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Rowland Taylor was born at Rothbury, Northumberland. [1] Nothing is known of his parents. [1] Wikipedia gives his birth date as 6 October 1510 [2] but without a source; the ODNB gives no birth date and the date in Wikipedia must be regarded as uncertain.
Rowland Taylor studied law at Cambridge and was awarded a Bachelor of Civil Law degree in 1530 and a Doctor of Civil Law degree in 1534. [1]
From 1531 to 1538 he was Principal of Borden Hostel, a student hostel at the University of Cambridge. [1][3] He also gave lectures in law. [1]
In 1528 Rowland was ordained an exorcist and acolyte at Norwich [1] [3] but he did not take his ecclesiastical career further for about a decade, focusing on law and, among his other roles, working for the Archdeacon of Ely. [1]
After hearing sermons by Hugh Latimer at Cambridge, Rowland associated himself with the protestant reformers. [1] Latimer was installed as Bishop of Worcester in 1537, and Rowland became his commissary-general and one of his chaplains. [1] He undertook a preaching tour in 1538. [1] In March 1539 Latimer appointed him to the living of Hanbury, Worcestershire, though he was not at that stage ordained priest. [1] [3]
When Latimer resigned his bishopric in 1539, Rowland became chaplain to Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. [1] His ordination as priest followed. [1]
In 1544 Cranmer made him Rector of Hadleigh, Suffolk. [1] [3] In 1547 he became a canon of Rochester Cathedral [1]; in 1548, Archdeacon of Bury St Edmunds [1]; in 1551 one of the six preachers at Canterbury Cathedral [1] [3]; and in 1553, Archdeacon of Cornwall. [1] He also helped to oversee the dioceses of Norwich and of Worcester when there was an episcopal vacancy. [1][3]
Cranmer made him one of the commissioners for the reform of church laws. [1] [3]
Rowland Taylor was caught up in the attempt to secure the throne for Lady Jane Grey on the death of Edward VI. As a result he was arrested in late July 1553 and held in prison for several months. His subsequent freedom was short-lived. Mary I's council gave orders for his arrest in March 1554, this time for his religious views, which included the denunciation of the Pope, the denial of transubstantiation, and opposition to the compulsory celibacy of priests. He was detained in King's Bench Prison, London and underwent a number of examinations by Stephen Gardiner. [1] [3]
Rowland Taylor was sentenced to death as a heretic on 4 February 1555. [1] He was burned at the stake at Aldham Common, Suffolk, not far from his parish of Hadleigh, on 9 February 1555. [1] John Foxe states that a local butcher refused to help set up the faggots for his burning, and that one of the others ordered to assist in this, a drunkard called Soice, killed Rowland by a blow to the head which dashed out his brains and caused the corpse to fall into the flames. [4]
Foxe gives a report of Rowland's last words to his wife and children. [4] They include:
And to his son Thomas:
The place of Rowland's death is marked by a stone inscribed:[1][3]
In 1819 an obelisk, financed by public subscription, was set up there in his memory, with verses by Hay Drummond, who was then Rector of Hadleigh.[1][3]
There is also a memorial inscription in the church of Hadleigh, Suffolk. [3] [5]
Rowland married someone with the first name Margaret, probably after 1534. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states that the marriage took place in the London home of John Tyndale, and that her last name is not known. [1] They had eight children of their own.[1] Five died in his lifetime [4]:
The others were:
In addition, Foxe says that Rowland and his wife adopted an orphan, Elizabeth [1] who was age 14 at his death.[4]
Rowland Taylor has previously been shown as son of John Taylor and Susan Rowland. This is clearly not the case: John Taylor was a Catholic priest who would never have married, and there is no information about Rowland’s parentage. - Cayley-55 07:36, 24 November 2019 (UTC)
WikiTree has previously shown a tenth daughter of Rowland, Ann(e), with the same first name as the wife of William Palmer, who is said to have married a John Hooker. Foxe's Acts and Monuments records only the daughters named above and there is no evidence that Rowland Taylor had two daughters called Ann(e). The likelihood of his having two daughters with the same first name who survived him and married is very small. - Cayley-55 07:36, 24 November 2019 (UTC)
From the Dictionary of National Biography: "By his wife, whom he married probably about 1539, he had nine children, of whom four survived him. The eldest son's name was Thomas, and a daughter Anne married William Palmer (1539?–1605) [q. v.] His widow married one Wright, a divine (Parker Corresp. p. 221). Jeremy Taylor [q. v.] is said (Heber, Life of Jeremy Taylor) to have been a lineal descendant of Rowland Taylor, but the assertion has not been proved (Notes and Queries, 7th ser. ii. 56). [7]
A 1975 privately-printed family history, A Crane's Foot by E Stuart Gregg Junior, gives, without sourcing, an inaccurate account of the children of Rowland Taylor. It states that the five children whom Foxe records as having died in Rowland Taylor's lifetime all married after his martyrdom. [9]
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edited by Randy Taylor
The same people who burned this man also prohibited the earth and other planets from orbiting the sun. "And yet they move..."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_yet_it_moves
This is not necessarily true; there was a long tradition of priests marrying, particularly in England. Clerical celibacy was not always a "rule," but was more "aspirational." Even Pope Clement was married a few hundred years earlier, with children. In the 16th century, there was enormous opposition to clerical celibacy.
It's highly possible that John Taylor and Susan Rowland were indeed his parents.
We all need to remember that history is not black and white; there is a lot of ambiguity.
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https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Taylor,_Rowland_(DNB00)
Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 55 Taylor, Rowland by Albert Frederick Pollard
"TAYLOR ROWLAND d 1555 English Protestant martyr was born at Rothbury Northumberland he took minor orders at Norwich in 1528 and graduated LL B at Cambridge in 1530 and LL D in 1534 Adopting reformed views he was made chaplain by Cranmer in 1540 and presented to the living of Hadleigh Suffolk in 1544 In Whitsun week 1547 he preached a notable sermon at St Paul's Cross and was given the third stall in Rochester cathedral In 1 549 he was placed on a commission to examine Anabaptists and in 1551 he was appointed chancellor to Bishop Ridley select preacher at Canterbury and a commissioner for the reform of the canon law in 1551 Covcrdale made him archdeacon of Exeter Apparently he advocated the cause of Lady Jane Grey for on the jsth of July 1553 only six days after Mary's proclamation as queen he was committed to the custody of the sheriff of Essex He was released not long afterwards and with the support of his parishioners offered strenuous resistance to the restoration of the Mass He was consequently imprisoned in the King's Bench prison on the 26th of March 1554 The sturdy protestantism of Taylor and his flock who seem to have caused various commotions marked him out for the special enmity of Mary's government and he was one of the first to suffer when in January 1555 parliament had once more given the clerical courts liberty of jurisdiction He was sentenced on the 22nd excommunicated on the 29th degraded by Bonner on the 4th of February and burnt on the qih at Aldham Common near Hadleigh His blameless character had made a great impression on his age and he was commemorated in many popular ballads He was regarded as the ideal of a Protestant parish priest he was married and had nine children The alleged descent of Jeremy Taylor from him has not been proved.
See Thomas Quinton Stow's Memoirs of Rcu ljnd Taylor 1833 Did of Nat Bicp Iv 463 4 and authorities there cited."
Source:
The Encyclopedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information, Volume 26 Encyclopedia Britannica Company, 1911
Online at Google via https://cutt.ly/ienBSpg