Life

Thomas Taylor, born in the East Indies, was the eldest son of Joseph Irwin Taylor, colonel in the East Indian army. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...

, graduating B.A. in 1807, and M.B. and M.D. in 1814. He was afterwards elected a fellow of the King and Queen's College of Physicians, and during his residence in Dublin acted as physician in ordinary to Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital.

He acted as professor of botany and natural history in the Royal Cork Scientific Institution as long as that institution lasted, and then retired to Dunkerron, near Kenmare

Kenmare

Kenmare is a small town in the south of County Kerry, Ireland. The name Kenmare is the anglicised form of Ceann Mara meaning "head of the sea", referring to the head of Kenmare Bay.-Location:...

, co. Kerry. Here his medical knowledge and his purse were freely used for his poorer neighbours during the famine winter of 1847–8, and here he died early in February 1848. Taylor was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1814, and was also an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy

Royal Irish Academy

The Royal Irish Academy , based in Dublin, is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is one of Ireland's premier learned societies and cultural institutions and currently has around 420 Members, elected in...

. His botanical researches were mainly among the mosses, liverworts, and lichens.

Besides Muscologia Britannica, published by him in conjunction with Sir William Jackson Hooker

William Jackson Hooker

Sir William Jackson Hooker, FRS was an English systematic botanist and organiser. He held the post of Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow University, and was the first Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He enjoyed the friendship and support of Sir Joseph Banks for his exploring,...

 in 1818 (2nd ed. 1827), he wrote much cryptogamic matter for the Flora Antarctica of Joseph Dalton Hooker

Joseph Dalton Hooker

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, CB, MD, FRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend...

, and is credited with twenty-three papers, four written in conjunction with that botanist (Roy. Soc. Cat. v. 923–4). These include an important memoir, De Marchanteis, in the Transactions of the Linnean Society, and contributions to the Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, the Phytologist, Hooker's Journal of Botany, and the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. His herbarium of over eight thousand sheets and his drawings were purchased at his death by John Amory Lowell

John Amory Lowell

Hon. John Amory Lowell was an American businessman and philanthropist from Boston. He became the sole trustee of the Lowell Institute when his first cousin, John Lowell, Jr. , the Institute's endower, died...

 of Boston, Mass., and presented by him to the Boston Society of Natural History

Boston Society of Natural History

The Boston Society of Natural History in Boston, Massachusetts, was an organization dedicated to the study and promotion of natural history. It published a scholarly journal and established a museum. In its first few decades, the society occupied several successive locations in Boston's Financial...

.

His name was commemorated by Sir William Hooker in the genus Tayloria belonging to the mosses.