John Taylor of Ashbourne

John Taylor (baptised 1711 – 1788) of Ashbourne, Derbyshire was an English lawyer and cleric, known as a wealthy landowner and stockbreeder.

[2] Taylor would have followed Johnson to Pembroke College, Oxford, but was dissuaded by his friend's report of the ignorance of William Jorden, the tutor there.

[2] Taylor was ordained deacon in Church of England in 1738, by Joseph Wilcocks, Bishop of Rochester; and priest in 1739.

[5] In July 1740 he was presented, on the nomination of Sir Wolstan Dixie, 4th Baronet, to the rectory of Market Bosworth in Leicestershire.

[2] On 11 July 1746 Taylor obtained, presumably through the influence of his patron the Duke of Devonshire, a prebendal stall at Westminster Abbey, which he retained for life.

[2] Despite his constant talk of bullocks, and his habits that were "by no means sufficiently clerical", Johnson was very attached to Taylor, and considered him "a very sensible, acute man", with a strong mind.

Taylor was noted for his breed of milch-cows: his "great bull" is a subject of jest in Johnson's letters.

[2] James Boswell and Johnson came to Ashbourne on 26 March 1776, driving from Lichfield in Taylor's "large roomy postchaise, drawn by four stout plump horses, and driven by two steady jolly postilions."

The house and establishment matched and their host's "size and figure and countenance and manner were that of a hearty English squire".

[9][10] A Whig in politics, Taylor became chaplain to William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire; who was lord-lieutenant of Ireland from 1737 to 1745.

[2] Taylor published in 1787 A Letter to Samuel Johnson, LL.D., on the subject of a Future State, which was inscribed to William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, at whose command it was issued.

[2] Taylor, who had no surviving child that lived, left his property to a boy, William Brunt (born 1772), who had been engaged as a page.

[2] On 9 April 1732 Taylor married at Croxall, Derbyshire, Elizabeth, daughter of William Webb of the parish.