Francis Taylor
1589–1656
Hebraist; Master of Jesus College Cambridge; Westminster Annotator on Proverbs.
Biography
Of Queens' College Cambridge, then Yalding (Kent) for forty years from the early 1620s. Taylor was the Assembly's specialist in rabbinical-Hebrew sources, contributing the annotations on Proverbs and parts of the historical books to the Westminster Annotations on the Bible (1645-47). He published Targum Prius et Posterius in Estheram (1655) — a critical edition of the two Targumim on Esther with Latin translation — and a Commentary on the First Three Chapters of the Proverbs (1655). Made Master of Jesus College Cambridge in 1652 after Thomas Young's deprivation for refusing the Engagement Oath. Died at Cambridge in 1656.
Principal works
- Selfe-Satisfaction Examined (1646)
- Targum Prius et Posterius in Estheram (1655)
- A Commentary on the First Three Chapters of the Proverbs (1655)
English Presbyterian divine
The great majority of the sitting members were English parish ministers of Presbyterian conviction. They formed the drafting core of the Assembly, manning its three standing committees and supplying most of the text of the Confession, the two Catechisms, and the Directory for Public Worship.