Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baillie, John (1741-1806)
BAILLIE, JOHN (1741–1806), divine, was born in 1741, and became in 1767 minister of the Carliol-Street meeting-house (United Secession) at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. His convivial habits having led him into irregularities peculiarly inconsistent with his profession, his connection with this congregation ceased about 1783. He then assisted William Tinwell, the author of a treatise on arithmetic, in conducting a school. Afterwards he lectured in a schoolroom in St. Nicholas's churchyard at Newcastle, and in 1797 his friends fitted up the old Postern Chapel for his use. He was in pecuniary difficulties for several years previous to his death, which occurred at Gateshead on 12 Dec. 1806. He published several detached sermons, including 'A Funeral Discourse on the Death of the Papacy, delivered before a crowded audience,' Newcastle, 1798, 8vo, and 'A Funeral Sermon occasioned by the death of Frances Baillie,' his daughter, who kept a school at Newcastle, and who died in 1801 at the age of twenty-three. His other works are: 1. 'A Course of Lectures upon various antient and interesting Prophecies; tending to strengthen the faith and enliven the hopes of believers in the Divine Saviour, to whom all the Prophets bare witness. Lecture i. Haggai ii. 6-10,' Newcastle, 1784, 8vo. 2. 'An Impartial History of the Town and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and its Vicinity' (anon.), Newcastle, 1801, 8vo. 3. 'History of the French War, from 1791 to 1802,' 8vo. He also assisted in writing a 'History of Egypt.'
[Gent. Mag. Ixxvi. (ii.) 1182; Mackenzie's Newcastle, i. 394; Sykes's Local Records, 227; Richardson's Local Historian's Table Book (Historical Division), iii. 60.]