Background

Taylor was born in Milnthorpe, Westmorland (now part of Cumbria), England, in 1808. He was the son of James and Agnes (Taylor) Taylor.

Education

He received only the rudiments of an elementary education, being apprenticed at fourteen to learn the trades of cooper and turner.

Career

Although his family was nominally Anglican, in his sixteenth year he became interested in Methodism and during the following year was appointed exhorter, or local preacher. In 1832 he followed his parents to Toronto, Canada.

In Canada he at once became active in the local Methodist organization, but, possessed of somewhat mystical tendencies, he was not entirely satisfied with Methodism, and turned to Irvingism, which, also, in a short time he abandoned. Not long afterward he was introduced to Mormonism by Parley P. Pratt and in 1836 was baptized in the Mormon church.

Presently he was ordained an elder and put in charge of missionary work in upper Canada. He made several visits to Kirtland, Ohio, participated in the Mormon migration to Missouri in 1838, and on July 8 of that year was chosen by Joseph Smith an apostle "by revelation. " He did not assume his official responsibilities until December, however, when he was "ordained to the office" by Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball. During the conflicts between Mormons and non-Mormons in Missouri and Illinois he played a prominent role in defending the Mormon cause and in keeping up morale.

At Nauvoo, Ill. , he served from 1842 to 1846 as editor for the Times and Seasons, the official Mormon periodical, and also owned and published the Nauvoo Neighbor, a strong pro-Mormon newspaper. He was city councilman, a regent of "Nauvoo University, " and judge advocate of the Nauvoo Legion. When in June 1844 Joseph and Hyrum Smith were imprisoned in the jail at Carthage, Ill. , Taylor and Willard Richards, another apostle, accompanied them "as friends. " In the attack on the jail by the lynching mob seeking the Prophet, Taylor was seriously wounded, but recovered. In the controversy over the successorship to Smith, Taylor, like most of the Twelve Apostles, threw in his lot with the Brigham Young faction. He trekked across the plains to Utah, assisted in colonizing there, and was always ready to defend his Church against all critics.

He was a member of the territorial legislature from 1857 to 1876 and served as speaker of the lower house for five successive sessions, beginning in 1857. From 1868 to 1870 he was probate judge of Utah County, and in 1877 he was elected territorial superintendent of schools. After Brigham Young's death in 1877, Taylor, who was head of the quorum of Twelve Apostles, directed the affairs of the Church for three years in the capacity of acting president. It was not until October 1880 that he was officially sustained by the semi-annual conference as "President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Prophet, Seer, and Revelator to the Church in all the world".

A man of great spiritual gifts, Taylor had a strong faith in divine revelation. He did not add materially to church dogma or organization, but ably carried on the traditions established by his two predecessors. He was a very effective speaker, and his most noteworthy contribution was his active proselyting. His first extensive missionary work was done in 1840 and 1841 in England; he introduced Mormonism to the Isle of Man, to Ireland, and to Scotland, and managed the migration of many of the new converts from England to the United States. After Brigham Young assumed control over the main body of the Mormons and had managed their exodus from Illinois to the Missouri River, Taylor, with Orson Hyde and Parley P. Pratt, returned to England in 1846 to insure the support of the British converts. He and his colleagues successfully counteracted the claims of Sidney Rigdon to be successor to Joseph Smith, and the similar claims of James J. Strang, thus saving the British mission to the Utah Mormons.

After a short period in Utah, Taylor was dispatched to France in 1849 and later to Germany to carry the Mormon gospel to these countries. He arranged for both the German and the French translations of The Book of Mormon. During the fifties, when the conflict between the Mormons and non-Mormons in the United States took on national interest, he was put in charge of missionary work in the Eastern states.

In 1854 he established a newspaper in New York City called The Mormon, designed to answer the attack of anti-Mormon agitators, most notable among whom was James Gordon Bennett. In 1857, because of the impending invasion of Utah by federal troops, he gave up his newspaper campaign and returned to Salt Lake City, but in the years that followed continued to answer the accusations of the critics of his faith both in the local and in the Eastern metropolitan press. His replies to the charges of Vice-President Schuyler Colfax, who had taken a hand in the public clamor, furnish an excellent picture of the pro-Mormon view of the so-called Mormon "menace. "

After the passage of the Edmunds-Tucker act in 1882, Taylor tried to assuage the federal prosecution by maintaining his official residence in the Gardo House in Salt Lake City with his sister as his housekeeper, while his wives and children remained in semi-seclusion in their respective households. In spite of this public gesture of compliance, and in spite of his public admonition to his followers to "be quiet" in the face of federal prosecution, Taylor himself was forced in 1884 to go into voluntary exile to escape arrest.

His health became rapidly enfeebled and he died in 1887 at Kaysville, Utah. For nearly three years he had directed the Church while in effect a fugitive from justice. He published a theological work entitled, An Examination into and an Elucidation of the Great Principles of the Mediation and Atonement of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (1882), and was the author of numerous pamphlets, editorials, and letters.

Achievements

• John Taylor has been listed as a noteworthy religious leader by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Teachings Of Presidents Of The Church - John Taylor

    (Softcover, minor cover shelf- & edgewear, corners lightly...)

  • The gospel kingdom: Selections from the writings and discourses of John Taylor, third president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

    (Book by Taylor, John)

  • The Government of God (Complete and Unabridged, with an INDEX) (Classic Reprint Series)
  • An Examination Into and an Elucidation of the Great Principle of the Mediation and Atonement of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Classic Reprint)
  • THE JOHN TAYLOR PAPERS - 2 VOL SET - RECORDS OF THE LAST UTAH PIONEER - Vol 1, 1836-1877 the Apostle and Vol 2, 1877-1887 the President

Connections

Taylor accepted the doctrine and practice of plural marriage in Nauvoo. He had seven wives, four of whom outlived him. These women bore him thirty-four children.

Father:

James Taylor

Mother:

Agnes Taylor

Spouse:

Sophia Whitaker

Spouse:

Harriet Whitaker

Spouse:

Jane Ballantyne

Spouse:

Mary Ann Oakley

Spouse:

Leonora Cannon

Spouse:

Elizabeth Kaighin

Spouse:

Margaret Young

She was a member of the inaugural general presidency of what is today the church's Young Women organization.

Daughter:

Annie Taylor Hyde

She was a leader in the Relief Society general presidency and was the founder of Daughters of Utah Pioneers.

Son:

William W. Taylor

He served as one of the first presidents of the seventy and also served in the Utah territorial legislature.

Son:

John W. Taylor

He was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).