[1] After leaving school he worked for his father but wrote and studied in his spare time, including teaching himself to read Latin and Greek.

[2] In 1858-9 the local newspaper, the Bristol Times, published a number of Taylor's translations of early religious poetry.

[3] Taylor wrote or contributed to a number of publications, including essays published in the London journal, the Saturday Review.

Taylor's eldest son, Lancelot Acland, was by this time the Librarian of the Bristol Museum and Reference Library.

The obituary provided by the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, claimed of John Taylor:If it is true that a Public Librarian needs the manners of an Ambassador and the temper of a Saint, then Mr. Taylor’s quiet gentleness and unruffled patience brought him very near to the ideal of what a Librarian should be.