BAIRD,
a surname of ancient standing in Scotland. According
to Nisbet, (Heraldry, vol. i. p. 314,) the
families of this surname have for arms, Gules,
a Boar passant, Or: as relative to the name. Tradition
states that while William the Lion was hunting in one
of the south-west counties, he happened to straggle
from his attendants, and was alarmed by the approach
of a wild boar, which was slain by one of his retinue
of the name of Baird, who had hastened to his
assistance. For this signal service the king conferred
upon him large grants of land, and assigned him the
above coat of arms, with the motto "Dominus fecit."
In the reign of Alexander the Third, Robert, son
of Waldeve de Biggar, granted a charter to Richard
Baird, of Meikle and Little Kyp in Lanarkshire.
(Dalrymple’s Collections, p. 397.) Among the
names in the Ragman Roll of those who swore submission
and fealty to King Edward the First of England, in
1292, 1296, 1297, &c., are Fergus de Bard, John Bard,
and Robert Bard; supposed to be of the Bairds of Kyp
and Evandale, then a considerable family in
Lanarkshire. There is a charter of King Robert the
Bruce of the barony of Cambusnethan to Robert Baird.
(Haddington’s Collections.)
Baird of Carnwath, with three or four other
barons of that name, being convicted of a conspiracy
against King Robert the Bruce, in a parliament held at
Perth, were forfeited and put to death in consequence.
The estate of Cambusnethan went by marriage, in
the reign of David the Second, to Sir Alexander
Stewart, afterwards of Darnley and Crookston, who, in
1390, bestowed the lands of Cambusnethan on Janet his
daughter and her husband, Sir Thomas Somerville of
Carnwath, created in 1427 Lord Somerville.
From the Bairds of Ordinhivas in Banffshire,
descendants of the family of Cambusnethan, came the
Bairds of Auchmedden in Aberdeenshire, who were long
the principal family of the name, and for several
generations sheriffs of that county.
George Baird of Auchmedden, who was alive in
1568, married Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander Keith
of Troop, brother of tile earl marischal. His son and
successor, also named George, married in 1570, Lilias,
daughter and heir of Walter Baird of Ordinhivas, and
had a numerous progeny. The eldest son, George Baird
of Auchmedden, was ancestor of the Bairds of that
place, now represented by Fraser of Findrach.
(Burke’s Landed Gentry.)
The fourth son, James Baird, advocate, and one of the
commissaries of Edinburgh in the time of Charles the
First, was the founder of the houses of Newbyth and
Saughtonhall. He married Bathia, a daughter of
Dempster of Pitliver, by whom he had two sons, John
and Robert. John the eldest was admitted advocate in
June 1647. At the Restoration he was created a knight
baronet, and made a lord of session, under the title
of Lord Newbyth. He died at Edinburgh, 27th April
1698, in the 78th year of his age. He collected the
decisions of the court from November 1664 to February
1667, and practiques from the former year to 1681,
with an Appendix to 1690, the manuscripts of which are
preserved in the Advocates’ Library. (Haig and
Brunton’s Senators of the College of Justice.) He
married Margaret, daughter of William Hay of Linplum,
the second son of James lord Yester, and brother of
John, first earl of Tweeddale. By her he had Sir
William Baird of Newbyth, created a baronet of Nova
Scotia in 1695. The latter was twice married, first to
Helen, daughter of Sir John Gilmour of Craigmillar,
president of the court of session, and secondly to
Margaret, daughter of Lord Sinclair. His son, by his
first wife, Sir John Baird the second baronet, married
Janet, daughter of the Hon. Sir David Dalrymple,
advocate, grandfather of the celebrated Lord Hailes.
Sir John died in 1746, without issue, when the
baronetcy became extinct, but the estate was entailed
on his second cousin, William Baird, the father of the
celebrated Sir David Baird.
The younger son of James Baird, advocate, viz.
Sir Robert Baird, Knight, of Sauchtonhall in Mid
Lothian, had, with other issue, James, his successor,
created in February 1696, a baronet of Nova Scotia,
and William Baird, a merchant and a baillie in
Edinburgh. The latter was the father of William Baird,
who succeeded his second cousin Sir John Baird in the
estate of Newbyth. He married Alicia, fourth daughter
of Johnston of Hiltown, in Berwickshire, by whom he
had six sons and eight daughters. The gallant Sir
David Baird was the fifth son.
