Gc
929.2
T21033t
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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01749 9481
GENEALOGY
929.2
T21033T
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2010 with funding from
Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/memoiroffamilyofOOtayl
A MEMOIE
OF THE
FAMILY OF TAYLOE
OF NORWICH
BY
O
PHILIP MEADOWS TAYLOR
OF LE MAS D'iZXL
PRIVATELY PRINTED
...... -rCl
1886
7 9 919^ ^
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2G4'?'378
PEEFACE.
The following Memoirs of the past generation of
the Taylor family of Norwich form a part of a
larger work relating to my own life.
This will explain why my own personality takes
a rather too prominent position in this record of
our forefathers, which has been printed apart for
the members of the family.
P. M. T.
Le Mas d'Azil:
August 20, 188C.
A MEMOIE
OF TUE
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NOEWICE
My name is Philip Meadows Taylor ; I was born in
the second decade of the century ; I belong to that
old Presbyterian and Whig family, the Taylors of
Norwich.
I will only glance at a family legend of our
ancestors coming to England with Wilham the
Conqueror. Quilleboeuf is near a dangerous part
of the river Seine, where the shifting sands caused
boats to be delayed or wrecked, within reach of the
castle of Robert le Diable, and from this town our
legendary progenitor came. Be that as it may,
our family were living in Lancashire in the seven-
teenth century, and it was in that county, in the
5'ear 1G94, that Dr. John Taylor, my historical
ancestor, was born.
B
2 A MEMOIR OF THE
He was well known as a nonconformist divine,
as the author of the Hebrew Concordance and a
treatise on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Eomans,
as well as of other theological works.
His son Eichard married Margaret, daughter
and coheiress of Mr. Philip Meadows, who was
Mayor of Norwich in 1734. This gentleman, though
a staunch Presbyterian, was a somewhat lax non-
conformist ; a statute of George I. passed in 1718
allowed dissenters to aspire to municipal honours,
and in 1721 we find him Sheriff of Norwich. He
was a man of good natural parts, a useful member
of society, and an accomplished mathematician,
spending much thought on the vexed problem of
the longitude.
Mr. Philip Meadows embarked a large part of
his fortune in the South Sea scheme, of course only
to lose it ; and his son-in-law, Richard Taylor, who
was in the wool trade, lost the greater part of his
fortune in the great earthquake of Lisbon in 1755.
Philip Meadows was a son of John Meadows of
Ousdon, a nonconformist minister who was ejected
in 1662.
A younger brother of the ejected minister was
so remarkable a man that I must give a short
sketch of his career. Sh- Philip Meadows was a
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 3
younger son with little or no fortune, but nature
had endowed him with great intellectual gifts and
great tenacity of purpose, and he received a good
education. Through the patronage of Thurloe he
was appointed joint Latin secretary to the Council
of State under the Commonwealth, with John Mil-
ton, and in 1655 I find him translating the Swedish
Treaty negotiated by Whitelock. In 1057 he was
sent on a delicate mission of pacification between
Denmark and Sweden, and Sweden and Poland, and
he brought to a conclusion the Treaty of Oliva ;
subsequently he had to conduct negotiations at
some of the German courts. Frederic III. of Den-
mark gave him the order of Knighthood of the
Elephant as a signal mark of favour.
Sir Philip Meadows served under the brief pro-
tectorate of Richard Cromwell, and later on was so
acceptable to Charles 11. that he was appointed
Knight Marshal and Comptroller of the Army Ac-
counts. These important posts he held under
Charles II., James II., William and Mary, and
Queen Anne, dying at the age of ninety-three in
1718. The Meadows family were a long-lived race.
The son and grandson bore the same title and
held the same i^osts. His great-nephew, Admiral
Charles Meadows, took his mother's name of Pierre-
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4 A MEilOIR OF THE
pont, and was raised to the peerage by the title of
Baron Pierrepont and Viscount Newark in 1796,
and advanced to the dignity of Earl Man vers in
1806.
I now return to Eichard Taylor, who married
Margaret Meadows. This lady's mother was Mar-
garet, daughter of John Hall of Norwich and Mar-
garet Lombe, cousin to Sir Thomas Lombe, Sheriff
of London in 1728. His name, with that of his
brother John Lombe, is noteworthy in connection
with the introduction of silk manufactures into
England.
In those days the laws of Piedmont inflicted the
penalty of death on any person who should attempt
to carry out of the khigdom drawings or models of
the organsin, or silk-twisting machinery, which was
a special industry in Piedmont. John Lombe
mastered the rough dialect of the country, assumed
the dress of a peasant, and obtained employment in
the silk mills. Cautiously and slowly during the
night watches he cut tiny paper models of each
part of the machinery protected by such stern
enactments. These precious bits of paper were
placed in his snuff-box and hidden under a layer of
tobacco ; this was in 1718. I well remember, some
sixty years ago, being taken by my father to the
:i :'TAi
TAYLOR F.UIILY OF NORWICH. 5
Tower of London and shown the two first organsin
mills built by John Lombe after his return. Are
they still in existence ?
Curiously enough, in the years 1830-40 my
father took an active part in introducing new
machinery for silk in Piedmont, making known the
system of treating the cocoons by steam.
To return to John Meadows. He was three
times married ; his second wife, the mother of his
children, was Sarah Fairfax — the Lord-General
Fairfax of Parliamentary renown was of the same
stock. To Sarah Fairfax we are indebted for a
series of admirable reflections on the education of'
her children.
The Fairfaxes are an old Yorkshire family, of
which a younger branch settled in Norfolk and
Suffolk. Li 1G62 Benjamin and his sons, John and
Nathaniel Fairfax, were among the ejected non-
conformist ministers, for the Fairfaxes — like the
Lombes, the 'Meadowses, and the Taylors — were
Presbyterians in religion and Whigs in politics. I
pride myself oti being descended from such a stock.
Another daughter of Philip Meadows, Sarah,
married Mr. David Martineau, grandson of Gaston
Martineau, who fled from France at the time of the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Mrs. Eichard
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6 A MEMOIR OF THE
Taylor and Mrs. David Martineau had eight children
each ; they were left widows at an early age ; they
lived near one another, devoting their lives to the
careful training of their children, for which they
were well fitted by their strong intelligence and
high culture. I find record of five sons of Sarah
Martineau ; of these the eldest, Philip Meadows, was
a celebrated surgeon, known to be a very skilful
operator. Thomas, the youngest, is remarkable
as the father of Dr. James Martineau, the distin-
guished writer and preacher, and of Harriet Mar-
tineau, whose works are popular in the United States
as well as in the old country. David and Peter
were sugar-refiners in London. John, the fourth
son, was an eminent brewer, and became a partner
in the house of Whitbread & Co.
A brother of these two ladies, another Philip
Meadows, was a much-respected lawyer at Diss ; he
left no children, but was succeeded in his practice by
a nephew, Mr. Meadows Taylor, fourth son of Mr.
and Mrs. Richard Taylor. Mr.' Meadows Taylor
and his uncle carried on their practice for a period
of ninety-eight years, from 1740 to 1838, when Mr.
Meadows Taylor died esteemed and respected by all
who knew him.
Mr. Meadows Taylor married Miss Dyson, a
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TAYLOE FAMILY OF NORWICH. 7
member of a much-respected Norfolk family ; their
son, Thomas Lombe Taylor, presented to his native
town a very handsome building, called the Corn
Hall, but with assembly-rooms and library forming
part of the building. One of his sons, Francis, who
married his cousin Susan, daughter of Dr. lligby,
is now (188G) member for South Norfolk. He is
well known to yachtsmen as the owner of the
' Tar a.'
Mr. John Rigby of Lancaster married Sarah,
daughter of Dr. John Taylor ; their daughter
married Dr. Caleb Hillier Parry, a physician of
celebrity at Bath, and was mother of the great
Arctic explorer, Sh' William Edward Parry, born
1790, died at Ems, 1855.
An anecdote preserved in the Dyson family is
deserving of record. About 1755 the Marquis de
Lafayette, father of the celebrated general, applied
to his English friends to obtain for him the services
of a competeiijt tutor to teach his son agriculture
as practised in England. Mr. John Dyson was the
person chosen, and he lived for some years with
the Lafayette family on the most agreeable footing.
But no peaceful career was that of his pupiF, and in
1792 the young revolutionary General Lafayette,
after playing a conspicuous part in the American
,1 ; ' r
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8 A JIEMOm OF THE
and French revolutions, was captured by the Aus-
trians and imprisoned in the fortress of Olmiitz.
His devoted wife used all possible means to obtain
his release, and at last bethought her of help from
General Washington. There was the greatest dif-
ficulty in communicating with the United States,
and she appealed to Mr. John Dyson to assist
her. He succeeded in sending her two letters to the
President. General Washington replied to the first
letter only ; copies of these two touching appeals
are in the possession of the Dyson family.
I must allow myself to mention that my wife is
a goddaughter of General Lafayette, and that part
of my honeymoon was spent in his family.
We will now return to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Tay-
lor's eight children. Philip, the eldest, was, with his
cousin Eigby, put to a school at Nantwich under the
care of Mr. Priestly, afterwards celebrated as author
and chemist, and known as Dr. Priestly. Philip be-
came a Presbyterian minister, and in 1774 was ap-
pointed minister of the Eustace Street congregation,
and settled at Harold's Cross, near Dublin ; he
married Miss Weld, and died in 1831, greatly loved
and resf^ected. He was the grandfather of Colonel
Philip Meadows Taylor, the author of ' Confessions
of a Thug,' ' Tara,' &c. His Autobiography narrates
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TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 9
the events of a very remarkable life, but it does not
contain the following anecdote. Colonel Taylor
was engaged to a daughter of Mr. Palmer, head of
the great banking-house of Calcutta and Hyderabad.
AVlien every tiling was settled for the marriage, a
sudden and tremendous change came over the
fortunes of the firm, and Mr. Palmer told Colonel
Taylor he had his full permission to relinquish the
marriage now that his daughter was portionless.
My true-hearted cousin refused to sacrifice his love,
and the marriage took place. Colonel Taylor was
selected to administer the Shorapoor State during
the minority of the Rajah, from 1843 to 1853. In
1869 Her Majesty was pleased to appoint Colonel
Taylor Companion of the Star of India. His health,
sorely tried by Indian work and climate, gave way,
and he died in 1876.
John, the second son of Richard Taylor, born
in 1750, was my grandfather. He married in 1777
Susannah, daughter of Mr. John Cook of Norwich.
Mr. John Taylor was strongly attached to the faith
of his forefathers, and he was a staunch supporter
of the T^^iig party ; but although in those days
party feeling ran high and religious prejudices were
strong, he was of so kind and genial a temper, that
eminent persons of different opinions came with
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10 A MEMOIR OF THE
pleasure to his house— Sir James Macintosh, Sir
James Smith, Mr. Crabbe Eobinson, Dr. Southey
(brother of the laureate), Mr. Windham, Sir Thomas
Beevor, Mrs. Fry, and the Gurney family, Mrs.
Opie, Mrs. Barbauld (who wrote those touching
lines on the death of Mrs. Martineau), and other
Norwich worthies.
My grandmother united strength of will and
great acquirements to a kindly nature and a loving
heart, and she contributed to making her husband's
house a favourite gathering-place for his numerous
friends. My grandfather was no contemptible poet ;
some of his hymns are beautiful.
Exulting, rejoicing, hail the happy morning,
The morn of the day when our Clnist was born,
adapted to the air of ' Adeste Fideles,' ought to
take its place in every hymn-book.
He was no less hajDpy in his political songs —
The trumpet of hberty sounds through the world.
And the Universe starts at the sound.
He is said to have written this spirit-stirring lyric
on the back of a letter which announced the fall of
the Bastile, July 1789. For my part, I prefer it to
Eouget de I'lsle's lines,
Qu'un sang impur arrose vos sillons ;
TAYLOE FAMILY OF NOKWICH. 11
but those who have heard the Marseillaise sung
amidst the gloom and turmoil of revolutionary war
may well deem its words hateful.
The ' Trumpet of Liberty ' was not, however, ac-
ceptable to the Tory ministers of the day, as its author
knew, though it was first sung by him at a dinner
presided over by a royal Duke. At another dinner,
also presided over by that liberal and independent
prince the Duke of Sussex, with Lord Albemarle, Sir
Francis Burdett, and Mr. Coke of Holkham among
the guests, the Duke called on Mr. Taylor for the
« Trumpet of Liberty.' ' No, please your Royal
Highness,' answered my grandfather, * you know I
got into trouble before.' 'Never fear,' said the
burly prince, ' my back is broad enough to protect
you.'
The Taylor and Martineau families were at the
head of the Whig party in Norwich, and the county
magnates, the Earl of Albemarle and the Squire of
Holkham, la-^ge-hearted men, gave their help in re-
turning Whig members for the borough. Mr. William
Smith sat for Norwich, I believe, forty years, and
this of course before the Reform Bill, though as
early as 1822 reform had many stout adherents in
Norfolk.
