John Taylor (dissenting Preacher) - in Norwich

In Norwich

In 1733 he moved to Norwich, as colleague to Peter Finch, son of Henry Finch.

So far Taylor had not deviated from dissenting orthodoxy, though hesitating about subscription. According to a family tradition, given by William Turner, on settling at Norwich he went through Samuel Clarke's Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity (1712) with his congregation, adopted its view, and came forward (1737) in defence of a dissenting layman excommunicated for heterodoxy on this topic by James Sloss (1698–1772) of Nottingham, a pupil of John Simson. On 25 February 1754 Taylor laid the first stone of the Octagon Chapel, Norwich, opened 12 May 1756, and described by John Wesley (23 December 1757) as ‘perhaps the most elegant one in all Europe,’ and too fine for ‘the old coarse gospel.’ In his opening sermon, Taylor, who had received (6 April) the diploma (dated 20 January) of D.D. from the University of Glasgow, disowned all names such as Presbyterian and the like, claiming that of Christian only; a claim attacked by a local critic, probably Grantham Killingworth, writing as a Quaker, under the name of ‘M. Adamson.’

At the end of December 1757, John Wesley was shown around the Octagon Chapel, as an invited dignitary. Wesley wrote in his diary:

I was shewn Dr Taylor's new meeting-house, perhaps the most elegant one in all Europe. It is eight square, built of the finest brick, with sixteen sash windows below, as many above, eight sky-lights in the dome, which indeed are purley ornamental. The inside is finished in the highest taste, and it is as clean as any nobleman's saloon. The Communion Table is fine mahogany; the very latches of the pew doors are polished brass. How can it be thought the old coarse gospel should find admission here?