John Edward Taylor 1791 - 1844
John Edward Taylor , Newspaper proprietor (1841). He had a "shock of red hair". Founder and first editor (until his death) of the Manchester Guardian. His first wife was a cousin. Quaker. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRguardian.htm John Taylor educated his son at his own school and when he was old enough, was sent to Daventry Academy. This was followed by employment with a company owned by John Shuttleworth, a Manchester cotton merchant. Taylor was a supporter of Joseph Lancaster and the monitorial school that he opened in Manchester. In 1810 Taylor became secretary of the committee that ran the school. Taylor also joined the Literary and Philosophical Society and in 1813 visited Leigh Hunt, the editor of The Examiner, who had been imprisoned for an article criticizing the Prince Regent. After the Peterloo Massacre, the government responded to the events at St. Peter's Field by passing the Six Acts. Taylor was radicalized by these events and felt that the Manchester Gazette did not accurately record the outrage that the people felt about what happened at St. Peter's Fields. Taylor's political friends agreed and it was decided to form their own newspaper. Eleven men, all involved in the textile industry, raised £1,050 for the venture. It was decided to call the newspaper the Manchester Guardian. John Edward Taylor was chosen as editor and Jeremiah Garnett was recruited as a printer and reporter. Garnett had worked for the Tory newspaper, Manchester Chronicle and had been their reporter at the Peterloo Massacre. Although Garnett had his reporter's notebook confiscated by a special constable, he was still able to write a full description of what happened. Charles Wheeler, disapproved of Garnett's account and refused to print his article. Garnett resigned in protest and had been working in Huddersfield until Taylor brought him back to Manchester. Although no other journalists were to be employed on the newspaper, Archibald Prentice and John Shuttleworth agreed to supply weekly articles. ------- The new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004) records: "Taylor, John Edward (1791-1844), newspaper editor, was born at Ilminster, Somerset, on 11 September 1791. His father was the Revd John Taylor (1753-1817), who came of a Lancashire farming family and was educated at Stand grammar school, near Manchester; his mother was born Mary Scott (1751/2-1793), daughter of a linen manufacturer of Milborne Port, Dorset. ---------- Taylor died of a chronic inflammation of the throat at his home, Beech Hill, Cheetham, on 6 January 1844, and was buried on 13 January."[4] [Biography by Geoffrey Taylor, Copyright Oxford University Press]
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| Born: Ilminster, , , England 11th Sep 1791 | Baptised: Quaker chapel, Ilminster, , , England 11th Sep 1791
| | Died: Beech(am) Hill, Cheetham, Manchester, England 6th Jan 1844 | Buried:
| | Family: Taylor |
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