Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baldwin, Timothy
BALDWIN, Sir TIMOTHY (1620–1696), civil lawyer, younger son of Charles Baldwin of Burwarton, Shropshire, was born in 1620. He became a commoner of Balliol College, Oxford, in 1635, and proceeded B.A. on 13 Oct. 1638, B.C.L. on 26 June 1641, and D.C.L. in 1652. In 1639 he was elected fellow of All Souls' College, where he lived during the civil wars. As a royalist he was deprived of his fellowship by the parliamentary commissioners in 1648, but an application on his behalf to the wife of Thomas Kelsey, deputy-governor of the city of Oxford, accompanied by 'certain gifts,' secured his speedy reinstatement. He is mentioned by Wood in his autobiography (ed. Bliss, p. xxv) as joining in 1655 a number of royalists 'who esteem'd themselves either virtuosi or wits' in encouraging an Oxford apothecary to sell 'coffey publickly in his house against All Soules Coll.' At the restoration he was nominated a royal commissioner to inquire into the state of the university, was admitted principal of Hart Hall, now Hertford College (21 June 1660), and became a member of the College of Civilians (Coote's English Civilians, p. 84). He afterwards resigned his fellowship (1661), and was nominated chancellor of the dioceses of Hereford and Worcester. For twelve years, from 1670 to 1682, he was a master in chancery (Foss's Judges, vii. 8). He was knighted in July 1670, and was then described as of Stoke Castle, Shropshire. In 1679-80 he is found acting as one of the clerks in the House of Lords, and actively engaged in procuring evidence against the five lords charged with a treasonable catholic conspiracy. He died in 1696. At the time he held the office of steward of Leominster (Luttrell's Brief Relation, iv. 93).
Baldwin was the author of 'The Privileges of an Ambassador, written by way of letter to a friend who desired his opinion concerning the Portugal Ambassador,' 1654. This very rare tract treats of the charge of manslaughter preferred in an English court against Don Pantaleone, brother of the Portuguese ambassador. Baldwin also translated into Latin and published in 1656 Lord Herbert of Cherbury's 'History of the Expedition to Rhé in 1627.' The English original, which was written in 1630, was first printed in 1870 by the Philobiblon Society. In 1663 Baldwin edited and published 'The Jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England asserted against Sir Edward Coke's "Articuli Auctoritatis" in xxii. chapter of his "Jurisdiction of Courts" by Richard Zouch, Doctor of the Civil Laws and late Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, 1663.' Baldwin contributed a brief preface to this work dated 'Doctors' Commons, 25 Feb. 1663.'
[Athenæ Oxon. (ed. Bliss), iii. 241, 512, iv. 334; Fasti Oxon. i. 479, 500, ii. 3, 171; State Trials, vii. 1285, 1373, &c.; Martin's Archives of All Souls' College, 381; Burrows' Worthies of All Souls, 196, 216.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.13
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 38 | i | 19 f.e. | Baldwin, Sir Timothy: after 1660) insert holding the office till 1663. |