I love to dwell on my childish days passed
J' ■/■/,'
12 A JIEMOIR OF THE
under my gi-andfather's roof, and still remember
some of the stories told of his friends and acquaint-
ances.
It appeared that county members had in those
days the right to present themselves at levees and
drawing-rooms in top-boots and breeches. This
privilege Mr. Coke declined to forego, much to
the disgust of that fine gentleman, the Prince
Eegent.
Of one of the great bankers at Norwich they
told this story : He was at my grandfather's,
playing a quiet rubber, when an officious clerk
rushed in and whispered that the London mail had
just brought the news of the failure of a large
banking establishment by which his firm would sus-
tain a considerable loss. The great banker took
no notice, but went on with his whist. When the
game had ended, he turned round to the clerk, and
said, ' What did you mean by interrupting me ? You
have made me lose tlie trick.' The stakes were two
pence, be it knovm, and of course it was long whist.
Then there was the adventure of the apron. A
learned divine, very absent and rather short-
sighted, found himself at a dinner-table seated
next to a young lady, or rather a lady who had
been young, and who kept up the fashion of
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 13
embroidered muslin aprons. The divine's dress
was also that of the period, a period when napkins
had not come into use. After doing justice to the
good things on the table, his eyes were attracted by
something wrong — some strange patch of white,
where all should have been black. He muttered,
' Been careless in dressing, dear, dear ! ' then he
began to impound the waif or stray, rather astonished
at the amount of tugging it required. Mean-
while the lady became more and more uneasy, till
the brilliant idea of unhooking her apron occurred.
The doctor pocketed the whole, and only wondered,
when he divested himself of his black knee-breeches
at night, how that mysterious muslin got there.
In 1784 my grandfather, in concert with his
cousin, Mr. P. M. Martineau, gave active support
in establishing that excehent institution, the Norwich
Public Library.
Though a very abstemious man, my gi-andfather
was in his later years a sufferer from severe fits of
gout, and it .was somewhat of an effort when in
June, 1826, he determined to pay my father a visit
at Corngreaves in Staffordshire. Father and son
met at Birmingham on a Sunday morn — well do I
remember the fatal day. They attended divine
service, and then started in my father's car, which
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14 A MEMOIR OF THE
opened behind. At the steep descent of Halesowen,
' York,' the horse, became unmanageable. Turner,
the coachman, was thrown from the box ; my father,
in attempting to reach the box and recover the
reins, was jerked out, falling on his head ; and my
grandfather in attempting to get out behind caught
his foot in the step, and fell heavily on the ground.
When my father recovered his senses and went to
his assistance, he was insensible. He was lifted up
and carried to the house of a kind old Quaker hard
by, and never left that house alive. Well do I
remember standing with my mother and sister at
the gate waiting the arrival of the travellers, but the
carriage which drove down the hill at headlong speed
was not theirs ; it was that of the good old Quaker,
Mr. Brewen. He gently led my mother inside, and
then they reappeared and drove off to Halesowen,
where he installed my mother ; and telling his
daughter and his niece to pack up clothes for a
short absence, had the horses put to his carriage,
and left the house, writing a short note to explain
that as rooins would be required for the doctor and
the relations, he had thought it desirable to advance
by a few days an intended journey, and he placed
his house entirely at the disposal of the Taylor
family. My grandfather breathed his last on the
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TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH, 15
23rd June, his sons standing around him, and I, a
lad, among them. It was my first experience of
death. How many dear ones have I watched
breathe their hast since !
I should mention that the death of my grand-
mother took place in 1823.
The eldest son, born in 1779, was called John
after his father. His mother encouraged his boyish
taste for mechanical pursuits by giving him mathe-
matical instruments and a turning lathe, thus de-
termining his career. At the early age of nineteen,
after a training as land surveyor, friends who wer^
shareholders in the ' Wheal Friendship ' mine near
Tavistock, struck by his intelligence, judgment,
and integrity, placed that important concern under
his management, and sent him to Tavistock. This
was the beginning of the career in which he attained
such eminence as a mining engineer.
In Cornwall he became acquainted with A.
Woolfe, a self-taught engineer ; they worked together
with others in producing that splendid mechanical
invention, the Cornish pumping engine. It is much
to be regretted that Mr. Taylor did not continue
the publication of his * Records of Mining.' Only one
volume appeared (1829) ; had it been continued, we
should have had accounts of the i^rogress of mining
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16 A MEMOIR OF THE
in Cormvall, and of his own labours. Though no
mention of Woolfe and Taylor is found in English
mechanical and industrial dictionaries, in the
French.' Annales des Mines' Mr. Taylor is named
as a high authority, and he was held in much
esteem by MM. Elie de Beaumont, Dufresnoy,
and by the celebrated Baron von Humboldt.
Mr. Woolfe was the inventor of high-pressure
steam worked expansively.
The first tunnel executed in England for the
Tavistock canal through Morwel Down in 1806 was
made under the direction of Mr. Taylor.
He wrote little ; a few articles in the * Philoso-
phical Magazine ' are all that I can mention.
In 1805 John Taylor married a sister of Captain
Daniel Bring, R.N., whose family resided at Ivedon
Pen, near Honiton. This proved a most happy union
for himself, and a source of happiness to the whole
Taylor family. My uncles and kinsmen held strong
opinions, but were not very tolerant of others doing
the same ; the serene temper and supreme goodness
of Mrs. Taylor softened all asperities, and for long
years she was the peacemaker, the gentle adviser of
her numerous relations.
In 1812 John Taylor quitted Cornwall and
joined his brother Philip in establishing large
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TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 17
chemical works at Stratford near Bow, London.
Both brothers were good practical chemists, and
they contributed to raise the character of that
branch of manufactures, then in a very rude state. ,
The firm subsequently added mechanical engineering
to their other pursuits, but as competent judges
considered John Taylor the best metallurgist in the
country, and as he was strongly attached to his
first profession, mining, he left his brother and
devoted himself exclusively to that.
The ' Consolidated Mines ' near Redruth, and
many others in Cornwall and Devonshire, wore
placed under his direction ; in 1820 and following
years he undertook the management of the vast
mineral property of the Duke of Devonshire, of
Earl Grosvenor hi North Wales, and of Greenwich
Hospital in Cumberland.
In 18'24 his frequent friendly intercourse with
Baron von Humboldt led him to form a sanguine
opinion of the mineral wealth to l)e found in
Mexico. A company was formed for the purpose
of working the mines of Real del Monte, the property
of the Conde de Regla. Immense expectations were
raised; the shares ran up to an unjustifiable height
in spite of the warnings of Mr. Taylor.
Here I must mention a line trait in John Taylor's
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18 A MEMOIR OF THE
character. He was often urged by kind friends to
make use of his special knowledge so as to profit by
the fluctuations of the market, and to realise a
fortune ; these friends even offered to act for him,
that his name might not appear. * I am an agent,
not a speculator,' was his invariable answer. Pity
that his unostentatious rectitude has so few followers !
To return to Mexico. The Board of Directors
soon found the difficulty of working mines in a
foreign, a distant, an uncivilised country. Agents,
engineers, Cornish captains had to be sent out ; no
control could be exercised over them, and they soon
got to loggerheads. The roads were scarcely
practicable, the Mexican officials did their part
in promoting disorder, and finally the English
company gave up the undertakuig, which subse-
quently, in the hands of other parties managing it
on the spot, had great success. I well remember
as a boy seeing the engines, pumps, and boilers at
my father's works, all made in detached pieces, not
one of which was to exceed a mule's load. All these
had to be abandoned after the costly journey , but
orders from head-quarters were months on their
way in those days, before steam and electricity had
conquered distance, and very gi-eat losses must have
been the result.
■'. a.U'.
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 19
This untoward termination was a sore grief to
Mr. Ta3^1or ; his efforts, however, were not unappre-
ciated by the shareholders, as they made him a
present of the vahiable collection of minerals
brought together by Dr. Babington at a cost of six
hundred guineas, and home business had mean-
while been successful.
In 1823 an odd adventure befell my uncle. He
was going down to Exeter by the mail coach,
bowling along merrily at ten miles an hour, when
at midnight a tremendous roar was heard, and
some huge creature sprang on the leaders of the
team ; this proved to be nothing less than a royal
Bengal tiger escaped from a wild beast show. The
red-coated guard unslung his blunderbuss, not quite
sure how to use it, when the keepers made their
appearance, and with nets and tackle secured the
ferocious but valuable animal. I was at my uncle's
house when he came home and thrilled us by his
description of the scene.
This same year Mr. Taylor was erecting some
splendid water wheels for the Mold mines in I'lint-
shire, of which he w^as manager ; and he took a
delightful house, Coed Du, in the neighbourhood.
Many foreigners and many Englishmen of the by-
gone generation long remembered the genial and
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20 A MEMOIK OF THE
unaffected hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor.
Here is a letter from one of their guests, whose
striking features and charming manner I well
remember : —
35 Bury Street, St. James's.
' My dear Sir, — At my departure from Coed Du
I was not able fully to express to you and to Mrs.
Taylor my gratitude for all the kindness you were
pleased to show me during the happy time I passed
in your house, and I thought to bury in silence
those feelings for which I could find but insufficient
expression. However, being returned to this town,
and recapitulating in my memory every hour I en-
joyed since my absence from London, the recollec-
tion of your house and family must again and again
occur to my mind, and prevails upon me to address
you once more on this subject, though I am aware
of how little moment my thanks may be to you.
For you are accustomed to see everybody around
you happy, and indebted to you for their happiness
— the peasants, whose barren ground you have
changed into a fruitful garden, as well as your
happy children ; i^nd accordingly you do not want
to hear repeated by a stranger the same feelings
which they may better and more properly express to
you. But I myself cannot forbear uttering what
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. , 21
SO strongly and most heartily I feel : restrained
since long within the rules of ceremony, deprived of
a familiarity to ^Yhich I was accustomed before this
journey, in short, after having been a stranger
amongst strangers, I was received in your house
like a friend. Absent for the first time from
home and from my family, I had at least the
pleasure of witnessing a happiness which at a
former period of my life I shared myself. Those
are the enjoyments which I owe to your and
l\Irs. Taylor's kindness, and I never shall forget
them.
'If I should be so happy as to meet in my
native land with you and your sons, or with any of
your friends, I sincerely hope to find an opportunity
of proving how much I feel indebted to you.
' Believe me, my dear sir,
' Yours very truly,
« Felix Mendelssohn Bartuoldy.'
Always anxious to help his fellow-workers, my
uncle was actively employed in 18'29 in the promo-
tion of a mining school in Cornwall ; this institution,
the Polytechnic Society, I am glad to say, still con-
tinues. In 1825 Mr. Taylor had been elected
a member of the Royal Society ; he was one of the
,. ■{.
22 A MEMOIR OF THE
earliest members of the Geological Society, and its
treasurer, 181G- 44.
The first council of the British Association for
the Promotion of Science was held at his house
in Bedford Bow in 1832. Babbage, Brunei,
Davis Gilbert, Forbes, Vigors, Dr. Buckland, the
Rev. William Vernon Harcourt were among those
present, and Mr. Taj'lor was at once chosen trea-
surer, a post he occupied till 1860, when advancing
years compelled him to retire from his honourable
labours. His descendants cherish the noble testi-
monial then given him by the council of the British
Association.
A full-length portrait of Mr. Taylor was painted
by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and presented to him by
seventy friends, shareholders in his various under-
takings ; this picture was unfortunately destroyed
l)y fire in his son's house.
He was an active promoter of the London
University, and for many years its treasurer.
His love of mechanical inventions never abated.
He took great interest in Jordan's wood-carving ma-
chinery ; but though that invention was charming,
witness the splendid carvings in the House of Lords,
the financial results were such that the company
had to be wounji up. Mr. Trollope recently told me
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 23
he had the plant in his workshops in Pimlico. My
uncle was himself a very skilful worker in wood ; he
always had a supply of beautiful tools, and his
dexterity with the turning lathe was very remark-
able.
In 1863, at the age of 83, his honourable and
useful life ended. I have attempted to sketch his
public career, and to note his high moral standard.
He was succeeded in his business by his two
sons John and Eichard, both now dead. The firm
is still carried on, under the old-established name of
John Taylor & Sons, by the grandchildren of its
founder.
Of Mr. Taylor's daughters, Anne, the eldest,
married Philip Worsley, an active partner in Whit-
bread's brewery ; his i)hilanthropy and rectitude are
well known. Their eldest son is a large chemical
manufacturer near Bristol ; another son has taken
his father's place in Whitbread's brewery, and one
daughter married a lioscoe, a member of the family
which is known both in the world of letters and of
science.
Susan, the second daughter, married Edward
Eigby, M.D., a highly successful physician in
London, and brother of the accomplished Lady
Eastlake.
Ki.T . r I
// ■i^y,U
24 A :\IEMOIR OF THE
/
Honora, the third daughter, became the wife o
Edward Enfield, for many years an officer of the
Eoyal Mint.
