Jefferys Taylor

Jefferys Taylor was a member of a dynasty of writers and artists who flourished in the first half of the 19th century. He was born on 30 October 1792 and died on 8 October 1853

Life and work[edit]

Jefferys Taylor was the youngest son of Isaac Taylor by his wife, Ann Martin, and was born at Lavenham. Soon after his birth, he was pictured as a nursling in his mother's arms in the background of his father's painting of the family, now in the National Portrait Gallery, London.^[1] He was educated under his father as an engraver and apprenticed at Lavenham. Possessed of considerable ingenuity, he eventually profited from the invention of a machine for engraving parallel lines.^[2]

Many of his brothers and sisters became writers, and Jefferys followed them, particularly as a children's author. His subjects were varied and distinguished by humour and fancy. His first novel, Harry's Holiday or the doings of one who had nothing to do (London, 1818),^[3] went through several editions. Two centuries on, its unsentimental view of childhood has been perceived as a forerunner of Lord of the Flies.^[4] His next publication was self-illustrated and in verse, Æsop in Rhyme, with some originals (London, 1820), and also saw many editions. Other books were deliberately educational and included The Little Historians: a new Chronicle of the affairs of England in church and state in three volumes (London 1824); Parlour Commentaries on the Constitution and Laws of England (London, 1825); ^[5] The Forest, or rambles in the woodland (London, 1831);^[6] and The Farm, a new account of rural toils and produce (London, 1832).^[7] Some of these also carried his own illustrations and were published in the U.S. as well.

On 20 June, 1826, Jefferys married Sophia Mabbs, by whom he had a son, Edward, who died young. ^[2] He himself died at Broadstairs as the result of a stroke on 8 October, 1853.^[8]

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