Note on Hymn Tunes Attributed to 'R. Taylor'

Most of the pieces attributed to 'R. Taylor' in American tunebooks can be traced to Rayner Taylor (ca. 1747-1825). Several of his hymn tunes, including (BADDOW, CHELMSFORD, CHESTERBROOK, LIMEHOUSE, TIGRIS, and STEPNEY, the most frequently printed, appeared in Thomas Williams, Harmonia Coelestis (London, 1789), and are here counted as non-American compositions because they preceded Taylor's emigration to the United States. In Benjamin Carr, Masses, Vespers, Litanies (Philadelphia, 1805), the author thanks 'my friend Mr. Rayner Taylor, who. has enriched the collection with some of his compositions,' identifying the 'R. Taylor' to whom several liturgical chants in that work are attributed. Several more pieces by 'R. Taylor' appear in the Reverend William Smith, The Churchman's Choral Companion (New York, 1809); the composer is identified in that book as a resident of Philadelphia. The pieces in Carr and Smith are all tabulated here as American compositions. John Cole, The Beauties of Psalmody, 2d ed. (Baltimore, 1805), attributes BETHEL and SABAOTH to 'Rd. Taylor' - the Englishman Richard Taylor (1758-1813). RESIGNATION, attributed to "Taylor' in Brown et al., Columbian and European Harmony (1802, 1804), is there designated a European tune, whether by Rayner or Richard Taylor. TOPSFIELD, attributed to 'Dr. Taylor' by Jonathan Huntington, The Apollo Harmony (Northampton, 1807), had been identified as an American piece by Samuel Holyoke, The Columbian Repository (Exeter, [1803])-either Rayner or another American Taylor. That another American Taylor was a composer (Timothy Taylor of Danbury?) is shown by IMMORTAL DOVE, claimed as a 1st. pr. in Stephen Jenks and Elisha Griswold, The American Compiler (Northampton, 1803), a work by a pair of Connecticut compilers who, so far as is known, had no contact with the Philadelphian Rayner Taylor.