John Taylor's mother's name was Agnes; her maiden name was also Taylor. Her grandfather, Christopher Taylor, lived to be ninety-seven years of age. His son John, father of Agnes, held an office in the excise under government, from his first setting out in life to the age of about sixty. He was between seventy and eighty when he died. The maiden name of Agnes Taylor's mother was Whittington, a descendant of the family made famous by Richard Whittington, the younger son of Sir William Whittington. (Sir William died intestate shortly after his son Richard was born; and this circumstance, under the English law of primogeniture, left him without a fortune. Nothing discouraged by this event, Richard went to London to engage in trade. He apprenticed himself to a mercer and appears to have risen rapidly in the world. He was made an alderman in the city of London, then high sheriff; thrice was he chosen lord mayor of London, and afterwards was elected member of parliament for the city. He stood in high favor with the king, who conferred on him the honor of knighthood. He was diligent and exceedingly prosperous in business, upright and liberal in character, "a virtuous and godly man, full of good works, and those famous," says an old chronicler. In many respects he was considerably in advance of his times and conferred a lustre on his family's name which will live forever in English story. This illustrious man was born, as nearly as may be ascertained, about 1360.) To James and Agnes Taylor were born ten children--eight sons and two daughters. Three of the sons died while young. John Taylor was the second son, but as his eldest brother, Edward, died at the age of twenty-two, John stood next to his father, the head of the family. John Taylor's father had received an appointment under government in the excise, and the nature of his office was such that he had to move from place to place. In 1819, however, he left government employ and removed from Liverpool, where he had lived five years, and settled on his estate in Hale. CHAPTER II. BOYHOOD--EARLY SURROUNDINGS--TRADE--SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS--A STORM AT SEA. John Taylor was eleven years old when his father settled on his estate in Hale. He attended school at Beetham, about a mile from Hale, and only a few miles south of his birth place. It was in these boyhood days at home that he got "mixed up," as he puts it, "with ploughing, sowing, reaping, hay-making and other farm work; and I have indelibly impressed on my mind," he continues, "some of my first mishaps in horsemanship in the way of sundry curious evolutions between the horses' backs and _terra firma_."