Zachary Taylor (1653–1705) was an English priest, known for his controversial writings. One of his opponents dubbed him the "Lancashire Levite".
Life
He was born at
Bolton, Lancashire, on 20 April 1653, and baptised at the parish church on 24 April; his father Zachary Taylor the elder (1619–1693) was an
ejected minister in 1662, married to Abigail Ward, who became a schoolmaster. The younger
Zachary Taylor was admitted at
Jesus College, Cambridge, on 19 April 1671, and graduated B.A. in 1675, and M.A. in 1678; he was incorporated at Oxford on 13 July 1678.
Taylor was appointed vicar of
Ormskirk on 9 March 1680, and resigned in 1693, becoming curate to the rector of
Wigan. On 10 December 1695 he was appointed by the crown to the rectory of
Croston, Lancashire, retaining the curacy of Wigan. He died in 1705, probably in May; his will, dated 30 April, was proved at Chester on 19 June 1705.
Works
Taylor was a
Whig hard-liner, and argued in an anonymous tract ''Submission and Obedience to the Present Government'' (1690) the duty of taking the oaths of allegiance to
William III William III or William the Third may refer to:
Kings
* William III of Sicily (c. 1186–c. 1198)
* William III of England and Ireland or William III of Orange or William II of Scotland (1650–1702)
* William III of the Netherlands and Luxembourg ...
and
Mary II
Mary II (30 April 166228 December 1694) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, co-reigning with her husband, William III & II, from 1689 until her death in 1694.
Mary was the eldest daughter of James, Duke of York, and his first wife ...
, based on ''Bishop Overall's Convocation Book''. That work had recently been published for the first time by
William Sancroft, to justify the attitude of
non-jurors
The Nonjuring schism refers to a split in the established churches of England, Scotland and Ireland, following the deposition and exile of James II and VII in the 1688 Glorious Revolution. As a condition of office, clergy were required to swear ...
; but Taylor interpreted its argument of the book in the opposite sense. The author
John Overall had drawn up the manuscript in 1606, and it consisted of a series of canons which had been submitted to
Convocation
A convocation (from the Latin ''wikt:convocare, convocare'' meaning "to call/come together", a translation of the Ancient Greek, Greek wikt:ἐκκλησία, ἐκκλησία ''ekklēsia'') is a group of people formally assembled for a speci ...
and accepted by it early in James I's reign, concerning the right of subjects to resist oppressive government. The canons, in ambiguous language, denied the
right of resistance but recognised that a government originating in rebellion might acquire the stamp of
divine authority. James I objected to the second point, and the canons were dropped before they received official confirmation. Sancroft had brought the matter to public notice by insisting on Overall's first doctrine, of non-resistance; Taylor's pamphlet put the opposite emphasis on Overall's argument, and his interpretation seems to have influenced
William Sherlock. Taylor added a ''Vindication'' (1691), also anonymous.
Taylor is remembered for the part he took in exposing the handling of
Richard Dugdale, the "Surey demoniac", by publishing ''The Surey Impostor'', 1697. Many nonconformist ministers in Lancashire, including
Thomas Jollie, took Dugdale's condition to be
demonic possession
Spirit possession is an unusual or altered state of consciousness and associated behaviors purportedly caused by the control of a human body by spirits, ghosts, demons, or gods. The concept of spirit possession exists in many cultures and reli ...
. Taylor denounced the affair as imposing on the credulous. Jollie replied, and Taylor rejoined in ''Popery, Superstition, Ignorance, and Knavery … very fully proved'', 1698 He was then attacked in ''The Lancashire Levite Rebuk'd'' (1698, anonymous, perhaps by John Carrington of Lancaster), and hence his nickname. Taylor retorted in ''Popery, Superstition, Ignorance, and Knavery confess'd and fully proved'' (1699).
A local religious controversy drew from Taylor ''The Devil turn'd Casuist; or the Cheats of Rome'' (1696). He published funeral sermons for Lady Elizabeth Bradshaigh (1695) and John Risley (1705).
Family
Taylor married, first, on 12 July 1685, Barbara (died September 1689), daughter of Sir Edward Stanley, 3rd Baronet, of Bickerstaffe. His second wife, Anne, survived him, with several children.
Notes
Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Zachary
1653 births
1705 deaths
17th-century English Anglican priests
Clergy from Bolton