These live children of my uncle John, the play-
mates of my boyhood, are all gone. I, the wayworn
hermit of the Mas d'Azil, remain behind, finding
some pleasure in retracing their lives, at the risk even
of being called garrulous. I hold, too — is it a mere
hobby ? — that records of the beginnings of middle -
class families from which our bankers, traders,
manufacturers, engineers have sprung, our men of
letters and of arts, must be of interest not only to
their descendants, but to the future historian, who
desires to relate how the * arts of peace ' grew, and
by what individual efforts that growth was stimu-
lated.
The second son of Mr. John Taylor, Eichard, was
born in 1781. He settled in London as a printer,
and was the friend and patron of Koenig, of printing-
press fame. Richard was a man of literary and
scientific attainments, and he was largely employed
in printius works in the dead languages and on
scientific subjects, and as editor of the 'Philoso-
phical Magazine ' he became known to most of the
scientific men in Europe. He was a Liberal —
almost a Radical— in politics; he had a love of
... .- 1
-J" ■
J '■•i •■■J
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 25
being in opposition ; he was, however, a very useful
member of the City of London Common Council
for many years, and was held in high esteem.
"^ He was a fine portly gentleman, and was thus
alluded to in ' Punch ' : —
When Corporal Taylor stalks the street
A walking corporation.
He had some difficulty in sitting through the
tedious civic banquet and still more tedious
speeches, but at last he acquired the art of taking
a nap during the most trying periods. This habit
he carried into private life, and I well remember,
at a dinner party at one of my aunts', her saying,
'Eichard, will you take tart or pudding?' and then
a tremendous rap on the table, and a stentorian
voice saying ' Chair, chair ! order, order,' as he
woke up from his slumber.
He lived to be threescore and ten.
Edward, the third son, born in 1784, was a
remarkably fine-looking man, with a deep bass voice
and an ardent love of music ; he was deeply versed
in the history of music, and as Gresham Professor
he achieved great success. An unflinching Liberal,
an advocate of Parliamentary reform, he attended
meetings in Norfolk and Suffolk to uphold his
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26 A MEMOIR OF THE
views, speaking well and boldly. The Government
of the day had their eye on him. Once at a public
meeting he pointed to a man, and said : * That is a
spy sent down by Lords Sidmoutb and Castlereagh ;
he is welcome to tell them all 1 say.' He was
spoken of in Parhament as ' a dangerous man,' but
n the House of Lords Lord Albemarle, in the
Commons ^Ir. Coke and Mr. William Smith, stood
forth as his defenders, asking for proof of the
assertions made, and declaring their intimacy with
him. Some time later the informer Fayerman
quarrelled with his employers, and published a
letter, with a complete account' of the transaction.
My uncle was constantly holding intercourse with
the leading \Vhigs, Sir Francis Burdett, Whitbread,
Cobbett, and others. He dined with the Earl of
Albemarle, meeting H.K.H. the Duke of Sussex, the
Duke of Norfolk, Sir F. Burdett, Mr. Coke, &c. He
dined with the Duke of Sussex in London, and on
one occasion being seated in front of a blazing fire
fainted away. The Tory papers got hold of the
incident and attributed it to the Duke's wine.
In 182-4 Mr. Taylor took a prominent part 'in
promoting and organising the Norwich festivals.
For the first festival he made the entire selection,
he engaged all the performers, he chose the band,
t.'i.Aii.:
.1 1) ■ :j:
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i:1
. I
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 27
and trained the choral society. Every oratorio
brought out at these festivals till 1847 was trans-
lated and prepared by him. Among the number
will be found Spohr's ' Last Judgment,' * The Cru-
cifixion,' * The Fall of Babylon,' Mozart's * Redemp
tion,' Schneider's ' Deluge,' and many others.
My uncle made the acquaintance of Spohr on
the occasion of a visit to Mendelssohn and his
family at Diisseldorf, and became his intimate
friend. He held him in high esteem, and placed
him in the foremost rank of great musicians.
When I looked at his stolid German countenance
and burly frame, I felt some difficulty in believing
him to be a great composer, but my uncle placed
Spohr in the first rank of great musical writers. It
was in 1830 that Taylor persuaded his friend to
write ' The Fall of Babylon.'
Besides the Norwich festivals, my uncle was
present at t^liose held at Oxford, Salisbury, Derby,
Liverpool, and York.
He joined his brother Philip in London in 1827
in the engineering factory in the City Eoad ; but
not relinquishing his musical pursuits, was elected
Gresham Professor of Music in 1837, and held that
post till 1863, when he died at Brentwood on the
12th of March.
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28 A MEMOIR OF THE
Mr. E. Taylor married, in 1808, Miss Deborah
Newson, of Norwich. By her he was the father of
three children : John Edward, Kate, Margaret.
John Edward had a highly cultivated mind and
strong literary tastes. He died comparatively
young, leaving a family of four children. His wife,
Meta Dochow, has published translations from the
German. Their son, Fairfax Taylor, is one of the
clerks in the House of Lords ; he, too, writes well
on various subjects.
Lucy, the eldest daughter, married Mr. Markby,
a judge of the' High Court at Calcutta for twelve
years, and now holding a distinguished position at
Oxford. Kate married Alfred Currey, grandson of
Mr. Benjamin Currey, Clerk of the Parliaments in
1848, but for one day only, as he died shortly after
his appointment.
The fourth son of Mr. Taylor of Norwich was
my father, Philip, born in 1786. His life and
career, with which mine is so mingled, I shall
narrate later, and I therefore pass on to the fifth
son, Arthur, also born at Norwich in 1790. In
his early life he was in partnership with his brother
Richard, but they soon separated. Arthur set up
on his own account, and became printer to the
City of London. His favourite study was archa^o-
<:'-!, ! I
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'1 ■ ■ ■ . I i
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 29
logy. He was a member of the Society of Anti-
quaries, and among the results of his studies was
the pubheatiou of ' The Glory of Piegality.' He
married, in 1824, Miss Emily Lane.
The following anecdote illustrates the ardour of
his taste and temper. On his way to Italy he paid
a visit to my parents at Marseilles. On his way he
strayed hito Autun, the ancient Augustodunum,
founded by the Phoinicians, seat of the Druids,
capital of the /Edui— what a Held of exploration for
an anti(piarian ! so no sooner arrived at Marseilles
than with no word of explanation he disappeared
for three weeks, to our great anxiety. However,
back he came from this trip one morning, and
finding my father going out to look at a field just
purchased, Arthur went with him. Workmen were
turning the ground, to prepare for irrigation pipes,
when they came on some broken bits of tiles. My
uncle pounced on these, scraped them, tasted them,
declared them to be of the Roman period, and
placed them in safety to await further investigation.
He begged my father to have further excavations
made, and then continued his journey to Italy.
Meanwhile my father ascertained from an old
peasant that the spot was formerly a brick-held, and
as the irrigation works went on, this became more
•;'jilf'
30 A MEMOIE OF THE
certain, and the hoard of tiles was dismissed to the^
rubbish-heap. But the first visit of my uncle on
his return was to the ' Roman tiles.' He asked my
father in sharp tones what had become of these
precious relics ; and before the answer had ex-
plained why they were thrown away, he burst out
with * You're a Goth, sir,' walked back to the
house, packed his portmanteau, and leaving a note
to say he would send for it, went to Marseilles, and
started for England, whilst we were waiting break-
fast for him. It required long letters of apology,
and the gentle influence of mother, with whom he
was a great favourite, to calm down this irascible
* Monkbarns.'
Besides five sons, Mr. John Taylor had two
daughters. The eldest, Susan, born in 1788, was
married in 1807 to Henry Reeve, Esq. M.D. His
death at the early age of thirty-four was thus
alluded to by Dr. Sayers in the ' Norwich Mercury ' :
' Besides his acquirements in classical and other
literature, Dr. Reeve became well versed in the
primary object of his pursuit, and was no mean
proficient in the collateral studies of chemistry and
natural history.' His duties in private life were no
less happily discharged than those of his profession ;
his mind was open, generous, lively, simple, and
:;i. Yt; I; • i -c
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 31
affectionate ; and those to whom he was united, as
a relation or a friend, will ever turn with melan-
choly complacence to the remembrance of his faith-
ful and active attachment, of his cheering conversa-
tion, and of his valuable accomplishments.
Two children of the marriage, Susan and
Wallace, died in their infancy. Henry, born in
1813, was henceforth the sole object of his widowed
mother's care. She went to reside at Geneva for
his education ; there she found friends of her hus-
band, and there- her son came to know the De la
Rives, the Candolles, Sismondis, De Roches, the
families Lombard, Binet, Ilentsch, Maunoir, Roget.
Mrs. Reeve was loved and valued by her
Genevese friends as she deserved to be. Courage,
good sense, refined tastes, and simple habits were
her most marked characteristics. To her last hour
she preserved undiminished the love for her husband
so early taken from her, whilst proud of the career
of his son. She died in 18G4, aged 70.
Early in life Mr. Henry Reeve began his career
as a man of letters. His natural gifts, aided by an
education carried on at Geneva, Munich, and Paris,
seemed to point in this direction. His lirst work
was a translation of ' Democracy in America ' from
the French, and he became the close friend of its
32 A MEMOIR OF THE
authors, Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de
Beaumont. Then came translations of Guizot's
writings.
The Marquis of Lansdowne, whose acquaint-
ance he made through his aunt, Mrs. Austin, was
struck by Henry Reeve, and gave him a place in the
office of the Privy Council, and for fifty years he
has held the office of Registrar of the Judicial Com-
mittee. On the retirement of Sir George Cornewall
Lewis, who was appointed Chancellor of the Exche-
quer in 1855, Mr. Reeve was appointed to the
editorship of the 'Edinburgh Review,' to which his
father had been, in 1802, one of the earliest contri-
butors.
Sarah, the youngest daughter and last child of
John Taylor, was born in 1793. She married John
Austin, the well-known writer on jurisprudence.
Sarah Austin was a well-known figure among
the cultivated women of the first half of this century.
She was endowed with great intellectual powers,
which her education had developed ; she. had rare
social talents, great beauty, and astonishing industry.
Her first important work was a translation of Prince
Puclvler Muskau's ' Book of Travels in England ; '
then came a translation of Ranke's ' History of the
Popes.' When the author received Mrs. Austin's
^■£
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH 33
translation, he wrote to her that, after reading it,
he felt obliged to retranslate his own work into
German — a rare tribute of approbation, coming from
such a man. She wrote various books on Germany,
yet always found time to help her husband in his
learned and abstruse labours. She was a frequent
guest at Bowood and at Lansdowne House. She
had many friends in Germany, whilst in her salon
in Paris she received the leading men of the day
— Guizot, ]\[ignet, Barthtlemy St.-Hilaire, the
poet Auguste Barbier, Victor Cousin, Count and
Countess de Circourt, the Say family, Madame
de Peyronnet, Auguste Comte, and others.
Of Victor Cousin, the philosopher, I must relate
an anecdote. We had been with my aunt to ?^,fcte at
St. -Cloud, and on our way home M. Cousin under-
took to sing a ballad describing a visit of a Parisian
to this popular fair. With expressive gesture and
hands clasped over his breast, he carolled forth—
Et mon coeur 6tait pris aux filets de St. -Cloud.
Though a boy when I heard this, I still see his
saturnine countenance, and hear his chuckles at
the joke implied ; for the nets are also those of the
police stretched across the Seine to catch the unfor-
tunates who seek to commit suicide.
D
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34 A MEMOIR OF THE
In each of her residences, London, Bonn, Dres-
den, and Paris, Mrs. Austin succeeded, though with
very Hmited pecuniary means, in attracting the
most cultivated society to her house.
She was honoured by the friendship of Helena,
Duchess of Orleans, and the sons of that admu-able
princess, the Comte de Paris and the Due de
Chartres, inspired her with the deepest interest and
regard.
In 1834 Mr. Cornewall Lewis and Mr. John
Austin were sent as Royal Commissioners to exa-
mine into the state of Malta. Mrs. Austin accom-
panied her husband, and the trio passed a few days
at my father's at Marseilles, waiting the arrival of
the ' Vernon.' That ship, then the crack frigate of
n.M. navy, had to work up against contrary winds,
and when she arrived was in quarantine ; so the
captain requested the Royal Commissioners to em-
bark without delay. All was in confusion at this
sudden departure, and the washerwoman had not
sent back the linen. Mr. Austin, who rarely
smiled, and issued his mandates in stern and brief
sentences, stood in the hall, and in a stentorian
voice thundered forth : ' What does the woman
mean ? Go and icrcst the things from her.' Well
I remember the scene.
'^^fy~',f If.
