[2] Tayler entered the navy in July 1796 as a first-class volunteer on board the 100-gun ship Royal George, flagship of Lord Bridport in the Channel Fleet, under the command of Captain William Domett.
In 1799 he moved to the razee frigate Anson, Captain Philip Charles Durham, which was occasionally employed attending the Royal Family off Weymouth, and was in waiting upon the King in a boat whenever he went afloat.
On 27 June 1800, while escorting a fleet of transport ships from Gibraltar and Minorca, Anson captured seven merchant vessels on the Spanish coast between Tarifa and Algeciras, even though they were protected by shore batteries and covered by the fire of 25 heavy gunboats.
She also drove two gunboats, each mounting two long 18-pounders and eight smaller guns, onto the coast, where Tayler, in a boat, assisted in taking possession of one of them – the crew having abandoned ship.
[2] Tayler was promoted to lieutenant on 29 April 1802, and on 18 October 1803 he was appointed to the 50-gun fourth-rate Leopard, serving in her under Captains James Nicoll Morris, Francis William Austen, and Richard Raggett.
In mid-1808 (a few months after the Maida was paid off) he joined the Spencer, flagship of Rear-Admiral Robert Stopford on the blockade of the coast of France, serving as first lieutenant.
He left Heroine after only seven months, and on 12 June 1810 he joined the brig Goldfinch, Captain Arden Adderley, operating off the north coast of Spain.
Sparrow spent several months on anti-piracy patrol in the Mona Passage, before returning to England in company with the brig Elk, escorting a fleet of merchant ships.
[2] In June 1812 Tayler took part in the reduction of Lekeitio, and then in the destruction of enemy fortifications at Bermeo, Plentzia, Galea, Algorta, Begoña, El Campillo las Quersas, Xebiles, and Castro.
Tayler also submitted a plan to Commodore Sir Home Riggs Popham for a surprise attack on the batteries along the river Bidasoa and destroying the bridge at Irun.
[7] Tayler used an improved gunsight, of his own design, which combined elevation and line of sight in one focus, and enabled him to fire shells with such precision that two out of every three burst in the French batteries.
In late June Sparrow conveyed the British staff officer John Fremantle to England with the despatches announcing the victory at the battle of Vitoria, before returning to Spain.
[2] Tayler came close to death or serious injury twice; at Plentzia, during the destruction of the fort by explosives, he narrowly avoided several tons of falling masonry, and later at Castro Urdiales he was pointing a carronade, when it was struck by a 12-pound shot, causing considerable damage.
[3] However his luck finally ran out on 24 July 1813 during the Siege of San Sebastián, when he was ordered, with the other small vessels of the squadron, to conduct a diversionary attack on the north side of Mount Urgull.
In 1816 he requested a ship to take part on the Bombardment of Algiers, and a few years later, citing his local knowledge of the coast, offered his services during the political turmoil in Portugal.
[2] In 1828 he submitted to the Prince Regent "A Plan of Internal Defence", and in November 1829 he sent to the Admiralty some remarks on the best mode of preventing "pestilential fevers", and offered his services to carry them out at Gibraltar.
In January 1831 he reminded the Admiralty that he was asking for recognition not money, and in November the same year wrote "with some surprise and great regret", that a Captain Smith of the Royal Artillery was now being credited with the invention of a means of concentrating a ship's broadside to a single point.
In February 1832 Tayler submitted another design and model for a traversing gun-carriage, which required half the number of men to work, and did away with the handspike, tackles, and crowbar used to train the gun.
"[8] Tayler's building projects do not seem to yielded much profit,[11] as by February 1842 he was being held in the Queen's Bench Prison for debt, when an order was made by the Court for Relief of Insolvent Debtors assigning his estate and effects to the Provisional Assignee on the petition of his creditors.