Select Baldwin Miscellany



Here are some Baldwin stories and accounts over the years:


William Baldwin, A Protestant Man of Letters

A respected author, editor and translator during the middle years of the 16th centrury, Baldwin published a small number of works that displayed linguistic and narrative complexity as well as a sophisticated understanding of the political power of writing. 

As the editor of the anthology A Mirror for Magistrates (1559), as a compiler of a popular philosophical compendium, as a translator of the Biblical Song of Songs and of Italian satirical works, and as the writer of original works of poetry and prose, Baldwin demonstrated the range of his interests and the scope of his literary experimentation. 

Baldwin had the distinction of having published the first sonnet in English and the first long work of prose fiction in English, Beware The Cat (1570).  This book is now seen as the best piece of anti-Catholic satire of its time.

The Baldwin Family and Wilden

Alfred Baldwin, born in 1840, was the twelfth child of George Pearce Baldwin who had developed the Wilden ironworks at Stourport.  After the father died, Alfred's elder brothers took over the running of the business. But they had so mismanaged affairs, driving the company close to bankruptcy, that Alfred himself took control at the age of 29. 

Alfred's home, Wilden House, lay just across the lane from the forge.  When the wind was from the west, the smoke blew into the windows of the house.  Alfred's son Stanley was born there in 1867.  He joined his father's company as a partner in 1888.  He was to spend twenty years in the business before going into politics and ultimately becoming Prime Minister.


Baldwins of Buckinghamshire and Connecticut

When Sir John Baldwin died, he left his son Richard part of the parish of Dunrigge.  He became thereafter Richard of Dunrigge.  Richard gave his namesake grandson Richard some land in Cholesbury.  So this Richard became known as Richard of Cholesbury.  Richard then married and had a son Joseph who sailed away to America.  Joseph would be known as Joseph of Milford because he was one of the pioneer founders of Milford, New Haven.

Baldwin Governors of Connecticut

Simeon Eben Baldwin was born in 1840, one of nine children of Roger Sherman Baldwin and his wife Emily.  He came from a family of Governors.  His ancestors included the first five Governors of the colony of Connecticut.  His father had been Governor of Connecticut from 1844 to 1846.  Roger Sherman, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was another ancestor. 


Baldwin Quaker Immigrants

The large wave of Quaker immigrants which moved from England to Pennsylvania in the late 17th and early 18th centuries included two brothers from Pendle in Lancashire, John and William Baldwin.  Their father had been a Quaker too, having attended monthly Quaker meetings at Marsden since 1675. 

John had married Jennet in England in 1697 and they migrated to Makefield township in Bucks county, Pennsylvania two years later.  Jennet died soon after and John married for a second time to Ann Scott.  They were the forebears to a large number of Baldwin Quakers in the Midwest.

Although he had visited America earlier, William Baldwin did not come to America to stay until 1714.




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