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TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 35
\
I cannot tell what were the labonrs of the two
clever commissioners, but I know that thirty years
after, when I had to transact some complicated in-
surance business with the agent in Malta, I casually
asked the lawyer if he recollected my uncle Mr. John
Austin. ' ^^^lat ! ' he replied, ' are you the nephew of
Mrs. Sarah Austin, whose name is so honoured and
revered in Malta, and who has left such marks of
her presence amongst us '? You her nephew, and
not at once say so ! ' ' 2347378
My business was transacted with the greatest
facility, and I passed some pleasant days with the
old friends of my aunt.
Curiously enough, I renewed acquaintance with
H.M.S. • Vernon ' the other day (1884) at Ports-
mouth, when I was the guest of my old friend
Captain Drury of the 'Excellent.' The ' Vernon ' is
now the torpedo school ship, and was commanded
by another old friend. Captain Markham, of Arctic
renown.
Mr. Austin suffered from attacks of hypochon-
driasis, which interfered with his completing his
writings on law and jurisprudence. His lectures
were, however, very remarkable, and he was much
occupied with the reform of legal procedure. At
, Mr. Austin's death, his papers, including the
D 2
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36 A MEMOIR OF THE
preparatory notes, were in sad confusion ; bis
willow undertook the task of arranging and
putting them into shape for pubhcation, and, as the
' Times ' said in a review of the work, never did wife
raise a nobler monument to the memory of her
husband— it may be added, nor show her- own re-
markable literary power.
Mr. Austin's brother Charles was the celebrated
parliamentary counsel.
John Austin died in 18G5, and my aunt in 1867
at the age of 73. Their only child, Lucy, beautiful
and accomphshed, was well known in society as the
wife of Sir Alexander Duff Gordon, Bart. She too
translated and wrote. ' The Amber Witch,' ' Letters
from the Cape,' and ' Letters from Egypt ' are
favourite books with all who have read them.
Failing health took her to Africa, and among strange
races and stranger ways she showed her sym-
pathetic nature, learning theii- language, studying
their manners, helping them in their troubles.
Poor Prevost-Paradol speaks of her conduct when
a pestilence broke out on the banks of the Nile : ill
as she was herself, she stood forth among the terror-
stricken population as doctor, nurse, consoler, and
her noble self-sacrifice was repaid by the devotion of
the Arab tribes.
Lady Duff Gordon died at Thebes in 18G9,
' . J- . ^ '.■■•' '.; !■
1 . ' ( ;
,..■> ");'»
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICIL 37
Sir Alexander in 1872. lie was succeeded by
their son Maurice, born 1849. Janet, the eldest
daughter, married Henry Ross 18(30, and lives in
Italy, where, like her mother, she loves to study and
describe the habits and dialects of the peasantry.
Urania, the youngest child, who was brought up by
her great-aunt, Miss Charlotte Austin, died in her
sixteenth year.
I now revert to the children of Eichard and
Margaret Taylor (born Meadows). The fourth son,
Meadows, lived at Diss, and succeeded his uncle,
Philip Meadows, as a solicitor. His grandson,
Francis Taylor, was elected in 1885 to represent
the Diss division of the county of Norfolk in the
House of Commons.
The lifth son, Samuel, lived at New Buckenham,
in Norfolk, and devoted himself to agriculture. His
neighbours looked up to him as a practical farmer,
and his journals of farming operations are quoted
with high praise in the ' British Farmer's Magazine.'
It is interesting to note some of his facte. In 1779
the Norfolk labourer received a shilling a day and a
pint of beer. In 1770 it was usual to sow six
pecks of wheat per acre ; now on Lord Leicester's
and Lord Western's land at least three bushels are
sown or drilled. In the disastrous year 1800
wheat fetched 6/. 10s. per quarter ; in 1803 an
, l.ti .•>;( »
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38 A MEMOIR OF THE
abundant harvest sent down the price to 21. lis. ;
in 1818 the tod (28 lbs.) of wool sold for 4/. 4s.,
that is, 3s. a pound.
Mr. Samuel Taylor lost his wife in 1795.
Though only thirty-four, she was the mother of
seven children ; and his sisters Margaret and Sarah
henceforth took charge of their education and the
management of his household. Small of stature,
but full of energy, were those prim ladies, with their
precise ideas and modes of life, and rigid views on
the education of children. "Well do I remember
their enforcing them on my juvenile mind when I
was staying at Buckenham, perched up in my small
chair at table. I was given a piece of plum-cake ;
1 pulled out the plums, and made a little heap, to
be able to eat them all together as a honne louche,
and was going on with the dough, when a voice
was heard to say, ' Children must not be greedy,'
and invading my platter with her spoon, my aunt
conveyed the plums to her own mouth. I may
have been wrong, but was she right ?
Samuel Taylor's eldest son — also a Samuel, and
a farmer - took great interest in local politics, wrote
squibs and songs, and was active at elections, of
course on the Whig side. He became manager of
Whitbread's malting establishment, near Thetford.
1 ^ .: !!., -^i.^;' ;f ■■;"!_,!. n.
.'-/.!-■ '■ vi
! .• I .
!^ , ,1 :■;'' k/ . '^■'■'''' M
TAYLOE FAMILY OF NORWICH. 39
Mr. S. Taylor married Miss Newson, but of this
raarriage there was no issue.
The third son, Eiehard CowUng Taylor, born in
1789, was brought up to be a land surveyor. He
was a first-rate geologist, and constantly associated
with Mr. William Smith, the father of English
geology. But before railroad enterjirise existed,
there was little employment for a man like him ;
and just before Stephenson's genius opened up a
career for civil engineers, E. C. Taylor accepted a
mining post in the United States. Pity he should
have quitted England, for, besides his professional
acquirements, he was no mean antiquarian. His
' Index Monasticus of the Diocese of Norwich and
the Kingdom of East Anglia ' is a work of great
research, and was thus acknowledged by Sir Walter
Scott:—
Edinburgh, 16th April, 1821.
' Without such a work the study of history is a
labyrinth without a clue ; while, on the contrary,
the guidance which your work affords facilitates at
once the acquisition of truth and the detection of
error." I remain, with a deep sense of obligation,
' Sir,
' Your very obedient servant,
' Walter Scott.'
40 A MEMOIR OF THE
In 1848, Mr. E. C. Taylor, then living at
Philadelphia, published his important work on the
statistics of coal. He collected and classified all
the information from all parts of the world on this
subject, reducing the various weights and measures
to English standards. To proprietors of mines and
collieries this work is essential for reference and in-
formation, whilst to the general reader it is full of
interest as giving an account of what forms the
basis of the industrial prosperity of each country.
He was a member of various learned societies in
Europe and America. His death took place
whilst carrying out some surveying operations near
Chagres.
Mr. R. C. Taylor married, in 1820, Miss
Errington, of Great Yarmouth. There were four
daughters of this marriage.
Thomas, the fourth son of Samuel Taylor, was
a sufferer from poor health, and sought the climate
of the south of France and then of Pisa, where he
died in 1838.
Edgar, the fifth son, was a lawyer. I quote
from the ' Legal Observer,' 1839, the following
eulogium : —
' To his professional talents it is not easy to do
justice. He was a man of a very acute mind, and
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 41
/remarkable for his foresight and generalship. His
o^Yn personal practice was principally in the equity
courts. In the early stages of the most complicated
suit he dehghted to look for^Yard and to provide for
contingencies which could not occur till the cause
had advanced to stages requiring years to arrive at.
His memory was such that, on the contingency
taking place, he had the whole previous arrangement
in his mind. Though latterly the suits under his
charge were very numerous, yet he always bore
the particulars of each in his mind : the object of
the suit, the parties to it, and the state in which it
was. He rarely had to give two readings to any
cause, however long its duration. Altogether, a
man better fitted to the management of the most
extensive business, even in its minutest details, can
scarcely be conceived.'
To this notice of his professional talents I must
add my tribute to his generous nature and his true
friendship. When my father was attacked by a
company ready to sacrifice an honest man to their
greed, Edgar came to his help, unravelled the web
they sought to spin round their victim, and finally
triumphed over his assailants, and showed my dear
father's character to be unl^lemished.
Mr. Edgar Taylor's professional labours, heavy
42 A MEMOIR OF THE
as they were, did not preclude his indulging his
strong hterary tastes. In 1833 he published ' The
Book of Plights,' a digest of constitutional law from
Magna Charta downwards. He was an accomplished-
antiquarian and a fine Greek scholar ; in his will
he leaves to his widow his manuscript translation
of Griesbach's edition of the New Testament. He
was a great lover of German literature. Children
delighted in his ' German Popular Tales,' older
readers in his ' German Minnesingers,' his transla-
tion of Master Wace's Chronicles of the Norman
Conquest, from the * Eoman de Ron,' His anony-
mous contributions to periodical literature, legal,
theological, literary, were very numerous. I here
break off to give another letter from Sir Walter
Scott.
' I have to return my best thanks for the very
acceptable present your goodness has made me in
your interesting volume of German tales and tra-
ditions. I have often wished to see such a work
undertaken by a gentleman of taste sufficient to
adapt the simplicity of the German narrative to our
own, which you have done so successfully.'
I have heard my father say that Lord Brougham,
then Chancellor, tried to induce Edgar Taylor to
enter public life. Several reasons were given for his
':. Ui'
"I'l r ''i;!'i
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 43
refusal ; that he gave my father was, he did not
wish to he tied to the tail of a comet.
Edgar Ta3dor married in 1823 Anne, daughter
of S. Christie, Esq., a wealthy merchant. It was
said that, after the engagement was declared, Mr.
Christie sustained great losses from speculations
in indigo, and friends of Mr. E. Taylor suggested
he should throw over the lady; Edgar's answer was,
' I marry the lady, not her fortune.'
Mr. Edgar Taylor's health, always infirm, gave
serious cause for anxiety in 1832, and in 1839 he
died. His industry was never checked, whatever
his hodily sufferings miglit he. His memory is held
in honour by all who knew him. His widow sur-
vived him, and there was one daughter.
A sister, Jane, married Mr. John Martineau,
later on a partner of my father. Another sister,
Emily, was herself an authoress and a poet.
Her ' England and its People,' for children, a
volume of poems selected with great taste, as welj
as some of her own composition, are well known,
and in her correspondence with my mother I find
proofs of her reading, her taste, and her judgment
of literary subjects. Emily Taylor died in 1873.
.^■'■T'.j)
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44 A MEMOIR OF THE
PART 11.
My father, Philip Taylor, the fourth son of John
and Susannah Taylor of Norwich, was born in 1786,
and received his earliest training under the eye of ■
his excellent mother. He was, after due considera-
tion, educated for the medical profession, and at
fifteen he was sent down to live with his brother
John at Tavistock, and to study surgery and
medicine under Dr. Harness, a relation of Mrs.
John Taylor. From London, where he stopped on
his way to Cornwall, he writes to his mother that
he had breakfasted with Mr. Denman, had been to
the theatre, but disapproved of the play, which was
one of Lewis's, and that Mrs. Jordan had not a
proper part assigned to her. I do not understand
why my father was not articled to one of his
kinsmen, distinguished surgeons in Norwich ; his
medical education under Dr. Harness was very
desultory, and he took more interest in the mineral
and engineering works of Taylor and Wolffe than in
Dr. Harness's surgery, and after, a few years re-
turned to Norwich. There he joined Mr. Fitch in
a large business as chemist and druggist, and set
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TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 45
up a factory for making ^YOoden pill-boxes by
machinery ; and in 181'2, in concert with his brother,
he started chemical works at Stratford in Essex.
Some capitalists were associated with the Taylor
brothers : 1 infer from letters now in my possession
that the Eicardos were among them.
A fine field seemed opened to practical chemists,
for the manufacture of ' chemicals ' was in a very
rudimentary state. John Taylor gave his attention
chiefly to metallurgical chemistry, Philip to the
mechanical side, notably to the reorganisation of
apparatus. The inventive spirit of these young
men was sometimes held in check by their moneyed
partners, as may be inferred from a note at the
foot of an elaborate notice on the manufacture of
oil of vitriol (now called sulphuric acid) in 1815 : —
184G. — These experiments were made by me imme-
diately after Davy had published his theory of the
formation of sulphuric acid. My reasoning on the
subject was better than the apparatus at my command,
and yet my apparatus was better than the partners I
had then to deal with ; they not encouraging me, I let
the things drop, and many years after others reaped the
profit and the credit of the process herein suggested.
These checks did not, however, arrest the inven-
tive efforts of the brothers; in 1810 and 1818 my
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46 A MEMOIR OF THE
I
father took out his patent for the apphcation of
high-pressure steam to the purpose of evaporation ;
and about the same time, in concert with his
brother, he Launched the idea and project of using
oil for the production of gas. These inventions
were independent of the chemical factory.
In 1813 my father married Sarah, only daughter
of Eobert Fitch, a surgeon at Ipswich. The Fytche
family in the sixteenth century were owners of
Little Canfield Hall. At the coronation of George II.
William Fytche, lord of the manor of Fingreth,
Essex, claimed the office of Chamberlain to the
Queen on the coronation day, with H.M.'s bed and
furniture as a fee, but this claim was not allowed.
