Keffer Collection of Sheet Music, ca. 1790-1895 Content and design by John Bewley

Raynor (Rayner) Taylor, composer, teacher, organist, and musical director, was born in London, England. He received his early musical training at the King's Singing School. As a member of the Chapel Royal choir he performed at the funeral of Handel in 1759. Taylor was later appointed organist in Chelmsford and also taught music there. From 1765 to 1792 Taylor was associated with Marylebone's Gardens and Sadler's Wells as singer, composer, and musical director. His burletta, Buxom Joan was performed at London's Haymarket Theatre in 1778 and his compositions, sacred and secular, were published in several collections.

Taylor emigrated to the United States in 1792 where he performed with a Miss Huntley in Richmond, Baltimore, and Annapolis. He was organist at St. Anne's Church in Annapolis for a brief period in 1793. Both Taylor and Huntley moved to Philadelphia in May1793. St. Peter's Church in Philadelphia employed Taylor as organist from 1795 to 1813. He was also hired as organist for the opening of Vauxhall Gardens in 1814 and performed his own organ concerto on the first program.

Taylor composed incidental music and ballad-operas, including The Iron-Chest and The Shipwreck'd Mariner Preserved, for performances at the Chestnut Street Theatre, which was managed by his former pupil Alexander Reinagle. He and Reinagle collaborated on two compositions, Pizarro, which was performed in Philadelphia in 1800, and Monody, written on the death of George Washington in 1799. Taylor also wrote a piano instruction method published by Benjamin Carr in 1797. In 1820 Raynor Taylor was one of the founding members of the Musical Fund Society. He is buried in the churchyard of St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia.