John Taylor (November 1, 1808-July 25, 1887) was the third president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1880 to 1887. Taylor was born in Milnthorpe, Westmorland (now Cumbria), England, the son of James and Agnes Taylor. He had formal schooling up to age fourteen, and then he served an initial apprenticeship to a cooper and later received training as a woodturner and cabinetmaker. He joined the Methodist church at sixteen. He was appointed a lay preacher a year later, and felt a calling to preach in America. Taylor's parents and siblings emigrated to Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) in 1830. John stayed in England to dispose of the family property and joined his family in Toronto in 1832. He met Leonora Cannon from the Isle of Man while attending a Toronto Methodist Church and married her on January 28, 1833. In 1844, Taylor was with church founder Joseph Smith, Jr., Hyrum Smith and Willard Richards in the Carthage, Illinois jail when the Smiths were killed by a mob. Taylor was severely wounded in the conflict. His life may have been spared when a ball directed towards his chest was stopped by a pocket watch which he was carrying at the time. Following Brigham Young's death in 1877, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles governed the church, with John Taylor as the quorum's president. Taylor became the third president of the Church in 1880. He chose as his counselors Joseph F. Smith and George Q. Cannon. President Taylor died in 1887.