My grandmother's name was Borett. Her brother
had a mechanical genius, and was the inventor of
that apparatus which has become a necessity in the
houses of all civilised countries. It is recorded in
the family that Borett was Artificer to the Royal
Palaces, and that George III. was very fond of
watching him adjust the valves and traps. One night
at the play, the king was in his royal box, Borett
in the pit, when a man sitting next to him started
to his feet and levelled a pistol at the monarch's
head. Borett, seeing the movement, struck up the
madman's arm, and the ball went through the ceil-
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 47
ing. A great uproar ensued ; then His Majesty
came forward, bo^Yed to the excited audience, and
in a loud voice said, ' Tliank you, Borett ; thank ye,
thank ye.' In France a decoration and a coat of
arms would have been given Borett, with heraldic
pistols, pistons and pans, * armes parlantes,' as the
phrase goes.
In the year 1815 my father settled at Bromley
near Bow, and soon after I was born, a sister being
the first child.
Three events marked the four years of my
infancy : the first misadventure was near akin to
sacrilege ; the second well-nigh sent me to an early
grave ; the third was a charge of murder and the
loss of a fortune. Number one was at my christen-
ing, which took place in our drawing-room on
account of my mother's health being delicate.
After the service there was to be 'a tea.' The
servant brought in an urn with boiling water, but
the pastor, who was seated near my mother, and
who was very near-sighted, jumped up, said, * Ah !
here comes the dear child again,' and threw his
arms round the scalding urn — a loud howl was the
result. The second was my being taken out driving
by my cousins ; they were discussing what road they
should take, but not minding that on which they
iA
1 V
48 A MEMOIR OF THE
were driving — result, an upset, and little Phil being
pitched ou his head on the sharp angle of a broken
stone step. It was touch and go with little Phil,
and who knows whether the * arraignee dans son
plafond ' does not date from that day ?
My third adventure was indeed tragical. There
dwelt in Abingdon Street an old aunt of my mother,
the widow of an Indian colonel. Mrs. Robertson
had ample means, was very fond of her niece, and
very kind to her little • great-nephew.' I often
was taken to the house and allowed to sit up at the
dinner-table. Mrs. Robertson's hall was adorned
with Indian trophies ; there were tigers' heads with
real eyes, there were skins of all manner of ferocious
beasts ; but among these dead creatures, slain by
the defunct Colonel, there was one living creature,
the favourite of his mistress. Now either Poll was
jealous of me, or he had a special love of my small
white legs ; for one day as I toddled upstah-s chng-
ing to my mother, and trembling at the big game,
Poll, without one warning croak, sprang at my
uncovered calf. Frantic with pain and fright, I
clutched his neck, and over we rolled to the foot of
the stairs. I was picked up and taken to the kitchen,
where my tears were dried, my hands washed, and
many caresses were lavished. No caresses could
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NOEWICH. 41>
bring Poll to life, but as the noise had not reached
the dining-room I took my seat as if nothing had
occurred. Now my great-aunt's butler * Smart '
was a surly fellow, not approving small boys and
their ways. On this particular day Smart's shoes
creaked, his mistress complained, he growled out
he * couldn't help new shoes creaking,' and there
was a tilf, then a silence, and Mrs. Eobertson asked
to have ' her pretty Poll ' brought in. No answer.
Then she turned to Smart. ' Where is Poll ? ' 'Ask
young master,' the fellow cried, with a hideous
grin, and the murder was out. The old lady looked
aghast for a moment, then collecting her ideas she
said, ' CaU a coach.' The coach came, she pointed
to the door, and in solemn tones gave sentence :
* Madam, I allow no murderers in my house,' My
frightened mother hauled me away, and she left,
never to re-enter the house. Mrs. Eobertson de-
clined all overtures, and, dying, left her large fortune
to some people named Garlic : they did not come
forward to claim it, and the Crown stepped in.
I return to my father's schemes for gas made
from oils. In 1739, Clayton first drew attention to
the fact that gas for Hghting purposes was to be
obtained from coal; in 1792, Murdoch, who was
Watt's right-hand man, made great advance in
50 A MEMOIR OF THE
the practical application, and lit up his house at
liedruth with gas. The Cornish miners told a
story that Murdoch, who was in the hahit of
carrying a bladder of gas as his lantern, was
waylaid one dark night, on his way to his lonely
house, by highwaymen. He gave the bladder a
squeeze, sent a jet of flame on thek faces, which
singed their whiskers, and then exploded, and
before they could recover from the fright Murdoch
had made good his escape. He had a curious gift
of estimating work, and would say to Mr. Watt,
• Now, sir, you please to see what it comes to with
your figures ; I'll just step down and chalk it out on
a bit of board.' When the results were compared a
discrepancy would appear. ' Ah ! ' paid Murdoch,
' you have figured too fine, sir, you have not taken
into account casualties.'
I must pause here to observe that eighty years
ago the mechanical engineer had none of the
splendid self-acting machines or tools which now
exist. Whitworth, Maudslay, Fox, Nasmyth, had
not yet arisen ; the hammer, the chisel, the file, were
the only implements ; the very lathes were in their
infancy, the slide rest was hardly thought of ; yet
from these rude beginnings sprang the splendid
science of mechanical engineering. I will now
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 51
quote from Mr. Frederic Acciim's work on coal-gas,
of which he was a strong partisan, the following
report (published 1819) : —
Messrs. J. and P. Taylor are the first persons who
have resorted to oil as a substance from which gas lor
illumination can be easily and cheaply prepared. The
apparatus for the purpose is much smaller, much simpler,
and yet equally effectual with the best coal-gas appara-
tus. The retort is a bent cast-iron tube, which is heated
red by a small convenient furnace, and into which oil is
allowed to drop by a very ingenious apparatus ; the oil
is immediately volatilised, and the vapour in traversing
the tube becomes perfectly decomposed ; a mixture of
inflammable gases which contains a great proportion of
defiant gas passes off; it is washed by being passed
through a vessel of water (which dissolves a little sebacic
acid, and which seldom requires changing), and is then
conducted into the gasometer. The facihty and clean-
liness with which gas is prepared from oil in the above
manner may be conceived fi'om the description of the
process. A small furnace is lighted, and a sufficient
quantity of the commonest oil is put into a small iron
vessel; a cock is turned, and the gas, after passing through
water in the washing vessel, goes into the gasholder.
The operation may be stopped by shutting oft' the oil, or
to a certain extent hastened by letting it move freely on ;
the small quantity of charcoal deposited in the retort is
drawn out by a small rake, and the water in the washer
is very rarely changed.
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52 A MEMOIR OF THE
This new process attracted public notice, and
my father visited many towns to plan and erect the
necessary apparatus. Covent Garden Theatre and
several large factories and breweries were lit by this
gas.
The Emperor of Russia ordered the Taylor
apparatus to be used in the Imperial Library at
St. Petersburg, and for a few years its triumph
seemed secure.
Meanwhile, the coal-gas makers saw their
danger, and set to work to improve the process of
manufacture and the system of purifying. They sold
their gas for fifteen shillings the thousand cubic
feet, the oil-gas was charged fifty shillings the
thousand cubic feet, whereas only thii'ty-four
shillings should have been the price, and it should
have been made clear to the public that five
hundred cubic feet of oil-gas gave as much light as
a thousand feet of coal-gas. Five years after the
discovery, in 1823, the battle of the gases took place ;
but the combat was unequal, large companies had
been formed, large sums subscribed to manufactm-e
coal-gas ; applications were made to the House of
Commons for charters, committees of investigation
were formed, the Taylors had to stand alone
against the combination of the wealthy promoters
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TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 53
of these companies, and the engineers and managers
to whom they held out hope of employment, and
they were heaten.
The evidence given on behalf of coal-gas was
hardly honest, but my father accei:)ted the decision
and gave up his plans, consoled to a certain extent
by the sympathy of such men as Brand, Charles
Macintosh, Eicardo, Clement Desormes, the French
chemist, and others.
Now I revert to the patents for the application
of high-pressure steam for evaporating processes,
taken out in 1818. It became desirable to con-
struct the apparatus on their own premises, and
for this purpose the brothers acquired some buildings
in White Cross Street formerly occupied by Koenig.
My father had a high opinion of his printing-
press inventions, and vindicated poor Koenig's
claims in a paper contributed to the ' Philosophical
Magazine ' in October 18-17. John Taylor's real
interest was mining engineering, and, as I have
stated in the sketch of his life, he separated from
my father in 1820.
Up to this period the only known application of
steam to boiling or evaporating purposes was by apply-
ing the vapour to the external surfaces of the vessel
contaming the hquid ; this led to an enormous
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54 A MEMOIR OF THE
waste of caloric. Philip Taylor introduced the steam
in coils of pipes into the body of the liquid. Messrs.
Whitbread at once adopted this plan for their
brewery ; sugar refiners at home, sugar planters
in the West Indies, beetroot sugar growers in
France, applied for the apparatus, recognising its
great superiority to the old processes.
The soap-works of Messrs. B. Hawes were the
scene of a difficulty and a triumph. The curd
completely stopped the passage of the heat by
coagulating round the steam coil. My father was
awake one night turning the matter over ; next
morning he sought the soap-makers, told them the
mode of dealing with the problem, and, with a
promise of secrecy on their part, allowed them to
purchase his invention — a very simple one when
put in practice — a small pipe wdth minute perfora-
tions to allow the escape of steam was introduced
when the soap-curd became too consistent, a jet of
high-pressure steam was injected by the means of
these perforations, and the coil was cleared. That
Messrs. Hawes thought the secret well worth keeping
I had an opportunity for judging in 1833. I called
at the works ; the reception was courteous, but I was
not allowed to see the boilers. Mr. Hawes, however,
asked mo to breakfast with him next day, a pleasure
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TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 55
which was not to be mine, as it turned out. On
Saturday evening I went to Mr. Babbage's conver-
sazione, where, after watching him grind his
calculating machine and explain its functions to
two old maids, I was carried off to speak French
with Lady Morgan, by whose side I took my place,
having Lady King (Lord Byron's daughter) on my
left. Mr. Hawes sauntered past us, and as soon
as it was decorous to move, I followed him ; then
Michael Faraday seized me to ask news of his old
friend, my father. On my return home (that is, to
uncle John's), I found a note from Mr. Hawes
expressing his regret at not being able to receive
me, as he had to leave town suddenly.
A year before uncle John retired a new partner
joined the firm, John, son of John Martineau, one
of the partners in ■\Vhitbread'8 Brewery. My father
writes of this arrangement : ' I can truly say I engage
in my new partnership with every desire to be
happy, and to contribute to the happiness and
prosperity of my comrades, but I may be excused if
I have doubts and fears.' Partners and patents
rarely brought luck to my father.
The premises in White Cross Street were not
large enough for the constantly increasing J^usiness,
and the large factory in the City Eoad was opened.
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56 A MEMOIR OF THE
Bromley House became a centre of attraction for
men of science of all nations ; it was lit with oil-gas,
the laboratory was admirably equipped, and steam
power was at hand for experiments and demonstra-
tions. There were gardens and paddocks, whilst
access to London was made easy by a stage-coach
twice a day. True, there was an Irish colony in
the lanes near, turbulent neighbours, but the
venerable priest who had charge of them was a
French emigre of noble birth, and from him I
learned the rudiments of the language I have
spoken for sixty years ; and I see now his silver
locks as he sat with my mother and heard her read
French, which she too was destined to use in her
daily intercourse for many a long year.
I see, too, the hatchet face of MacAdam, the
road maker ; the cheery countenance of Captain
Mac Arthur, who first introduced sheep into Australia
(Botany Bay in those days) ; and pleasant Charles
Macintosh, my father's chemical crony ; ]\Iichael
Faraday, always modest and retiring, whose Cornish
blood was recognised as well as his genius ; Dr.
Wollaston, who cut jokes at my father's expense,
' a man who pretends to persuade gas to walk
through pipes ; ' Brunei of block-making fame, the
future tunneiler, then struggling with the Admu'alty ;
, •?
* '0 Oi .■■ .1',. •■ ;i:,
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TAYLOR FAMILY OF NOEWICH. 57
Professor Clement Desormes, one of the most
eminent iiractical chemists France has produced ;
Biot the biologist ; Gay Lussac ; Mallet of the Fonts
et Chaussees, afterwards Chief Inspector, who was so
fond of England — he always began his lectm'es with
* Nos voisins d'outremer ; ' Paul Seguin, who made
the first railway in France (Lyon et St.-Etienne),
Baron von Humboldt, and many German professors.
Then there were chance visitors who came to
ask technical advice. On one occasion my father
and a few friends were making experiments with
protoxide of azote, otherwise laughing gas, and a
bladder full with a quid attached was just got ready
when one of these visitors, a future Chief Baron,
came in. He was so interested in the explanation of
its properties that he insisted on trying in person
what were its effects. He took a pull at the bladder,
imbibed a tremendous dose, dropped on all- fours
and careered round the laboratory table. My mother
and I were in the garden, and, hearing a hubbub,
went to see what had happened. My father and bis
friends were frantically pursuing the lawyer, who
was still running round and round on all-fours,
barking like a dog. At last the bladder was wrenched
from his mouth, but hours elapsed before the effects
of the dangerous dose ceased.
