Editing Isaac Taylor (section)

==Life==
He was the eldest surviving son of [[Isaac Taylor (1759–1829)|Isaac Taylor]] of [[Chipping Ongar|Ongar]]. He was born at [[Lavenham]], Suffolk, on 17 August 1787, and moved with his family to [[Colchester]] and, at the end of 1810, to Ongar. In the family tradition, he was trained as draughtsman and engraver. After a few years' occupation as a designer of book illustrations, he turned to literature as vocation.<ref name=DNB>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Taylor, Isaac (1787-1865)}}</ref>

From 1812 to 1816 he wintered in the west of England, and he spent most of this time at [[Ilfracombe]] and [[Marazion]] in the company of his sister, Jane. About 1815 through the works of [[Sulpicius Severus]] he started to collect [[patristic literature]]. Shortly afterwards [[Francis Bacon]]'s ''De Augmentis'' excited his interest in [[inductive philosophy]]. In 1818 a friend of the family, [[Josiah Conder (editor and author)|Josiah Conder]], then editor of the ''[[Eclectic Review]]'', persuaded Taylor to join its regular staff, which already included [[Robert Hall (minister)|Robert Hall]], [[John Foster (essayist)|John Foster]], and [[Olinthus Gilbert Gregory]].<ref name=DNB/>

In 1825 he settled at [[Stanford Rivers]], about two miles from Ongar, in a rambling old-fashioned farmhouse. There he married, on 17 August 1825, Elizabeth, second daughter of James Medland of Newington, the friend and correspondent of his sister Jane. In 1836 Taylor contested the chair of logic at [[Edinburgh University]] with [[Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet|Sir William Hamilton]], and was narrowly beaten. In March 1841, in [[Hanover Square, London|Hanover Square]], he delivered four lectures on 'Spiritual Christianity'. Though he joined the Anglican communion at an early stage in his career, Taylor remained on good terms with friends among the [[English Dissenters|dissenters]].<ref name=DNB/>

Taylor was granted a [[civil list pension]] of £200 in 1862 as acknowledgment of his services to literature, and he died at Stanford Rivers three years later, on 28 June 1865.<ref name=DNB/>

Taylor was elected an International Member of the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1895.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Isaac+Taylor&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2024-03-13 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>