The Taylors of Ongar

Source: A.R. Hope Moncrieff, ‘Essex’ (1909), pages 64-66.

At the Castle Farm [Ongar] lived for a time Issac Taylor, buried with his daughter June in the Independent Chapel here; and their sojourn seems Ongar’s best title for modern fame.

Stanford Rivers was the home of this Isaac Taylor’s son, who, after the immortal Jeremy, comes chief of a name which fills five columns of the London Library Catalogue, and a volume and a half at the British Museum, while the best-known writings under this name must be ‘My Mother’ and ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star,”¹⁹⁷ by his sisters Ann and Jane. It has been claimed for the Trollopes that their output of authorship surpassed that of any British family; but such a claim might be doubtful when compared with the works of the Taylors of Ongar, so called in distinction from the Taylors of Norwich. It is quite a task to count the number of pens sharpened at or about Ongar, by a kindred whose inky record supplies Mr. Galton with an illustration of hereditary talent.

Issac Taylor I., springing from Worcester, but married in a connection with Essex, was an eminent engraver, an occupation shared with authorship by more than one of his offspring. Issac II., besides writing and engraving, became a Nonconformist pastor at Ongar during George III’s time. One of his brothers was a publisher; another won scholarly reputation as editor of Calmet’s ‘Dictionary of the Bible’. His wife wrote several edifying works, forgotten sooner than the nursery classics of his daughters Ann and Jane, the latter’s the most popular pen of the family, through a touch of humour that carried off the moralizing of tales like ‘The Discontented Pendulum’ and ‘The Complaint of the Dying Year’. Most of their books for the young were written in partnership by the two sisters. Their brother Jefferys brought out a score of small volumes, also for the improvement and instruction of young readers. But the great literary gun of this generation was Issac III.,¹⁹⁸ the author of ‘The Natural History of Enthusiasm’ and some two dozen other works still spoken with respect, though not much asked for at book clubs; he lived long enough to be a contributor to ‘Good Words’.¹⁹⁹ A son of Ann Taylor, Josiah Gilbert²⁰⁰ and Helen Taylor, daughter of an inkless brother, also came before the public in print. Lastly, the tale of this “Family pen” was written by Issac IV., author of ‘Words and Places’, of whom I can speak from acquaintance; he cast off his ancestral Nonconformity and died in our own time as Canon of York. A younger brother then survived as a writer on archaeology, and another as an architect in Manchester.

Ann Taylor, by the way, lived as Mrs. Gilbert till 1866, to see many changes, and to substitute a more “up-to-date” sentiment for the original ending for her best-known poem.

For God, who lives above the skies,
Would look with anger in His eyes
If ever I should care despise My Mother.²⁰¹

Footnotes

¹⁹⁷ See Journal No. 36: “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” – High Country History Group

¹⁹⁸ See Journal No. 68: Mr Isaac Taylor of Stanford Rivers – High Country History Group

¹⁹⁹ See Journal No. 43: The Death of Isaac Taylor – High Country History Group

²⁰⁰ See Journal No. 57: Obituary to Josiah Gilbert (d.1893) – High Country History Group

²⁰¹ Moncriff, A.E. Hope. ‘Essex’ (A.C. Black, London, 1909) p.64-66