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58 A MEMOIR OF THE
Many a tale of those days and those men linger
in my memory. Here is one of Maudslay. In his
youth he was a private in an infantry regiment.
His colonel had scientific tastes and scientific
instruments ; one of these was given hy the nurse
to little master, who dashed it out of the window,
and it fell in pieces before the colonel's eyes, to his
unutterable dismay. The stalwart sentry looked at
the bits, and, saluting, said, ' Weel, colonel, I think I
could set it to rights.' ' You ? ' * Oh yes, colonel, if
you will let me try.' The colonel ordered the
sentry to be relieved, entrusted him with the broken
instrument, and rewarded his skill by obtaining the
soldier's discharge and starting him on that path of
life in which he obtained such eminence.
I must not omit an anecdote of Eennie. He, like
Michael Faraday, was a blacksmith in his youth.
Wlien a successful engineer he was invited by a great
Scotch noble to visit him at his Highland castle.
Mr. Eennie set forth from Edinburgh in a post-
chaise, and was struggling along over the bad roads
of those pre- ]\Iac Adamite days, when he perceived
a carriage which had broken down ; he courteously
invited the two travellers (they also were bound for
the castle) to share his chaise, and on they went. A
rougher road and a deeper rut caused such a jolt that
\
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 59
one of the tires broke. Lucidly a Highland black-
smith was at hand. ' I could mend it, but I have no
one to strike to me.' ' Is that all '? ' said Eennie.
' Come on ; ' and in a minute he had taken off his
coat, tucked up his shirt-sleeves, and with a ' Now,
my man, set on,' was at work. The fastidious young
dandies looked with disgust at their fellow-traveller
blowing the bellows and then lifting the ponderous
hammer and dealing well-directed blows on the red-
hot metal. * 'Gad, man, but ye know ye'r trade,'
quoth the Highland smith. The work was done, on
went the chaise, but no longer did the dandies
converse affably ; indeed, their demeanour became
hardly civil. At length the chaise drew up at the
castle, and out rushed the Duke with both hands ex-
tended, * Ah, Mr. Rennie, how glad I am to see you ! '
The young swells shook their curly heads, and
uttered that society and the constitution were
going to the dogs.
There are stories, too, of French friends. My
mother had sitting on each side at her dinner-table
a great French chemist, when one of her sneezing fits
set in ; up rose each gallant Gaul with his hand on
his heart : ' Dieu vous benisse, madame ! ' and then
a profound bow, further sneezing, ' a vos souhaits,
madame,' and deeper bows, and so on, whilst my
60 A MEMOIR OF THE
father stared at his over-courteous guests, and I,
seated on his knee, made free use of the glass of
port just poured out. Then burly Clement Desormes
would show his friendly feelings by taking my
father in his arms and kissing him on both cheeks.
It was Desormes who, with Brunei, and J, B. Say, the
French ambassador, a frequent visitor to the City
Eoad wor.ks, urged my father to visit France, hold-
ing out hopes that the Government might adopt
oil-gas for public buildings. So in April 1822 my
parents made their first visit to Paris, where
Desormes, Breguet, Arago, Firmin Didot, J. B. Say,
and their wives did everything to make their stay a
pleasant one. My mother spoke French, my father
at the end of fifty years in the country had not
mastered the language. ' Je n'ai jamais connu
personne qui eut eu le don de massacrer le fran9ais
du Roi comme votre bon pere,' said Admiral
Charles Baudin to me one day.
Whilst my father was in Paris he received some
letters from ]\Iarc Brunei, which I shall now give.
They show the friendship as well as the business
relations which existed between the two men.
Chelsea : April 19, 1822.
My dear Friend, — You have, I have no doubt, found
plenty of employment besides your business in the great
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 61
capital ; if the weather has been fine, you must see
everything in the first order, and in the most striking
colour, for nothing can be so delightful as the first green
of spring, which in Paris must be the more beautiful as
the atmosphere is free from that foggy tinge which spoils
everything here, and even at Bromley or Chelsea.
I have not troubled you with anything of my own,
because it is well to be silent until something is done
here. The French are not so very enterprising in these
matters as we are here, therefore if a thing is not taken
up at once it is likely to retrograde rather than advance.
I shall be glad to know how you have succeeded. In
case you wish to introduce your printhig-press there,
the best channel I think is that of M. Firmin Didot.
He was here the week before last, he called on me with
the view of seeing my stereotype, but I would not gratify
him, nor was it likely to be interesting to him, for what-
ever may be the ultimate degree of perfection it may
reach, it is now' limited to one object only.
My son Isambard, who, I am told, is much grown,
wrote me he had seen you ; I hope you will bring me a
good account of him.
The coal-trough has not yet come to Chelsea ; it may
reach it to-day, however. I am impatient to see it put
up. I am busy preparing two bridges for the French
Government. All is going pretty well. The press is
getting on. Best regards to Mrs. Taylor.
Yours very truly,
M^ I. Bkunel.
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62 A MEMOIR OF THE
April 26, 1822.
My dear Sir, — I have received your letter about
M. Laiue, wlio was rflready provided with leave to see
the dockyards, with good recommendations from the
Admiral and the Commissioners at Portsmouth, where
he is gone by this time.
I am very much pleased with the account you give
me of your intercourse with the scientific men ; I don't
know hoAV far you are master of the Fi'ench language,
without which you must lose a great deal of the enter-
tainment which such society must afford. Our worthy
M. Breguet is a man whom one must regi'et not to be
able to exchange sentiments with.
I do hope Mrs. Taylor is able to enter into the diver-
sions which the capital abounds with. The eyes may
find extensive range though the ears may prove but
helpless interpreters.
My son regretted as much as you m^ have done in
not being of the party at M. Br^guet's when you dined
there. I learn through my son that gas, such as it is
established in Paris, is not only very bad, but is ex-
tremely offensive. I do hope they mil have sense
enough to be convinced of what I have strenuously re-
commended, which is oil-gas. It was my opinion, and
that opinion was conveyed by the late French ambassa-
dor, but some folks only looked to the job, without
minding the consequence under the specious mark of"
economy.
By the bye, M. Laine had a letter from his uncle, the
late Minister, to me, with whom I have had much to do in
\
IM:,
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 63
relation to the waterworks. He expresses his regret
that the negotiation should not have been brought to a
favourable issue. I found him well disposed to have
countenanced the enterprise, and if he was still in power
you might have found an able administrator in him,
and with hberal views.
The coal-trough is just up, but the rack and pinions
I had ordered from Maudslay are not'yet come. Patience
is necessary in all schemes. If you can sell some of the
machines in Paris they had better be sent. The direc-
tions could be translated there. I imagine Isambard
will do it well. How do you find him ? I so long to
have him back. Best regards to Mrs. Taylor.
Yours very sincerely,
M". BnuNEL.
P.S. — What do they do in the steam-engme line ?
Would it answer to bring anytliing forward in that way ?
If you have any copying presses with you I hope they
won't omit the directions and the dampers.
In a memoii* of the life of Sir M. I. Brunei, pub-
lished in 1862, my father made a note, expressing
his surprise at finding no mention of their joint
labours or their friendly relations. He hints that
it might have been remembered that in the cata-
strophe of 1821 he was one oi the first to come to
his friend's aid. He states that in 1822 he to
out a patent of an improved press (referred to by
Mr. Brunei in the above letters), and finally he
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64 A MEMOIR OF THE
writes, * Not only has my name been omitted in
connection with my old friend, but at page 209 of
the book the writer gives my brother John's name
instead of mine at the first general meeting of
the Thames Tunnel. That I was director, and I
may add the most active one, up to 1825, the fol-
lowing document shows : —
Thames Tunnel Office, Walbrook Buildings.
Extract from the minutes and resolutions of the
Court of Directors, held April 26, 1825.
' No. 10. A letter having been read from Philip
Taylor, Esq., expressing a wish to resign his appoint-
ment of director in this company, on account of his
numerous professional engagements and his expected
residence chiefly at a distance from London :
' No. 11. Resolved that Mr. Taylor's resignation be
accepted, and that the clerk do write him a letter ex-
pressive of the regret which the court feels in being
deprived of his valuable services as director of this com-
pany during the progress of the works of the tunnel.'
(Extracted by Chas. Butler, clerk to the Company.)
I believe there still survive two watermen (in
sugar) who took part in the banquet given on the
occasion of laying the first stone of the tunnel by
W. Smith, Esq., M.P. ; a*complete model in sugar
of the tunnel decorated the table, and my father
brought home the two figures.
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TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. . Qo
In 1830 I visited Mr. M. Brunei at the Thames
Tunnel, and his kind reception of me dwells in my
memory. It was soon alter one of the great erup-
tions of water, I was taken to the workings, and
when I reached the shield, and some of the old hands
found out that I was my father's son, they hoisted
me up into one of the cells, and I had the honour of
doing a hit of excavation.
Isamhard Brunei was at school with Alfred Say
(son of J. B. Say, and uncle of my wife) at the
Institution Massin, Place de I'Estrapade, Paris.
After the custom of French schools the hoys were
taken for a walk on Thursdays ; they passed a long
deep tub set out to water the cab-horses, when a
mischievous schoolfellow jerked up the horse's nose;
he threw up his heels, hit Isamhard on the seat of
honour, and sent him head foremost in the dirty
water, from which his comrades dragged him half
choked, after wasting a minute or two in laughing
at the catastrophe.
Before leaving Mr. M. Brunei, I wish to note the
constant aid and friendship shown him h}' Sir
Samuel Bentham during those vexatious disputes
with the Admiralty when he was emjjloycd in
erecting his bluuk-making machinery. Sir Samuel
was one of my father's correspondents, and I give
■ ) -- '.n:
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66 A MEMOIR OF THE
an extract from one of his letters showing his active
mind on various subjects : —
Montpellier: Sept. 19, 1822.
I understand that grafted are to be preferred to un-
grafted mulberry trees. My mulberry trees succeed
exceedingly well, not having sufi'ered from the great
drought of the year ; so that I shall, if possible, plant
another thousand of large trees in a state not to suffer
by the sheep, and perhaps twenty thousand young
ones in places from which the sheep will be excluded.
It will be two years at least before we shall have leaves
enough to feed a sufficiency of silkworms for it to be
worth while to engage any one for the management of
them, and then Ave must erect a building for that pur-
pose. The squash or vegetable marrow which we have
cultivated these two years, besides being good food for
ourselves and others, we find so very prolific that we
propose cultivating them in great quantity next year for
pigs. The two boars we brought have arrived safe. Not-
withstanding the general prediction of their failure, they
are in good health, but as yet rather too young to be of
any use. All our men, as well as our money, have been
so extensively employed in planting and breaking up
new ground for cultivation, besides the necessary repairs
and additions to buildings, that we have not as yet been
able to erect the pumping machinery from England ; we
hope, however, to begin it in about a month, and I am
determined to provide means of working the pump by
wiiKl, in such a manner as to work night and day
without attendance.
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TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 67
Then comes a long disquisition on self-regu-
lating windmills, a request for my father's opinion,
and a promise to send the ounce of Chinese silk-
worm eggs, already announced. I can only guess
that my father was to make experiments with the
leaves of a large old red mulherry tree growing in
the Bromley garden, and said to have heen planted
by James I. to supply silk for the Royal hose— a
mistake to plant the red sort, it should have been
the white mulberry.
Sir S. Bentham's ounce of seed ought to have
given 42,000 worms, and they would require 400 or
500 square feet of space, and in the fifth period
about three tons of leaves per diem.
I return to my parents' stay at Paris, where my
mother hstened to the silvery tones of Mademoiselle
Mars and the splendid declamation of Talma. My
father's business, however, made no progress ; here
again coal-gas had enlisted the support of important
men, and when it was suggested that some opposition
might be overcome by the present of an Indian
shawl to a ballet-dancer, my father's Puritan
principles were roused, he took his wife by the arm,
and left Paris and the Parisians to their darkness,
their dirt, and their evil ways. But one incident
which befell my father I must not leave out. One
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68 A MEMOIR OF THE
day in the Tuileries Gardens he spied a vacant
chair and sat down. Now when a French lady takes
her ease she requires two chairs ; one to sit on, the
other as a rampart and a footstooh My father had
not ohserved that two dainty feet rested on the chair
he had appropriated, and he could not understand
the loud tones and fierce gestures of ' le mari de
madame.' Fortunately John Bull was not in one of
his irascible moods, still he kept possession of his
seat. ' Monsieur ' produced his card, and mischief
might have ensued, but for the intervention of an
officer who understood English and soothed the
wounded feehngs of his countryman. After a few
minutes' conversation it turned out the young officer
was a near relation of General de Bardelin, who
when an emigre at Norwich had given French
lessons to my aunt.
