Daniel Taylor | |
|---|---|
![]() Engraving of Daniel Taylor, 1816 | |
| Born | Daniel Taylor 21 December 1738 |
| Died | 26 November 1816(1816-11-26) (aged 77) |
| Occupations | |
| Notable work | A Compendious View |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 13 |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Christianity |
| Denomination | Baptist |
| Church | Protestant |
Daniel Taylor (1738 – 1816) was a BritishrevivalistGeneral Baptistminister,theologian, andwriter. Taylor was the founder of theNew Connexion of General Baptists, and was a great supporter of theGreat Awakening, working withAndrew Fuller,William Carey, and otherParticular Baptists.
Dan Taylor was born at Sourmilk Hall,Northowram, nearHalifax,Yorkshire, on 21 December 1738 to Azor Taylor and his wife Mary (Willey).[1] Like his father he was a coal-miner who joined the WesleyanMethodists in 1761, during his early twenties. Whilst never straying fromWesley's Arminianism, Taylor quickly tired of what he saw as Wesley's authoritianism. He determined to become a Baptist and set off for Boston, where there was aGeneral Baptist church; on the way he came across a Baptist church atGamston and in February 1763 was baptised there.[2] Taylor was ordained a Baptistminister and had begun organising the Birchcliffe Baptists, a grouping ofNonconformists aroundHebden Bridge. The following year the Birchcliffe group built their ownchapel. Taylor, a young man used to manual labour, quarried the stone himself.
Building the chapel proved an expensive burden, so Taylor travelled on foot toLeicestershire in search of support. Among the independent Baptist churches throughout the eastMidlands, there was a great deal of disillusionment with the current state of the General Assembly of General Baptists. Many Baptist churches were becoming increasingly liberal in their doctrine, obliging the more orthodox and the more evangelical among them to reconsider their communion.
In June 1770, Dan Taylor was able to bring together many of those Arminian Baptists disenchanted with the "Old General Baptists" in "The New Connexion of General Baptists". Well organised from the outset, the Connexion thrived, particularly in the industrial areas of the English Midlands. By 1817, a year after Taylor's death, the Connection had 70 chapels.
Taylor ministered to theBirchcliffe Baptist Church for twenty years until 1783 when he moved to a chapel inWandsworth, south westLondon.
In 1798, the Academy of the New Connexion of General Baptists was founded inMile End, east end of London. In 1813 it moved toWisbech, Cambridgeshire.
Daniel Taylor's younger brother, John Taylor, was also a Baptist pastor.