Taylor, Thomas (1786–1848), botanist, was born 10 May 1786 in the East Indies, eldest son among six children of Joseph Irwin Taylor, colonel in the East Indian army, and his wife, an Indian woman known as Poor Begum. Educated in Ireland from 1793, he attended the French school in Cork city before entering TCD, where he graduated BA (1807) and MB and MD (1814). After working as physician in ordinary at Sir Patrick Dun's hospital, Dublin, his preference for nature soon led him to the study of botany during excursions to Co. Wicklow. In 1814 he was elected fellow of the Linnean Society and fellow of the King and Queen's College of Physicians, and he later became an honorary MRIA (1816). In 1818 he published Muscologia Britannica together with Sir William J. Hooker, who was so impressed with Taylor's contribution that he dedicated the genus Tayloria (mosses) in his honour. Appointed lecturer in botany and natural science at the Royal Cork Scientific Institution, Taylor was later secretary and assistant treasurer of the body in addition to his other duties.
Perhaps his greatest contribution to botany were the articles on mosses, ferns, and lichens that he wrote for Flora Hibernica (1836), by his friend James Townsend Mackay (qv). He is also credited with adding a new genus (Hydophilia) to the older Hepaticae. In a generous tribute in his introduction, Mackay stated that of all the botanists in Ireland Taylor ‘was best qualified for the task’ of contributing the articles (Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science, 573–4); Taylor later completed the second part of the work himself. He also compiled a useful, and detailed study of the work of John Templeton (qv), one of the first Irish zoologists.
After the loss of the government grant for the Royal Cork Scientific Institution, Taylor retired as professor of botany and natural history and returned to his estate at Dunkerron, near Kenmare, Co. Kerry. A local magistrate and philanthropist, he spent his final years using his medical skills and money to assist the poor during the great famine. He died 4 February 1848 of fever contracted from his public efforts to alleviate hardship. One obituary noted that he was ‘one of the most distinguished botanists which the country ever produced’ (ibid., 573). He married (6 September 1809) his cousin, Harriet Taylor; they had two sons and a daughter.