My parents travelled home by the Rhine and
Holland. No Damirfshiff existed in those days,
a boat had to be hired, and, moving slowly on by day,
travellers slept on shore. One evening the hostelry
my parents stopped at had a sinister look, and in
the middle of the night* my mother was awakened
by a noise at the window ; she looked and saw a
man trying to open the casement. Without disturb-
ing her sleeping husband, my mother got out of
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 69
bed, seized a log of wood from the hearth, and
hurled it at the German invader ; down he went, and
with him went the window.
My father's efforts to interest the Dutch in oil-
gas had been no more successful than at Paris ; they
sailed to Harwich, and thence came to Ipswich,
where I was staying with my grandfather Fitch. Of
course the first thing my parents were asked was if
they had eaten frogs.
I now pass on to my father and his friend
Charles Macintosh's experiments in the preparation
of waterproof textures, the dithculty being to find a
cheap solvent of the india-rubber. Mr. Macintosh
had for years been occupied with the subject. I
will give extracts from his letters : —
Cragsbasket Ju]y 21, 1822.
Our friend ^Ir. Pi. has informed me of your return to
England. During your Continental tour you must have
amassed much valuable as well as much amusing matter,
and I am convinced you could favour the world with
sketches of a very different and infinitely more amusing
kind than any that have yet appeared ; perhaps you
have something of the kind in view, a comparative view
of the arts, &c., as at present in actual practice in France
and Britain. I hope this is the case.
I have not yet proceeded in taking out the patent for
my coal-oil caoutchouc varnish — not from any doubt as
70 A MEMOIR OF THE
to its importance, or the many"valuable purposes it is
applicable for, but because patents form a sort of pro-
perty I confess I am by no means partial to, having
often reflected with disgust on the great trouble and
vexation as well as loss of time and expenses our bleach-
ing liquid (oxymuriate of lime) patent cost me, which I
justly considered an original and valuable invention, yet
the patent was set aside. Now I could not lay claim to
the discovery of caoutchouc being soluble in coal-oil,
because it is on record to be so, and possibly it may be
concluded to follow from inference, at least, that it must
have been tried as a varnish before I did so : although if
such is the case, the success must have been very trifling,
else the thing would have been persevered in, and we
should have heard of it.
I can with all confidence assure you that coal-oil,
when properly rectified, dissolves caoutchouc vastly more
rapidly than ether does, employing about two pounds
of caoutchouc cut in shreds to four gallons of coal-oil,
by which means, and employing frequent agitation, it is
soon brought into a pulpy gelatinous state, to be after-
wards diluted to any degree of consistency required. It
then forms an admirable elastic varnish for cloth of all
sorts, as well as for metals, &c., which dries almost im-
mediately, leaving the caoutchouc altogether unchanged,
possessing all its original properties. For umbrella cloths
alone it will prove of ^eat importance.
In a box I despatch this day will be found addressed
to you two quart bottles, one filled with naphthalic var-
nish, the other with coal-oil for diluting the former to
,'l ''■
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICIL 7 1
the proper state for use. I shall certainly feel very
greatly obliged by your making at once some trials, and
reporting as early as possible your opinion of them. I
need hardly add to you that rectified coal-oil dissolves
common resin, camphor, and many other resinous bodies
with the greatest facility. I pray you to write niu soon,
and with my best regards to Mrs. Taylor, in which Mrs.
Macintosh most cordially joins,
I remain, truly and faithfully yours,
Chakles Macintosh.
This letter gives not only an account of the
progress of an invention which has been of universal
benefit, it shows Mr. Macintosh's opinion of patent
rights ; later on a patent was well-nigh his ruin.
About 1830 Messrs. Neilson and Macintosh dis-
covered that great improvement in the manufacture
of iron, the application of the hot blast — ^my father
joining them ; and on the same day and hour
patents were taken out in London by Neilson and
Macintosh, in Paris by Philip Taylor. This in-
vention brought large fortunes to the ironmasters,
whilst to the patentees it brought years of toil and
anxiety, and two formidable lawsuits ; I shall speak
of that in the French courts later on. I have Uved
with and among inventors, have watched them
wprk out their ideas with painful labour and self-
sacrifice ; at last the moment of triumph is at
.. . •( ■ ■ YA
72 A MEMOIR OF THE
hand, fame and competence in view ; they draw up
their specifications and apply for a patent, pay the
fees, and receive the precious document. Meanwhile
their specifications are being overhauled by dishonest
rivals, who either treat the invention as futile or
seize on it for themselves. Then begin struggles in
law courts with judges and juries to whom chemistry
and engineering are mysteries. Not every suitor
could command the services of such a counsel as
Edward Sugden, who, when he had to defend a
patent for a great chemical invention, went to a
laboratory, worked out each process himself, was
a complete master of the subject, and making a
speech which was a splendid lecture on chemistry,
won his cause. But too often the inventor's work
is filched, and the jury, who could understand if your
purse were stolen, are utterly unable to understand
' infringement of patent.'
I will give another extract from Mr. Macintosh's
correspondence with my father : —
Feb. 20, 1824.
Dear Sir, — I saw your cousin, Mr. Fitch, the other
day when I called at your works, and had some conver-
sation with him about preparing the waterproof varnish
for me to be produced fi'om the tar spirit we may contract
for from the London Chartered Gas Company, and which
may probably be only 300 gallons a week. ... It would
J.r; ir n
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TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 73
be very gratifying to me if you would examine and rectify
the samples I send you ; . . . possiljly you may devise
means of diminishing the smell, which would be a great
desideratum. . . .
Chaeles Macintosh.
It was whilst my father was intent on these
experiments that he met with an accident which
was nearly fatal. The real name of the rectified
coal-oil was naphtha, one of the most volatile and
inflammable substances known. Late one night,
having rectified the oil, he was going on with his
experiment, and, in so doing, he decanted the liquid
into a Florence flask which he very imprudently had
laid on a warm sand bath. The naphtha was instantly
volatilised. An unfortunate gas-burner was alight
near ; the inflammable vapour ignited, the flask
exploded, and every particle of hair and skin on my
poor father's head was destroyed — that his eyes did
not suffer was a miracle ; he was a dreadful sufferer
for some days. His friend Macintosh was full of
sympathy, and he ought to have been consoled by
thinking of the millions who would be kept dry and
warm by his discovery.
Professor Cleanent Desormes sent a specimen of
petroleum about this time to my father, with the
suggestion that it might be of use for making oil-gas,
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74 A MEMOIR OF THE
but the supply was, he went on to say, hmited—
thmgs have changed now that Eussia and the
United States can furnish any quantity of petroleum.
The 3'ears 1823 and 1824 were a very busy time
for Philip Taylor. First comes his application of
high-pressure steam to sugar-filtering— this was
largely used by foreign sugar-refiners and beet-sugar-
makers. French writers give it high praise for its
compact yet enormous filtering surface; English
writers seem silent on the subject. The other filter
used in France is that by Dumont, a very clever
construction ; it is used alternately with the filter
' Taylor ' ; often have I heard the foreman issue the
order, ' Charge the Taylor,' ' Empty the Dumont.'
About this time my father made his experiments,
and pubhshed his tables on the elastic force of
steam. Mr. Dalton had compiled his table from
32 degrees of temperature to 212 degrees, and from
0-200 force in inches of mercury to 30 inches.
Phihp Taylor started from Mr. Dalton 's finishing
point, and carried the experiments from 212 degrees
to 320 degrees, and from 30 inches of mercury to
179-40.
MM. Arago*and Dulong repeated these experi-
ments, and I had the pleasure of hearmg from M.
Ai-ag^, that only a slight difference existed between
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TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 75
their results and my father's ; their experiments were
carried higher than my father's, but the three
tables are published in France in juxtaposition. It
is somewhat strange that Fairbairn, in his ' Useful J
Information for Engineers ' publislied in 1856, does J
not notice Philip Taylor's tables, though he does
those of Dalton, Arago, Dulong, Eegnault, and De ' .
Pambour.
The apparatus used by my father was a clever
combination : the boiler was heated by oil-gas jets,
the lofty manometer went through the floor of our
nursery, as well as I remember. The quantity of gas
consumed was noted down with the other results.
A new subject of study was the water suj^ply of
London. My father proposed starting from a point
between Brentford and Richmond, constructing a
tunnel or waterway of six feet diameter and about
nine miles length, to the foot of Hampstead Hill ;
from thence the water was to be raised by a per-
pendicular lift to the reservoirs, and the splendid
working of the Cornish pumping engines would have
been brought into play. By this project the great
loss occasioned by forcing water through a long range
of pipes would have been avoided ; it was calculated
that a saving of three-fourths of the coal used in the
working of the steam engines would be effected.
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76 A MEMOIR OF THE
The estimates for the tunnel, the engines, and
the reservoirs, were put down at 180,000/. For this
sum London might have had good and cheap water ;
hut the scheme fell through — I know not why.
A Swiss engineer, M. Bodmer, a man of inven-
tive if not practical genius, came to England and
claimed my father's good offices to extricate from
the clutches of the Custom House authorities the
drawings and instruments he had brought from
Ziirich and Aarau, then famed for these things.
Through the help of Sir Samuel Bentham, M. Bod-
mer got back his property. He settled at Manchester,
and was very intimate with my father. Another
engineer with whom my father corresponded was
Fawcett of Liverpool. He wished my father to join
his house ; perhaps it is to be regretted that he
refused. Subsequently my brother Piobert was a
pupil and a favourite of Mr. Fawcett. It may be
remembered that the engines of the ' President,' lost
in 1841, were built by Fawcett.
Well, besides experiments in the realm of science
there were experiments in education, and I was sent
to a school at Bromley kept by Mr. Deane. Even now
I see the long room, in each corner a high desk, at
these desks masters for separate subjects, Latin and
\Freiich, &c. ; at the end a throne, where was installed
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TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 77
the pedagogue himself. Eachmoi'iiing at eight o'clock
he opened the doors of a big stand which was part
of his throne, and displayed an assortment of canes ;
then he blew his nose, and in a stentorian voice read
the reports of the masters, the names of the culprits,
and proceeded to inflict punishment ■ the more
numerous the culprits, the better pleased he seemed,
retiring to his breakfast rather sadly if the canes
had not been used. There were whippings at home
also. M}' father always rode to and from London,
and entered the house with his riding-whip under
his arm. ' Oh, my love,' said my dear mother,
* Phil has been so naughty ; ' then I found myself
athw^art my father's knee, down came the whip, and,
howling, aM'ay I went to the nursery to meditate
some future misdemeanour.
Dear old father ! when he had passed eighty and
I w^as near sixty we had a talk over those days.
Fatlier. ' Yes, you were an unruly child ! what
trouble you did give ! '
Son. ' No doubt, sir, but you should not have
used that riding-whip so lavishl}' on my hide.'
FatJicr. ' You don't mean to say, 3'ou — you re-
collect that '? '
Son. ' Don't I ! Why, those lashes for years
rankled in my mind ; I believe each stripe made me
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78 A MEMOIR OF THE
worse than before. It is my misfortune to appear
to forget, but ahva5^8 to recollect.'
Father. ' ^Yell, you are a perverse sample of
human nature. Now, you can't say that you did
not merit punishment.'
Son. ' Not always.'
Father. ' Now, now, for instance, I recollect when
you behaved so ill about that glass of rhubarb and
magnesia. You were sick, stomach out of order,
and I prepared a nice little dose to set you right.
What did you do '? Why, sir, you upset it. I mixed
another. What did you do, you young imp ? You
threw it at me, all over my shirt front and waist-
coat. Did you deserve no whipping then ? '
I am unable to discover when, or with whom, my
father went to Newcastle to see and report on the
first locomotive of George Stephenson, though his
description of the first attempts is still vividly
before my mind.
My father's examination before a committee of
the House of Commons is to be found in the Blue-
book.
In 1823 he took out the patent for his horizontal
steam engine. He had dared to take the steam
cylinder out of its vertical position, and put it in a
horizontal position, and was for this assailed by the
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 79
jokes and gibes of his brother engineers. Brunei
suggested various ditiiculties, customers dc-cHned
new-fangled notions. Maudslay, however, ui 1824 or
1825, erected an engine for pumping water out of the
Thames Tunnel, of wliich the cylinders were at an
angle of 45° (the pumps were made by Taylor and
Martuieau). My father's specifications being for
horizontal cylinders, the patent was easily infringed
by keeping a little clear of the horizontal. The
wording should have been ' for all cylinders not
vertical ; ' as it was, though Taylor and Martineau
made a considerable number of these machines, my
father received no direct benefit from his invention.
