Michael Angelo Taylor (1757 – 16 July 1834) was an English

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and MP for

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council ...

. He favored

parliamentary reform In the United Kingdom, Reform Act is most commonly used for legislation passed in the 19th century and early 20th century to enfranchise new groups of voters and to redistribute seats in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingd ...

and was made a privy councillor in 1831.

Life

He was a son of Sir Robert Taylor (1714–1788), the architect, and his wife Elizabeth, and was educated at

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 1 ...

, becoming a barrister at Lincoln's Inn in 1774. He entered the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

(MP) for

in 1784, and, with the exception of the short period from 1802 to 1806, remained a member of parliament until 1834, although not as the representative of the same constituency. In Parliament Taylor showed himself anxious to curtail the delays in the

Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the Common law#History, common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over ...

, and to improve the lighting and paving of the London streets; and he was largely instrumental in bringing about the abolition of the

pillory The pillory is a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, formerly used for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse. The pillory is related to the sto ...

. At first a supporter of the younger Pitt, he soon veered round to the side of

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelv ...

and the Whigs, favored parliamentary reform, and was a personal friend of the regent, afterwards King

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

. He was on the committee which managed the

Impeachment of Warren Hastings The impeachment of Warren Hastings, the first governor-general of Bengal, was attempted between 1787 and 1795 in the Parliament of Great Britain. Warren Hastings, Hastings was accused of misconduct during his time in Calcutta, particularly rela ...

; was made a

privy councillor A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

in 1831; and died in London in July 1834. Taylor is chiefly known in connection with the Metropolitan Paving Act 1817, which is still referred to as "Michael Angelo Taylor's Act." Often called "Chicken Taylor" because of his reference to himself as a "mere chicken in the law," he is described by Sir

Spencer Walpole Sir Spencer Walpole KCB, FBA (6 February 1839 – 7 July 1907) was an English historian and civil servant. Background He came of the younger branch of the ''de facto'' first prime minister, Robert Walpole who revived the Whig Party, b ...

as "a pompous barrister, with a little body and a loud voice." Michael Angelo challenged a codicil to his father's will, left unsigned when Sir Robert died in 1788, by means of which Sir Robert intended to gift £65,000 to the University of Oxford. The University did not receive the money, with which it built the

Taylor Institution The Taylor Institution (commonly known as the Taylorian) is the Oxford University library dedicated to the study of the languages of Europe. Its building also includes lecture rooms used by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Unive ...

, until 1835, a year after Michael Angelo's own death.

Notes

References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Michael Angelo 1757 births 1834 deaths Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Members of Lincoln's Inn Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for City of Durham British MPs 1784–1790 British MPs 1790–1796 British MPs 1796–1800 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for City of Durham UK MPs 1801–1802 UK MPs 1806–1807 UK MPs 1807–1812 UK MPs 1812–1818 UK MPs 1818–1820 UK MPs 1820–1826 UK MPs 1826–1830 UK MPs 1830–1831 UK MPs 1832–1835 Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom