BALDWIN, Edward (1632-91), of the Inner Temple and Wiltons, Beaconsfield, Bucks.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. 2 Sept. 1632, 1st s. of Henry Baldwin of Guildford, Surr. by Mary, da. and h. of Edward Hurst of Kingston-on-Thames, Surr. educ. I. Temple 1657, called 1664. m. by 1663, Elizabeth, da. of Richard Turfrey of London, 5s. 3da. suc. fa. 1661.1

Offices Held

J.p. Bucks. 1666-Feb. 1688, Sept. 1688-d.; freeman, Chipping Wycombe 1669, recorder 1683-Feb. 1688, Jan.-Sept. 1689; commr. for assessment, Bucks. 1673-4, 1679-80, 1689-90; bencher, I. Temple 1685, reader 1689.2

Biography

Baldwin’s father, of Bedfordshire origin, settled in Guildford where he probably practised as an attorney. He played no known part in the Civil War, but in 1657 he was appointed to the Surrey assessment commission and elected mayor of Guildford. Baldwin’s uncle, who lived in Beaconsfield, named him as his executor, and he may have settled at Wiltons soon after the Restoration but without abandoning his legal practice. A Tory in politics, he became recorder of Wycombe, six miles from his home, in 1683. He was confirmed in office under the new charter two years later and elected to James II’s Parliament, in which he was named only to the committee to examine expiring laws. He refused his consent to the first two questions on the repeal of the Penal Laws and Test Act, and was replaced as recorder by Sir James Etheridge. He presumably accepted the Revolution and resumed his post as recorder for a few months in 1689, but then resigned in favour of Edmund Waller II. He is not known to have stood for Parliament again. He was buried at Beaconsfield on 21 Nov. 1691, the only member of his family to sit in Parliament.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: Leonard Naylor / Geoffrey Jaggar

Notes

  • 1. Guildford muniment room, St. Mary’s, Guildford, par. reg.; London Vis. Peds. (Harl. Soc. xcii), 13-14.
  • 2. First Wycombe Ledger Bk. (Bucks. Rec. Soc. xi), 187, 223; PC2/72/608; L. J. Ashford, Hist. Wycombe, 164; Wycombe Ledger Bk. ed. Ashford, 30.
  • 3. London Vis. Peds. 13; PCC 34 Laud, 33 Fane; Manning and Bray, Surr. i. 39; Beaconsfield par. reg.