Early life John Taylor was born in the parish of St. Ewen's, near South Gate,
Gloucester on 24 August 1578. His parentage is unknown, as the parish registers did not survive the
Civil War. He did, however, attend elementary school and grammar school there. His grammar school education may have taken place at the Crypt School in Gloucester, however Taylor never finished his formal education due to difficulties with his Latin studies.
Waterman In the early 1590s, after his attempt at grammar school he moved from his home to south London, probably
Southwark, to begin an apprenticeship as a
waterman. He became a member of the ruling oligarchy of the guild, serving as its clerk; it is mainly through his writings that history is familiar with the watermen's disputes of 1641–42, in which an attempt was made to democratize the leadership of the company. He details the uprisings in the pamphlets
John Taylors Manifestation ... and
To the Right Honorable Assembly ... (Commons Petition), and in
John Taylors Last Voyage and Adventure of 1641. Taylor discusses the watermen's disputes with the theatre companies (who moved the theatres from the south bank to the north in 1612, depriving the ferries of traffic) in ''The True Cause of the Watermen's Suit Concerning Players'' (written in 1613 or 1614). The move of theatres from the south bank to the north took a huge toll on Taylor's income, and despite at that time being in the company of the King's Watermen, he could not sway the
king to prevent the move. He also addresses the coachmen, in his tract
An Arrant Thief (1622); recent development of horse-drawn carriages with spring suspension, and use of them for hire on land, had taken much trade away from the watermen.
An Arrant Thief says: All sorts of men, work all the means they can, To make a Thief of every waterman : And as it were in one consent they join, To trot by land i' th' dirt, and save their coin. Carroaches,
coaches,
jades, and Flanders mares, Do rob us of our shares, our wares, our fares : Against the ground, we stand and knock our heels, Whilst all our profit runs away on wheels ; And, whosoever but observes and notes, The great increase of coaches and of boats, Shall find their number more than e'er they were, By half and more, within these thirty years. Then watermen at sea had service still, And those that staid at home had work at will : Then upstart Hell-cart-coaches were to seek, A man could scarce see twenty in a week ; But now I think a man may daily see, More than the
wherrys on the Thames can be. When
Queen Elizabeth came to the crown, A coach in England then was scarcely known, Then 'twas as rare to see one, as to spy A Tradesman that had never told a lie. Taylor was also the first poet to mention the deaths of
William Shakespeare and
Francis Beaumont in print, in his 1620 poem, "The Praise of
Hemp-seed". Both had died four years earlier. In paper, many a poet now survives Or else their lines had perish'd with their lives. Old
Chaucer,
Gower, and Sir
Thomas More, Sir
Philip Sidney, who the laurel wore,
Spenser, and Shakespeare did in art excell, Sir
Edward Dyer,
Greene,
Nash,
Daniel.
Sylvester, Beaumont, Sir
John Harrington, Forgetfulness their works would over run But that in paper they immortally Do live in spite of death, and cannot die. He was a prolific poet, with over one hundred and fifty publications in his lifetime. Many were gathered into the compilation
All the Workes of John Taylor the Water Poet (London, 1630; facsimile reprint Scholar Press, Menston, Yorkshire, 1973); augmented by the Spenser Society's edition of the
Works of John Taylor ... not included in the Folio edition of 1630 (5 volumes, 1870–78). Although his work was not sophisticated, he was a keen observer of people and styles in the seventeenth century, and his work is often studied by social historians. An example is his 1621 work ''Taylor's Motto'', which included a list of then-current card games and diversions: The Prodigalls estate, like to a flux, The Mercer, Draper, and the Silkman sucks: The Tailor, Millainer, Dogs, Drabs, and Dice, Trey-trip, or Passage, or the Most at thrice; At
Irish,
Tick-tacke,
Doublets,
Draughts, or
Chesse, He flings his money free with carelessenesse: At Novum
Mumchance, mischance (chuse ye which), At
One and thirty, or at Poor and rich,
Ruffe,
slam,
Trump,
noddy,
whisk, hole,
sant, New-cut. Unto the keeping of four Knaves he'l put His whole estate, at
Loadum, or at
Gleeke, At Tickle-me quickly, he's a merry Greeke; At
Primefisto,
Post and payre,
Primero,
Maw, Whip-her-ginny, he's a lib'rall
Hero; At
My-sow-pigg'd: but (Reader never doubt ye, He's skill'd in all games except) Looke about ye.
Bowles,
shove-groate,
tennis, no game comes amiss, His purse a nurse for any body is; Caroches, Coaches and Tobacconists, All sorts of people freely from his fists, His vaine expenses daily suck and soake, And he himself sucks only drink and smoake: And thus the Prodigall, himselfe alone Gives sucke to thousands, and himselfe sucks none. He achieved notoriety by a series of eccentric journeys: for example, he travelled from London to
Queenborough in a paper boat with two
stockfish tied to canes for oars, described in "The Praise of Hemp-Seed", which was re-enacted in 2006. From his journey to Scotland in 1618, on which he took no money, Taylor published his
Pennyless Pilgrimage. (
Ben Jonson walked to Scotland in the same year.) He is one of the few credited early authors of a
palindrome: in 1614, he wrote "Lewd did I live, & evil I did dwel". He wrote a poem about
Thomas Parr, a man who supposedly lived to the age of 152 and died visiting London in 1635. Some of Taylor's works include semi-nonsensical passages in fictitious languages he called "Barbarian", "Utopian", and "Barmooda tongue" (or "Barmoodan"), whose respective native speakers were Black Africans, Native Americans, and the settlers or feral hogs in
Bermuda. These lampoon
Thomas Coryat works and the
dedicatory verses in ''
Coryat's Crudities'' by
Henry Peacham and
Michael Drayton. Many of Taylor's works were published by
subscription; i.e., he would propose a book, ask for contributors, and write it when he had enough subscribers to undertake the printing costs. He had more than sixteen hundred subscribers to
The Pennylesse Pilgrimage; or, the Moneylesse Perambulation of John Taylor, alias the Kings Magesties Water-Poet; How He TRAVAILED on Foot from London to Edenborough in Scotland, Not Carrying any Money To or Fro, Neither Begging, Borrowing, or Asking Meate, Drinke, or Lodging, published in 1618. Those who defaulted on the subscription were chided the following year in a scathing brochure entitled
A Kicksey Winsey, or, A Lerry Come-Twang, which he issued in the following year. By wondrous accident perchance one may Grope out a needle in a load of hay; And though a white crow be exceeding rare, A blind man may (by fortune) catch a hare. —
A Kicksey Winsey, part VII
Death Taylor died in London in December 1653 aged 75. He was buried on 5 December at the church of
St Martin-in-the-Fields. His widow, Alice, died in January 1658. == Reception and influence ==