TAYLOR, Isaac (1787-1865)

1787 - 1865

Isaac Taylor, known as Isaac Taylor of Stanford Rivers, was born at Lavenham, Suffolk on 17 August 1787, the fourth child and eldest surviving son of [[Isaac (1759-1829) Taylor,616]] and his wife, Ann née Martin (1757–1830). In 1796 the family moved to Colchester, Essex where the senior Isaac Taylor was pastor of an independent congregation and in 1810, when called to another Essex pastorate, they moved to Ongar, Essex. The three sons and three daughters of the Taylor family were educated at home, and all were taught drawing and engraving by their father. The elder daughters, Ann and Jane Taylor, were beginning to publish verses and stories for children in periodicals and in book form which were illustrated by various family members including Isaac. Isaac the younger, executed engraving and drawing commissions and worked with his father on several projects. In 1810 he joined his brother Martin in London, where they worked as engravers for a publishing house in Paternoster Row but by 1812 Isaac had developed a lung infection when he spent the next three or four winters at Ilfracombe, Devon or Marazion, Cornwall. In 1818, Josiah Conder, editor of the 'Eclectic Review', invited Taylor to join his staff as a regular contributor when he also continued his study of early church writers, his first published work was 'Elements of Thought' (1822) and in 1825 he published 'Memoirs and Poetical Remains of the late Jane Taylor' and in the same year moved to Stanford Rivers, about 2 miles from Ongar. On 17 August 1825, he married Elizabeth Medland (1804–1861), second daughter of James Medland of Newington, London and for the remainder of his life lived at Stanford Rivers with his wife and a large family of whom six daughters and three sons survived their father. In 1824 he patented a widely used beer tap and developed a machine for engraving on copper, patented in 1848. Although he lost considerable sums on this invention, it was adapted for engraving patterns on copper cylinders used in printing calicos and in 1862 he received a civil-list pension of £200 a year. Isaac Taylor died at Stanford Rivers on 28 June 1865 and was buried in the local churchyard.

---

Works by This Artist