Richard Taylor was born at
Norwich on 18 May 1781, the second son of
John Taylor. He was educated in a day school in that town by the Rev. John Houghton. He was then apprenticed, on the recommendation of
Sir James Edward Smith, to a printer named Davis, of
Chancery Lane, London. He studied the classics, mediæval Latin and Italian poets, and modern languages. '' (1841) On the expiration of his apprenticeship, he for a short time carried on a printing business in partnership with a Mr. Wilks in Chancery Lane; but on 18 May 1803 Taylor established himself in partnership with his father in Blackhorse Court,
Fleet Street, subsequently removing to Shoe Lane, and finally to Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, where the firm ultimately developed into
Taylor & Francis. His younger brother Arthur was his partner from 1814 to 1823, and his nephew, John Edward Taylor, joined him from 1837 to 1851,
Dr. William Francis, subsequently head of the firm, becoming his partner in the following year. Taylor and his partners produced major works in
natural history, as well as fine editions of the classics. In 1822, he joined
Alexander Tilloch as editor of the
Philosophical Magazine, subsequently the
London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine. He established the
Annals of Natural History in 1838, with which the
Magazine of Natural History was incorporated in 1841, and the two were carried on as the
Annals and Magazine of Natural History. ==Works==