteenth viscount Dillon [q. v.], under whose auspices he projected (14 March 1824) ‘The Society of Universal Benevolence,’ of which he was ‘chaplain and secretary.’ He hired (1824) the Fishamble Street theatre for Sunday morning lectures, till a riot (28 March) closed the experiment. Coming to London, he drew up a petition for liberty to preach ‘natural religion’ (dated from 2 Water Lane, Fleet Street) which was presented to the House of Commons on 18 June by Joseph Hume [q. v.] He taught classics, projected (12 Nov.) a ‘Christian Evidence Society,’ and gave lectures, followed by discussions, at various public rooms. In the summer of 1826 he hired an old independent chapel at Founders' Hall, Lothbury, and conducted (from 30 July) Sunday morning services with a liturgy, remarkable as enjoining a sitting posture in prayer, and still more remarkable as directing that no phrase or word was ever to be altered, added, or omitted. A petition by Taylor, dated from Carey Street, and praying that deists might be admitted to give evidence on oath, was presented to the House of Commons by Hume on 29 Nov. His success led to the purchase of Salters' Hall chapel, Cannon Street, by shareholders. On 1 Jan. 1827 it was opened by Taylor as his ‘Areopagus.’ In the same month he was arrested and indicted for a blasphemous discourse at Salters' Hall; the chief prosecutor was Brown, the lord mayor, a dissenter. While the case was pending, Wright, a Bristol banker, a member of the Society of Friends, sued him for 100l. on the acceptance he had given (January 1820) to May. He was thrown into the king's bench prison for the debt, and went through the bankruptcy court to obtain release. Another indictment, for conspiracy to overthrow the Christian religion, was laid against Taylor and others; the Salters' Hall chapel was then resold at a loss.

Taylor was tried (‘in full canonicals’) on the first indictment on 24 Oct. 1827 before Charles Abbott, first lord Tenterden [q. v.], and found guilty. The trial on the second indictment was abandoned in January 1828, apparently at Tenterden's instance. On 7 Feb. Taylor was sentenced by Sir John Bayley [q. v.] to a year's imprisonment in Oakham gaol, and to find securities (himself 500l., two others 250l. each) for good behaviour for five years. His close acquaintance now began with Richard Carlile [q. v.], who raised a subscription for him. At Oakham he contributed a weekly letter to Carlile's ‘Lion,’ from No. 7 (15 Feb.), and wrote his ‘Syntagma’ and ‘The Diegesis,’ a curious medley of random judgments and passages of secondhand learning. Carlile had introduced him to Miss Richards, whom he promised to marry. On his liberation (February 1829) he lectured occasionally at Carlile's shop in Fleet Street, and at the universalist chapel, Windmill Street, Finsbury Square. In May he set out with Carlile on a four months' lecturing tour, beginning at Cambridge, where Taylor fastened a thesis to the door of the divinity schools. In May 1830 he took the Rotunda, Blackfriars Road, and preached in episcopal garb to large audiences. Two sermons on the devil (6 and 13 June) gained him from Henry Hunt [q. v.] the title of ‘the devil's chaplain.’ He was tried at the Surrey sessions on 4 July 1831 for preaching blasphemy at the previous Easter, found guilty, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment in Horsemonger Lane gaol, a fine