Taylor, James Brainerd

Taylor, James Brainerd a young Congregational minister of ardent piety and great promise, was born at Middle Haddam, Conn., April 15, 1801. His parents being members of the Protestant Episcopal Church, he was trained up in religious associations, and while clerk in a store in New York city was converted, and joined the Church of Dr. Romeyn. He early became useful in all Christian activities. The departure of Dr. Scudder for India turned his attention to the ministry, and after a preparatory course of two years at Lawrenceville Academy, N. J., he went to Princeton College as a sophomore in 1823. On his graduation in 1826, he entered the Yale Theological Seminary, but he soon had symptoms of lung-disease, which compelled him to seek relief in a tour through the South. He was licensed to preach by the Middlesex Convocation at East Haddam, Oct. 8, 1828, but the state of his health was such that he resolved to spend the winter at the Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va. He died there March 29, 1829, leaving a bright example of the power of divine grace and the triumph of Christian hope. See his Memoir by Dr. Rice (N.Y. 1833).