Emily Taylor was born into a family of notable Unitarians including an uncle, the hymnist John Taylor of Norwich and a great-grandfather, Dr John Taylor, a Hebrew scholar. Her brother, the solicitor Edgar Taylor (1793-1839), was an author and translator especially noted for his rendering of work by the Brothers Grimm. Scarlet fever at age 7 left Emily Taylor partially deaf. Despite this obstacle, she operated a school, assisted by Sarah Ann Glover (1786-1867), a musical theorist with notable work in a cappella singing. The school was successful, and several of its students attained a reputation in music and music theory. Taylor is best remembered as a hymnist, and her hymns were well known throughout the 19th century. She also authored numerous children's books and was a leading contributor to the Monthly Repository, authoring devotional verse, reviews, and short prose pieces on religious subjects. She left the Monthly Repository soon after it was fully taken over in 1831 by William James Fox (1786-1864), who transitioned the periodical toward a more secular direction. Taylor's publications include Letters to a Child on the Subject of Maritime Discovery (1820); Letters to a Very Little Girl (1821); Frank and George; or, The Prison Friends (1823); The Vision of Las Casas, and Other Poems (1825); Poetical Illustrations of Passages of Scripture (1826); Sabbath Recreations; or Select Poetry, of a Religious Kind (1829); Tales of the Saxons (1832); Tales of the English: William de Albini, of Buckenham Castle (1833); A Memoir of Sir Thomas More (1834); Tales of the English. The Knevets (1835); The Boy and the Birds (1835); Old Testament Biography (1837); Help to the Schoolmistress, or Village Teaching (1839); The Ball I Live On, or, Sketches of the Earth (1839); The Irish Tourist; or, Tales of the People and the Provinces of Ireland (1837); England and Its People; or, A Familiar History, for Young Persons (1845); Conversations with the Birds (1850); Chronicles of an Old English Oak, or, Sketches of English Life and History: As Reported by Those Who Listened to Them (1860); Flowers and Fruit Gathered by Loving Hands from Old English Gardens (1864); Dear Charlotte's Boys: And Other Stories (1864); and Memories of Some Contemporary Poets: with Selections from Their Writings (1868).