He had formal schooling up to age fourteen, and then he served an initial apprenticeship to a cooper and later received training as a woodturner and cabinetmaker.

He met Leonora Cannon from the Isle of Man while attending a Toronto Methodist Church and, although she initially rejected his proposal, married her on 28 January 1833.

Other members included Joseph Fielding and his sisters Mary and Mercy, who later also became prominent in the Latter Day Saint movement.

He assisted other church members as they fled frequent conflicts to Commerce, Illinois (soon after renamed Nauvoo).

His life may have been spared when a musket ball directed towards his chest was stopped by a pocket watch which he was carrying at the time.

[10] In 1846–1847, most Latter-day Saints followed Brigham Young into Iowa then the Salt Lake Valley, while Taylor went to England to resolve problems in church leadership there.

In 1852, he wrote a small book, The Government of God, in which he compared and contrasted the secular and ecclesiastical political systems.

In 1849, he traveled east on his way to begin missionary work in France, stopping at various waypoints in the homes of Mormon pioneers still making their way to the Salt Lake Valley.

While in France, Taylor published a monthly newspaper called L'Etoile du Deseret with the help of Louis A. Bertrand.

[12] Taylor supervised the translation, which was carried out by Bolton, Bertrand, Lazare Auge, and a "Mr.

[12] Taylor later served as president of the Eastern States Mission, based in New York City.

The 1985 English-language edition of the LDS Church hymnal includes two hymns with lyrics by Taylor, "Go Ye Messengers of Glory" (no.

As church president, Taylor oversaw the expansion of the Salt Lake community; the further organization of the church hierarchy; the establishment of Mormon colonies in Wyoming, Colorado, and Arizona as well as in Canada's Northwest Territories (now in Alberta) and the Mexican state of Chihuahua; and the defense of plural marriage against increasing government opposition.

For a time, the organization was placed under the direction of Relief Society General President Eliza R. Snow.

Hundreds of Mormon men and women were arrested and imprisoned for continuing to practice plural marriage.

[15][16] However, by 1885, he and his counselors were forced to withdraw from public view to live in the "underground" and were frequently on the move to avoid arrest.

[18] In 1887, the US Congress passed the Edmunds–Tucker Act, which abolished women's suffrage in Utah Territory, forced wives to testify against their husbands, disincorporated the LDS Church, dismantled the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company, abolished the Nauvoo Legion, and provided that LDS Church property in excess of $50,000 would be forfeited to the United States.

[20] It restated the permanence of the "New and Everlasting Covenant", which these fundamentalist groups consider to be a direct reference to the practice of plural marriage.

The validity of the revelation is rejected by the LDS Church, which does not consider it to be authentic,[21] but it is used by fundamentalist groups as justification for their continued practice of polygamy.

Six months later, in the October general conference, Anthon H. Lund was called to fill Taylor's vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Taylor's teachings as an apostle were the 2003 course of study in the LDS Church's Sunday Relief Society and Melchizedek priesthood classes.

Taylor practiced plural marriage and was married to eight wives: Leonora Cannon, Elizabeth Kaighin, Jane Ballantyne, Mary Ann Oakley, Sophia Whitaker, Harriet Whitaker, Margaret Young, and Josephine Elizabeth Roueche.