Harriet Taylor, née Hardy, was born in London in 1807. At the age of 18 she married John Taylor, a wholesale druggist with whom she had three children: Herbert, Algernon and Helen. She was involved in the politically radical community then active within the Unitarian Church and regularly contributed articles to its publication, Monthly Repository. These are the only articles that are openly credited to Taylor, but her intellectual career was much more serious and extensive than a series of short works in a Unitarian magazine would indicate.