In the year 1824 we left Bromley House for
Abercarn House (hi South "Wales), the property of
Sir Benjamin Hall, afterwards Lord Llanover. The
house stood in a lonely vahey ; oi^posite were the
wooded chffs of Craig Darren ; the gardens sloped
down to the rushing waters of the Ebbw. There was
a village green, one quaint old pubhc-house, a chapel
in which a Welsh parson preached in his native
tongue, and I had a Welsh pony called 'Ross,' on
which I scampered about, and was occasionally
greeted as a young dog of a Sassenach by the sur-
, rounding Celts. We were joined here by young
Alfred Say, son of the Professor of Political Economy,
80 A MEMOIR OF THE
Jean Baptiste Say, and destined to be my uncle
by marriage. We had very kind neighbours in Mr.
and Mrs. Hanbury Leigh, of Pontypool Park. But
our stay was not to be long in this peaceful spot ; my
father had come there in connection Nvith the works
of the British Iron Company, and he had to move to
Corngreaves for the same reasons. I forbear to enter
into any particulars of this company, and its dis-
astrous influence on my father's affairs ; enough to
say his character was vindicated by Lord Lynd-
hurst's decision in 1832.
In 1827 my father discovered that his own
business, which he had left thriving, had got into
difficuhies, and it required all his courage to look
matters in the face. Amongst other incidents Mr.
John Martineau, his partner, had hstened to a
German chemist who professed to convert pig-iron
at once into steel ; yet the scheme, which then was
a failure, was an anticipation of that which in
Bessemer's hands became a splendid success.
A few months before the catastrophe, Marc
Seguin, the well-known French engineer who made
the first railway in France (that from Lyons to
St. Etienne), came over to England to consult my
father on the form of the rail to be adopted. In
the correspondence which ensued on the fish-belly
TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 81
rail, Seguin writes of * your parallel rail,' and I
possess a wooden model of a parallel rail which my
father always kept, though I am unahle to verify his
claim to be the originator of this form, now in
universal use.
M. Seguin learned through this correspondence
the position in which my father found himself, and
he wrote asking him to come at once to France to
organise a large iron factory to he erected near
Lyons. At the same time my father's staunch
friends, Clement Desormes and J. B. Say, urged
him to come to Paris ; the Duke Decazes, Louis
XVIII. 's minister, wanted to start iron works in his
department, the Aveyron, whilst M. Berard wished
to form a company for the same purpose at Alais
near Nismes. By the desire of Clement Desormes
a complete model of the Abersychan works had
been made and sent to the museum of the Conser-
vatoire des Arts et Metiers. This model established
my father's reputation as an iron-maker in France.
Whilst friends in France pressed him to come
among them, one of my father's truest friends at
home, Edgar Taylor, advised him to leave the care
of his defence in his hands, and in 1828 my parents
withdrew from the strain and anxieties which beset
^ them, and began life again in France.
a
82 A MEMOIR OF THE
On my father's arrival in Paris he looked into
the various offers made him by companies, and
decided not to accept any of them. He found good
and remunerative occupation in importing Enghsh
machinery. He fitted up several large sugar
refineries and beet-sugar factories, amongst others
that belonging to the son and grandsons of Santerre
the Sansculotte. The first ball I ever went to was
given by M. Santerre at his splendid mansion in
the Marais, once belongmg to a great French noble.
He had much to do at Chatillon, formerly the
property of Marshal Marmont, Duke of Eagusa,
then the marriage portion given to his daughter by
Ouvrard, the army contractor and speculator. He
put up a large beet-sugar manufactory there, and
many others for people without historical names.
In 1831 my father took his old pupil and young
friend Alfred Say into partnership, and another
person, who proved so unsatisfactory that the firm
was dissolved.
In 1829, Neilson and Charles Macintosh's inven-
tion of the hot blast for iron-making caused a revo-
lution in Great Britain, and I may say the world.
Mr. Philip Taylor was interested in the French
patent, which was taken out in his name, whilst
that in England was in the name of Macintosh;
;i ■ I -u it- / . I iji b
TAYLOE FAMILY OF NORWICH. 83
this was in 1830. The French iron-makers were
slow in recognising the value of this invention.
A short time after the Revolution of July 1830,
Mr. Macintosh asked Philip Taylor to take as a
partner a young Frenchman whose career as an
officer in the Guards had come to an end by the
exile of his king. He had, I believe, married a
connection of Mr. Macintosh. "Whilst Mr. Taylor
was engaged in plans and arrangements for the ap-
paratus, the young partner, active, intelligent, and
agreeable, though not always discreet, travelled all
over France to rouse the attention of the ironmasters.
The new process gained ground, and as the patentees
took a royalty on every ton of iron made, the in-
vention became lucrative. Some of the smaller
ironmasters, however, could not see the justice of
paying for ' warming their wind,' and a squabble
between the French partner and a customer
coming to reinforce the discontent, an attack on the
hot-blast patent was set on foot. The French
patent law declared that if an invention had been
made public in print in a foreign land, a patent
could not be obtained, or at least be valid in France.
The paragraph which followed escaped the observa-
tion of the enemy, who sent agents to Scotland in
search of printed matter. After a minute search
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84: A MEMOIR OF THE
at Glasgow, they found an obscure working men's
paper which contained a short notice of an improved
process for making iron, due to Mr. Neilson. It
was stated that he used warm air for the blast.
Back to Franco came the agents with this precious
document, and legal proceedings were at once begun.
The cause came before the Tribunal of First
Instance at Paris in April 1836. The judge, aware
that the suit would go into appeal, and unwilling to
go into scientific evidence, declared the patent void
and unduly obtamed. The cause was then heard
by the Court of Appeal in Paris in the following
month of August ; again Taylor et Cie. were beaten,
the patent was declared abusive, and the decision of
the lower tribunal was upheld; but the *juge rappor-
teur,' in framing the decree, put in a phrase of his
own, stating that the court found the invention of
too great national importance to be left in the hands
of an individual, and that individual a foreigner.
The patentees now submitted their case to the High
Court of Cassation. That supreme French court of
justice quashed the previous judgments, first because
the Court of Appeal had no mission to decide on the
merits of an invention, but merely to decide if the
law on patents had been complied with ; and secondly,
because the proof proffered in the shape of the
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TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 85
Glasgow paper was not sufficient, the law in one of
its clauses stating that the mention of an invention
must be worded so as to enable any one to be able
to put it into use. The simple enunciation of a new
theory was not sufficient, details as to the applica-
tion must follow ; and the Court of Cassation sent
the case to be tried before the Court of Appeal of
Amiens. On May 18, 1839, that court gave judg-
ment in favour of Taylor et Cie.
But by this time the patent was within a few
months of ex^Diring, whilst the long years of litiga-
tion had enabled ironmasters to use the process
free of royalty, only a few high-minded men send-
ing in statements and paying what was due ; even
those sums in the management of the young
guardsman seem to have been lost.
I must not omit to state that in 1834 my father
received the large gold medal for his apparatus,
which was m the great exhibition of that year.
At the request of MM. Arago and J. B. Say,
Philip Taylor prepared a scheme for the supply of
water to Paris ; few cities stood in greater need, as
those who remember the Auvergnat water-carriers
in the streets and staircases of Paris will admit.
The project was to bring the waters of the
Marne, a tributary of the Seme, by a tunnel under.
IV
86 A MEMOIR OF THE
the centre of the hill of Ivry, which stands on the
left bank of the Seine high above the city, then to
sink shafts, and raise it to the top of the hill by
means of Cornish pumping-engines. This plan was
simple and easy of execution, and the Marne could
furnish a large body of water, though, as the name
implies, not quite clear. To remedy this, large
filtering beds were to be formed on the crest of the
hill. These projected filters were on a new system ;
they were to be low arches of rubble stone, covered
over with layers of coarse gravel and fine sand :
the water introduced underneath would have risen
through the gravel like natural springs.
One remarkable point was the facility of cleans-
ing the filters by reversing the operation. The
complete plans, after much trouble spent in pre-
paring them, were submitted to the Council of the
city of Paris ]by the two members Arago and J. B.
Say ; but the Government corps of engineers had a
voice in the matter, and they objected to the scheme
of an outsider and a foreigner.
His Majesty Louis Philippe, having heard of the
proposal, expressed a wish to see the plans, and my
father was received at an audience in the palace of
the Tuileries. In the course of conversation the
King showed my father the price at which wine for
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TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 87
the royal navy was supplied, calculated the cost
of water to the poorer classes in Paris, and pointed
out that wine was cheaper than water. His Majesty
appeared to approve highly of Mr. Taylor's views,
and went on to converse on other topics — the difiQ-
culty of making the Palace comfortable, above all
of introducing modern sanitary arrangements (my
great-uncle Borett should have been present).
The King spoke of the lamented Mr. Huskisson
and the great esteem he felt for him, adding, ,' When
he was last in Paris he came to see me at Neuilly,
and I asked him if he thought that the French
nation had improved. "Well, yes," replied Mr.
Huskisson, "yes. You don't wear such shocking
bad hats as you did." '
Altogether a gratifying interview with Royalty ;
but it was all the reward my father had for weeks
of labour and boxes full of drawings and plans.
Another topic of interest to Mr. Philip Taylor
was the projected Canal des Pyrenees, to unite
Bayonne with Toulouse and the Mediterranean;
but the new railway system put canals out of
favour — a mistake, as in England, with much heavy
traffic, people are finding out.
In 1833 my mother's health gave some cause
for anxiety, a warmer climate than that of Paris
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88 A MEMOIR OF THE
was recommended, and my parents determined to
move southwards. For many years my father's
attention had been directed to the future of the
^lediterranean Sea as the promised waters of
steam navigation, and towards, if not to, Marseilles
be directed his steps. Of course timid persons
tried to deter him ; but, as if to ensure decision, the
owners of large corn-mills at Marseilles for whom
he had erected two powerful steam-engines offered
him the management of the concern and a share in
the profits. In those days Marseilles had the
privilege of grinding wheat in bond for exportation,
and the offer made my father sounded very advan-
tageous. Shortly before accepting the offer, he
had been in Italy studying both in Piedmont
and Lombardy silk-spinning and winding (an
industry to which his correspondence with Sir S.
Bentham when he was at Bromley refers), and
making friends with whom he could easily negotiate
from Marseilles.
In 1833, therefore, my father joined MM.
Marliani and Labbey at Marseilles, and for the
first year the corn-mills ground merrily ; then the
landed proprietors found out that grinding foreign
wheat in bond and exporting the flour was the de-
struction of wheat-growing in France, and agitated
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TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 89
against the mills. The deputies did not understand
the question, but they did understand that their
elections depended on destroying the bonding
system. The Ministers tried to resist the pressure
put on them, in vain ; such stringent measures were
carried that the manufacture of flour had to be
abandoned, with the result that the United States
took it up.
And so once again Mr. Philip Taylor experienced
the vicissitudes caused by Government interference,
and possibly the difficulty of partnership ; but he
was not discouraged, and reverting to his real
vocation, mechanical engineering, he determined to
test the question of making Marseilles the starting-
place of steam navigation. His two eldest sons
were now of an age to help him, a piece of land was
purchased, and in the last month of the year 1836,
Philip Taylor, with his sons Philip Meadows and
Robert, laid the first stone of the works which
became the important and extensive Compagnie des
Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranee. In 1845
the large shipbuilding establishment of La Seyne
opposite Toulon was opened.
Five men sufficed for the business when first
started, now it gave employment to more than two
thousand, and the Government was so well aware of
90 A MEMOIR OF THE
the benefit to Marseilles and to France of my father's
efforts that in 1846 he was made a Knight of the
I^egion of Honour.
It was in this year that my father, influenced by
the wishes of M. de Cavour and M. d'Azeglio, went
to Genoa, leaving the management of the works at
Marseilles to his sons, where he planned and erected
a splendid engineermg establishment at San Pier
d'Arena. Then came the storms of 1848, the battle
of Novara was fought and lost, the Piedmontese
treasury was empty, and the subsidies promised by
the unfortunate King Carlo Alberto were not forth-
coming. I shall not now enter into the complications
and troubles, some of them political, which ensued ;
enough to say that in 1850 Mr. Philip Taylor
returned to his peaceful home at St. Marguerite
near Marseilles, receiving before he left Genoa, at
the hands of General La Marmora, the cross of
St. Maurice and St. Lazarus, which King Victor
Emmanuel conferred on him.
But now came a blow of quite a different kind,
and one under which my father's heart indeed sank.
In the short space of two years four of his much-
loved children were taken from him by sudden
deaths, three sons and one daughter. ... My
brother Robert, his father's pride, my other self.
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TAYLOR FAMILY OF NORWICH. 91
only so far above me, died at Pau, of consumption.
Even now, when thirty years have elapsed, I cannot
bear to dwell on the sorrow that his death caused.
The weight of responsibility was now all on my
shoulders. With my father's consent I went to Paris ;
and, by the help of the Say family, a company was
formed to take over the concern, and so ensure ease
and comfort to ray father.
Here I will break off, as my own life had become
so mingled with that of my father and his under-
taking that I must be more conspicuous, and give
some account of the education and the training
which was to fit me for my career.
I-RIKTED EV
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