TAYLOR, ANN (1782-1866) afterwards Mrs. Gilbert and TAYLOR, JANE (1783-1824), English writers for children, daughters of Isaac Taylor (1759-1829), were born in London on Jan. 3o, 1782, and Sept. 23, 1783, respectively. In 1786 the Taylors went to live at Lavenham in Suffolk, and ten years later removed to Colchester. Jane was a lively and entertaining child, and composed plays and poems at a very early age. Their father and mother held advanced views on education, and under their guidance the girls were instructed not only in their father's art of engraving, but in the principles of fortification. Ann introduced herself to the publishers Darton and Harvey by a rhymed answer to a puzzle in the Minor's Pocket Book for 1799, and Jane made her first appearance in print in the same periodical with "The Beggar Boy." The publishers then wrote to Isaac Taylor asking for more verses for children from his family, and the result was Original Poems for Infant Minds (2 vols., by "several young persons," of whom Ann and Jane were the largest con tributors. The book had an immediate and lasting success.
Josiah Gilbert, and Jane went to live at Ilfracombe with her brother Isaac. In 1816 Jane returned to Ongar, where the family had been settled for some years, and died there on April 13, 1824. Ann Gilbert died at Nottingham on Dec. 20, 1866. Both sisters wrote after their separation, but none of their later works had the same vogue.
The best edition of the Poetical Works of the sisters is that of 1877. There is an excellent edition (19o3) of the Original Poems and Others, by Ann and Jane Taylor and Adelaide O'Keeffe, edited by E. V. Lucas, with illustrations by F. D. Bedford (19o3).
Abundant information about Ann and Jane Taylor is to be found in: Autobiography and Other Memorials of Mrs. Gilbert (2 Vols., 1874) , edited by her son Josiah Gilbert ; Memoirs and Poetical Remains . . . of Jane Taylor ed. by her brother, Isaac Taylor (2 vols., 1825), and the collection by the same editor entitled The Family Pen: Memorials . . . of the Taylor Family of Ongar, vol. ii. (1867) ; see also Mrs. H. C. Knight, Life and Letters of Jane Taylor.
A selection of Prose and Poetry by Jane Taylor was published, with introd. by F. V. Barry, in 1925.