The eldest son of James Tayler (1765–1831) by his wife Elizabeth (1774–1847), daughter of John Venning of Walthamstow, he was born at 12, Church Row, Newington Butts, in Surrey, on 15 August 1797.

"At the recommendation of Kippis he officiated at Nottingham, as a supply, for several months, in 1793 or 1794; after which he preached for some time at Walthamstow, where in 1795, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. John Venning, of that place.

His father, at first sceptical of Manchester College, took a very keen interest and closely watched his education at York, personally negotiating with Kenrick about the structure of some of his sons lessons.

His correspondence at this time with his childhood friend, the Persian scholar Samuel Robinson (1794–1894), [5] who would later translate Friedrich Schiller's Wilhelm Tell (1824), reveal details of the lectures.

Manchester was a place, he wrote "where the Dissenters enjoy a degree of weight and respectability above any other part of the kingdom, and where some of them are men most distinguished for science and literature, and who consequently would form most valuable associates for a young man eager for intellectual improvement.

In April 1822, Tayler began a series of lectures at the rooms of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, George-Street, entitled On the Rise and Progress of our National Poetry.

[16] Tayler delivered a radical sermon "On Communion with Unbelievers" on 30 March 1828 that acquired some notoriety, The Manchester Chronicle (5 April) branded him an "apologist of infidelity" and the clerical establishment in the pages of The Congregational Magazine described him as the "arch-fiend", who in proposing to welcome Free-thinkers into his church had revealed "the hideous and malignant features of the apostate spirit".

[17] At the beginning of May 1831, the tragic news of the loss of his brother Andrew at sea, en route to Calcutta, hastily brought on his father's death some weeks later on 15 May.

At the time of his father's funeral (at which John Kentish, a fellow student from New College, Hackney, gave a sermon), Tayler was also approached to become the minister of the New Meeting Congregation at Birmingham, a position which he turned down.

He sustained his ministry in Manchester for 33 years, moving his congregation (1 September 1839) to Upper Brook Street Chapel, a magnificent building designed by Sir Charles Barry, and the first specimen of Gothic architecture built for Unitarians.

He regularly attended Lücke's seminars "four afternoons in the week on the Kritik and Hermeneutik of the New Testament" as well as a lecture of Gieseler's on Ecclesiastical History every morning, except Sundays."

I am exceedingly pleased with Ewald and his lectures.—he was a favourite pupil of the late Eichhorn's, whose department he now fills..."[21] At Göttingen he also went to the early morning lectures of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840) and spoke highly of his daughter who "has been very kind in her attentions to us.

"[22] Georg Friedrich Benecke (1762–1844)- who had taught Coleridge German when he was at Göttingen (September 1798- July 1799)- introduced Tayler to Karl Otfried Müller (1797–1840) professor of ancient literature.

Afterwards, Tayler often walked with his wife, sister and the children at midday when they all had dinner"[23] Early 1835 he studied at the University of Bonn, where he and his family lodged at the house of the historian and philosopher Christian August Brandis (1790–1867), who had been the close friend of Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834) and Barthold Georg Niebuhr(1776–1831).

He met many leading theologians, philosophers and historians and he wrote a series of letters addressed to his Mosley-street congregation in Manchester about his on-going studies and travels.

Tayler had hoped for an arrangement "which would enable me to reside permanently in Manchester, and yet preserve my connection with the College as a Lecturer, for a term every session; and more than one overture have I made to that effect.

In June 1850 he had given a "Speech on the Question of American Slavery" at Altrincham, in Cheshire, later that year in November 1850 Tayler set up a 'Hungarian Fund' and shows himself politically engaged for Magyar exiles resident in Manchester.

[28] Indeed, Tayler understood the nationalist struggles of Kossuth and the Italian Giuseppe Mazzini(1805–1872) and their writings as "the earnest and impassioned eloquence of the most energetic assertors of freedom and progress" – here was also the presence of a religious element, not "the work and conventional phraseology of a church or sect, but deep and thrilling undertones...caught from the inspiration of prophets and apostles of an older day"[29] Kossuth and Mazzini were "breathing the living spirit of Christ".

On 27 April 1855 he delivered a lecture addressed to the Secularists at the Literary Institution, John Street, Fitzroy Square, London, obtaining praise from George Holyoake (1817–1906)[30] From 1853 Tayler was a trustee of Dr. Williams's foundations.

In 1856 Tayler visited Heidelberg in Germany where he met amongst others, Baron Christian Charles Josias von Bunsen, the historian Friedrich Christoph Schlosser and the theologian David Friedrich Strauss (1808–1874), the author of Das Leben Jesu, a work that Tayler wrote "which shook the whole Theological World like an earthquake, though it was only an explosion of elements that had long been fermenting under Hegelian influence in the school of Tübingen, and might therefore have been predicted.

[32] He spent the summer months at Bad Liebenstein in the Thuringian forest (six weeks) with excursions to Wilhelmsthal, near Eisenach, and visits to Coburg, Hof and Leipzig.

[34] On 9 February 1858, a deputation of English Presbyterian Ministers of London and Westminster, presented an address of congratulation to Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace, on the occasion of the dynastic marriage (25.

A few days later Tayler waited on the Prussian ambassador, Count Albrecht von Bernstorff (1809–1873), to deliver a spirited Anglo-German address to the married couple.

In October, together with his wife, who was also poorly, they were convalescing at Eastbourne, Sussex, he wrote that he was still recovering having "swallowed enough of quinine, iodine and nitric acid during the last two months to disorder one's natural system completely.

Tayler was present at the meeting at Sion College (15 February 1868) where the Dean of Westminster, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815–1881) gave his lecture on The Connection of Church and State.

[38] On his way to Transylvania, writing from the Frankische Schweitz we possess a Unitarian credo of Catholic spirit, some eight months before his death, where Tayler revealed himself a follower of Richard Baxter (1615–1691) a 'Baxterian', thankful for having been born and bred into a Presbyterian Church "which has never made anything fundamental in Christianity, but the spirit of Christ himself" he wrote to his friend James Martineau: ”I consider Baxter to have been the first who introduced the essence of this grand faith, as the bond of all true Church life, into this country; and look on our Presbyterian forefathers, not excluding Priestley and Price, with Dr. Channing and yourself, as his genuine and consistent followers- only developing the germs which he left behind him.” Death and Commemoration By 8 November he was back in Hampstead, London.

Following his return from this Transylvanian journey, according to Thom, “A languor marked him from that time, with the not unfrequent look of one whose mind was far away.”[39] On 28 May 1869 he died in Hampstead, and on 3 June he was buried on the west side of Highgate Cemetery, beside his wife and son.

There is a window dedicated to him in Rosslyn Hill Chapel, Hampstead, on the east side in the middle with the following inscription: "In memory of the Revd John James Tayler, B.

This window is placed here by friends and fellow worshipers as a tribute to his simple and elevated character, saintly virtues, large humanity tender sympathies and child-like devotion.