John Edward Taylor | |
|---|---|
| Born | John Edward Taylor 11 September 1791 Ilminser, Somerset, England |
| Died | 6 January 1844 (aged 52) |
| Occupation(s) | Editor and publisher |
John Edward Taylor (11 September 1791 – 6 January 1844) was the founder of the Manchester Guardian newspaper, later to become The Guardian.
He was born at Ilminster, Somerset, England, to Mary Scott, the poet, and John Taylor, a Unitarian minister who moved after his wife's death to Manchester with his son to run a school there. John Edward was educated at his father's school and at Daventry Academy. He was apprenticed to a cotton manufacturer in Manchester and later became a successful merchant. A moderate supporter of reform, he witnessed the Peterloo massacre in 1819, but was unimpressed by its leaders, writing:
'they have appealed not to the reason but to the passions and the suffering of their abused and credulous fellow-countrymen, from whose ill-requited industry they extort for themselves the means of a plentiful and comfortable existence.' [1]
But the radical press in Manchester, in particular the Manchester Observer did support the protests, and it was not until the Observer was closed by successive police prosecutions that the road was clear for a newspaper closer to Taylor's liberal-minded mill-owning friends.[2] In 1821 a group of eleven of them founded the Manchester Guardian, published by law only once a week, which Taylor continued to edit until his death. The influential journalist Jeremiah Garnett joined Taylor during the establishment of the paper.[3]
His younger son, also John Edward Taylor (though usually known as Edward) (1830–1905) became a co-owner of the Manchester Guardian in 1852 and sole owner four years later. He was also editor of the paper from 1861 to 1872. He bought the Manchester Evening News from its founder Mitchell Henry in 1868 and was owner, then co-owner, until his death. He had no children; after his death the Evening News passed into the hands of his nephews in the Allen family, while the Guardian was sold to its editor, his cousin C. P. Scott.
citing: [Manchester Guardian, 28 Sept. 1870; Manchester Free Lance, 1 Oct. 1870 ; Prentice's Historical Sketches and Personal Recollections of Manchester; personal knowledge.]
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