Francis Taylor

Francis Taylor, A. M.—This excellent divine was for some time rector of Clapham in Surrey, and afterwards rector of Yalding in Kent, to one of which places he was presented by Archbishop Laud.* In the year 1643 he was chosen one of the assembly of d ivines, and paid constant attendance. In the assembly he discovered great learning and moderation. His distinguished abilities and erudition were, however, most richly displayed in his writings. He wrote the Annotations upon Proverbs, in the Assembly's Annotations, as they are commonly called. He was most famous in all kinds of Hebrew learning and Jewish antiquities. He held a correspondence with Bodius, Archbishop Usher, and the most celebrated scholars of his time. Among the letters to the archbishop, still preserved, there is one from Mr. Taylor, dated from Clapham, in 1635.^ Upon his removal from Yalding, he became preacher at Christ's church in the city of Canterbury, where he appears to have died about the restoration. He left behind him the character of an able critic and a most celebrated divine.* He had a son of the same name, who, though he lost his sight by the smallpox, while a student in Cambridge, was a minister of good learning, genuine piety, and great usefulness; but was silenced and imprisoned in 1662. +

• Rutherford's Survey of Antichrist, part i. p.
+ Kennel'.. Chronicle, p. 358.
X Wharton's Troubles of Laud, vol. i. p. SfiS.
S Parr's Life of Usher, p. 475.

193. Edit. 1011.

His Works.—1. The Danger of Vowes Neglected, and the Necessitie of Reformation, a Sermon before the House of Lords, at the late solemn Fast in the Abbey-clmreh, Westminster, May 27,1646—1646. —2. God's Glory in Man's Happiness, 1654.—3. Opuscula Rabbinica, 1664.—4. Examen Prcfationis Morini in Biblia Grsca de Textus Ebraici Corruptionc, 1660.—5. Tractatus de Patribus Rabbi Nathan. —6. Capittila Patruin.—And most probably some others.