Author: Scott, Mary
Biography:
SCOTT, Mary, later TAYLOR (c. 1752-93: ODNB)
She was born into a Protestant dissenting family in Milborne Port, Somerset. In the absence of a baptismal record, her date of birth is calculated by her age at death. Her father was a well-to-do linen merchant. Given that her mother is known to have died at Milborne Port in 1787 it seems very likely that her parents were Mary and John Scott: an inscription on her tomb includes his name. Mary Scott’s poem The Female Advocate, which celebrates literary achievements by women and adds to the catalogue of names praised in John Duncombe’s (q.v.) Feminiad of 1754, was dedicated to the hymn-writer Anne Steele (q.v.). Its publication led to a sympathetic correspondence between Scott and Anna Seward (q.v.) in which some of the information about Scott has its source. Later publications include two poems in GM in 1783 and 1786—one on Seward and the other an elegy for Jonas Hanway—and finally Messiah, which was published in Bath just before Scott’s marriage in 1788. Scott probably met her future husband John Taylor (1753-1817) through her brother Russell Scott (1760-1846), who trained for the Unitarian ministry at the Daventry Academy in Northamptonshire where John Taylor was a tutor. Taylor, who had started out as a Presbyterian minister, became a Unitarian and after his marriage converted once more and joined the Quakers. Their wedding was postponed while Scott cared for her mother but it finally took place on 7 May 1788 at Milborne Port. They had two children, including a son who founded the Manchester Guardian, but Mary Taylor died in Bristol on 5 June 1793, aged 41, three weeks before the expected birth of their third. She was interred in a Quaker burial ground there on 10 June. (ODNB 2 Oct. 2024; Blain; Orlando 2 Oct. 2024; findmypast.com 2 Oct. 2024)
Other Names:
- Miss Scott