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Henry Taylor (priest)

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Henry Taylor (1711–1785) was a Church of England priest and religious controversialist.

Life

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He was born at South Weald, the son of the London merchant William Taylor (1673–1750) and his wife, Anne Crisp.[1] He was educated at Newcome's School in Hackney,[2] and then at Queens' College, Cambridge.[3]

Taylor's clerical career was advanced by the support of Benjamin Hoadly, from 1734 Bishop of Winchester.[1] He was Rector of Wheatfield, Oxfordshire from 1737 to 1746,[4] Vicar of Portsmouth from 1745 and Rector of Crawley from 1755.

Works

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Taylor was an Arian who used various pseudonyms in religious controversies with William Warburton, Soame Jenyns and Edward Gibbon.[1] His works included:

  • The apology of Benjamin Ben Mordecai to his friends, for embracing Christianity; in seven letters to Elisha Levi ... together with an eighth letter, on the generation of Jesus Christ. The letters appeared from 1771 to 1777, and were republished together in 1784.[1] This work concerned his adherence to the Apollinarian heresy.[5]
  • Confusion Worse Confounded, 1772. Against William Warburton, as "Indignatio".
  • A Full Answer to a ... Late View of the Internal Evidence of Christian Religion, 1777, anonymous. Against Soame Jenyns.
  • An Enquiry into the Opinions of the Learned Christians, 1777. As "Khalid E'bn Abdallah".
  • Thoughts on the nature of the grand apostacy; with reflections on the 15th chapter of Mr Gibbon's History, 1781
  • Farther Thoughts on the Nature of the Grand Apostacy of the Christian Churches (1783).[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Aston, Nigel. "Taylor, Henry (1711–1785)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27029. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ Rae Blanchard, A Prologue and an Epilogue for Nicholas Rowe's Tamerlane by Richard Steele, PMLA Vol. 47, No. 3 (Sep., 1932), pp. 772-776, at p. 773. Published by: Modern Language Association. JSTOR 457953
  3. ^ "Taylor, Henry (TLR727H)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  4. ^ Lobel, Mary D, ed. (1969). A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 8: Lewknor and Pyrton Hundreds. Victoria County History. pp. 263–273.
  5. ^ Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Taylor, Henry (1711-1785)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 55. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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