but did not attend his classes, and he eventually became a pupil of Henry Cline [q. v.] at St. Thomas's Hospital. This was about 1798. In 1801 Taunton was appointed demonstrator of anatomy at Guy's Hospital, in temporary charge during the illness of John Cunningham Saunders [q. v.], and he subsequently became principal lecturer at the London Anatomical Society. He was surgeon to the city dispensary in 1801, at a time when the charity was almost bankrupt; but under his able guidance it soon became a flourishing establishment. His position as surgeon to the city dispensary led him to treat large numbers of poor weavers in Spitalfields who suffered from prolapsus ani, hernia, and other diseases incident to their occupation, for the cure of which expensive mechanical appliances were required. This led to the establishment of the City of London Truss Society in 1807, when Taunton, with the assistance of a young bell-hanger, began to manufacture trusses for distribution among the poor of the neighbourhood. The institution has grown until three surgeons are now employed and upwards of ten thousand patients are annually relieved. Taunton became attached to the Finsbury dispensary as its surgeon about the beginning of the century, and reformed its whole constitution. He also took an active part at the Medical Society of London, which he nearly wrecked in 1812 by proposing as secretary, and carrying against all opposition, Thomas Joseph Pettigrew [q. v.], a former apprentice, then newly admitted a member of the College of Surgeons, instead of Dr. Birkbeck, whose position as a senior member of the profession should have secured him from such a contest. Taunton had a very large dispensary practice of a kind which is now extinct. It was his duty to visit the sick poor at their own homes, which were distributed over large areas. He performed this duty most conscientiously, yet he found time to carry out innumerable post-mortem examinations and made many pathological preparations. He also established a private school, at which he sought to supplement the very deficient training then given to the medical students at the various hospitals in London. He died at his house in Hatton Garden on Monday morning, 5 March 1821, leaving a widow and three sons.
There is an unsigned three-quarter length portrait in oils of John Taunton in the secretary's office at the Truss Society's rooms in Finsbury Square, E.C.
[Obituary notice in the London Medical Repository, 1821, xv. 344; Life of T. J. Pettigrew in the Medical Portrait Gallery, iv. 4; information kindly contributed by John Langton, esq., surgeon to St. Bartholomew's Hospital and to the Truss Society, by W. K. Taunton, esq., and by the Rev. Thomas Carrington, M.A., vicar of Chipping Campden.]
TAUNTON, Sir WILLIAM ELIAS (1773–1835), justice of king's bench, born at Oxford in 1773, was eldest son of Sir William Elias Taunton, town clerk of Oxford and clerk of the peace for the county, by Frances, daughter of Stephen Grosvenor, sub-treasurer of Christ Church, Oxford. He was admitted king's scholar at Westminster school on 15 Jan. 1785, and was elected to Christ Church, Oxford, whence he matriculated 12 June 1789, graduating B.A. 1793, and M.A. 1796. In 1793 he gained the chancellor's prize for the English essay, and next year was admitted student of Lincoln's Inn. He was called to the bar in Easter term 1799 at Lincoln's Inn, and joined the Oxford circuit. In 1801 he became a commissioner of bankrupts, and in 1806 succeeded Charles Abbot (afterwards Lord Colchester) [q. v.] as recorder of Oxford. He was created king's counsel in 1821, and was elected a bencher of his inn in 1822. On 12 Nov. 1830 he was appointed a justice of the king's bench, and was knighted five days later. Taunton soon in his career acquired the reputation of a black-letter lawyer (Foss, Judges, ix. 96); as an advocate he was a somewhat dull and slow speaker who, however, ‘made the monotony of his voice impressive and used his sluggishness as a power’ (Law Mag. 1835, p. 168); as a judge he was appointed too late in life to leave much mark. He died somewhat suddenly in his house in Russell Square 11 Jan. 1835.
Taunton married, 10 Oct. 1814, Maria, youngest daughter of Henry William Atkinson, provost of the Company of Moneyers, by whom he left two sons and four daughters. He wrote ‘Remarks upon the Conduct of the Respective Governments of France and Great Britain in the late Negotiation for Peace’ (1797), and assisted in preparing the edition of ‘Statutes of the Realm’ published by the record commission between 1810 and 1822.
[Barker and Stenning's Westminster School Register; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; Gent. Mag. 1835, ii. 431; Times, 13 and 15 Jan. 1835.]
TAUTPHŒUS, Baroness von, originally Jemima Montgomery (1807–1893), novelist, born on 23 Oct. 1807 at Seaview, co. Donegal, was the daughter of James Montgomery of Seaview by his wife, Jemima (daughter of James Glasgow of Aughadenvarn, co. Leitrim), and niece of Sir Henry
