Emily Taylor

Taylor, Emily, born 1795, was the daughter of Samuel Taylor, of New Buckenham, Norfolk, niece of John Taylor, of Norwich, the hymnwriter, and great grand-daughter of Dr. John Taylor, the Hebraist. Miss Taylor was the writer of numerous tales for children, chiefly historical, and of various books of instruction, and of descriptive natural history. Amongst her publications are:—
(1) Letters to a Child on Maritime Discovery, 1820; (2) Vision of Las Casas, and other Poems, 1825; (3) Poetical Illustrations of Passages of Scripture, 1826 ; (4) Tales of the Saxons, 1832; (5) Tales of the English, 1833; (6) Memoir of Sir T. More, 1834; (7) The Boy and the Birds, 1835. She also edited Sabbath Recreations, 1826; and Flowers and Fruit in Old English Gardens, 1836; and contributed to the Magnet Stories, 1860, &c.; and the Rainbow Stories, 1870, &c.

Miss Taylor wrote several hymns, which appeared as follows:—To the Unitarian Collection of Psalms & Hymns, printed for the Renshaw Street Chapel, Liverpool, 1818, she contributed anonymously:—
1. Come to the house of prayer. Invitation to Public Worship. Sometimes given as "O come to the house of Prayer."
2. God of the changing year Whose arm of power. Lessons of the Changing Year.
3. O Father, though the anxious fear. Sunday.
4. O here, if ever, God of love. Holy Communion.
These, and the following 6 hymns, were given anonymously in the 2nd ed. of the Norwich Unitarian Hymn Book, 1826:—
5. Here, Lord, when at Thy Table met. Holy Communion.
6. O not for these alone I pray. Holy Communion. Sometimes, "No, not for these alone I pray."
7. The Gospel is the light. Worth and Power of the Gospel. Sometimes “It is the one true light."
8. Thus shalt thou love the Almighty God [Lord] . Self-consecration to God.
9. Who shall behold the King of kings? Purity.
10. Who that o'er many a barren part. Missions. Sometimes it begins with st. ii., "Thy kingdom come! The heathen lands."
Of the above No. 6 is part of a longer poem which was given in her Poetical Illustrations of Passages of Scripture, 1826. This work also contains:—
11. O Source of good! around me spread. Seek, and ye shall find.
12. Truly the light of morn is sweet. Early Piety.
13. When summer suns their radiance fling. Resignation with Praise.
In the Rev. J. R. Beard's Collection of Hymns for Public and Private Worship, 1837, several of the above are repeated, and also:—
14. If love, the noblest, purest, best. Communion with Jesus.

Of these 14 hymns 10 are in Dr. Martineau's Hymns, &c, 1840, and 9 in his Hymns, &c, 1873. Several are also found in other collections, as Horder's Congregational Hymns, 1881, and some American and other hymn-books. Although for the greater part of her life Miss Taylor was a Unitarian, latterly, under the influence of F. D. Maurice, she joined the Church of England She died in 1872. [Rev. Valentine D. Davis, B.A.]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)