The estate of Auchmedden was purchased by the
third earl of Aberdeen from the Bairds, on which,
according to a local tradition, a pair of eagles which
had regularly nestled and brought forth their young in
the neighbouring rocks of Pennan, disappeared, in
fulfilment of an ancient prophecy by Thomas the
Rhymer, that there should be an eagle in the crags
while there was a Baird in Auchmedden. It is stated
that when Lord Haddo, eldest son of the earl, married
Christian, youngest daughter of William Baird, Esq. of
Newbyth, and sister of General Sir David Baird, the
eagles returned to the rocks, and remained until the
estate passed into the hands of the Hon. William
Gordon, when they again fled.
The baronetcy conferred, in 1809, on General Sir
David Baird (see p. 195) was inherited in 1829 by his
nephew, Sir David, the remainder being, in default of
issue of his own, to the issue male of his eldest
brother, Robert. The second baronet died in 1852, when
his son, Sir David, became third baronet.
BAIRD, SIR DAVID,
Bart., K.C.B., a distinguished British commander,
descended, as above explained, from a junior branch of
the Bairds of Auchmedden, in Aberdeenshire, was the
fifth but second surviving son of William Baird, Esq.,
heir by settlement of his second cousin, Sir John
Baird of Newbyth, Bart., and was born at Edinburgh on
6th December, 1757. His biographer Hook says he was
born at Newbyth, but this is a mistake. The house in
which he first saw the light, and where he was
brought up, is situated in a court at the foot of
Blair’s close, Castlehill, Edinburgh, at one time
possessed by the ducal family of Gordon, and latterly
by the Newbyth family, by whom it was held for several
generations. (Wilson's Memorials of
Edinburgh, vol. i. p. 139.) His father died when
he was only eight years old, and he early evinced an
inclination for a military life. He entered the army
December 16, 1772, as an ensign in the second foot. He
was then placed at Locie’s academy at Chelsea, where
he remained some months, actively improving himself in
the knowledge of military tactics. At Mr. Locie’s
academy, as now at the military college, Sandhurst,
the pupils were subjected to all the routine of
military service. One evening when young Baird was on
duty as sentry, one of his companions, considerably
his senior, wished to get out, in order to fulfil some
engagement he had made in London, and tried to
persuade Baird to permit him to pass. "No," said the
gallant boy, "that I cannot do, but if you
please you may knock me down, and walk out over my
body." He joined his regiment at Gibraltar in April
1773. One evening when he was on guard, having dined
with some of his brother officers, they resolved to
detain him with them, and locked the door of the room
to prevent his visiting his sentries at the usual
time. Baird found remonstrances in vain, but
determined to let nothing interfere with duty, he
sprang to the window, which overhung the rampart, and
with an agility and dexterity for which he was always
remarkable, threw himself out, escaped unhurt, and was
at his post at the very minute appointed. (Hook’s
Life of General Sir David Baird, voL i. p. 2,
Note.) He returned with his regiment to Britain in
1776.
Lord Macleod, eldest son of the earl of
Cromarty, having been, with his father, engaged in the
rebellion of 1745, spent several years in exile on the
continent; and obtained the rank of lieutenant-general
in the Swedish army. Ultimately, on account of his
youth at the time of joining the Pretender, he
received an unconditional pardon for his share in the
rebellion, and returning to England in the year 1777,
he was presented to George the Third, who received him
very graciously. At the suggestion of Colonel Duff of
Muirtown, who had served in Keith’s Highlanders, and
encouraged by the favourable reception he had met with
in the north, he offered his services to raise a
regiment. The offer was accepted, and although without
property or political influence, so great was the
magic of his name among his clansmen, that eight
hundred and forty Highlanders were in a very short
time raised and marched to Elgin. In addition to
these, two hundred and thirty-six lowlanders were
raised by the Hon. John Lindsay, son of the earl of
Balcarres, David Baird, the subject of this memoir,
James Fowlis, and other officers; besides thirty-four
English and Irish, enlisted in Glasgow, making in all
eleven hundred men. The corps was embodied at Elgin,
and inspected there by General Skene in April
seventeen hundred and seventy-eight, in which year
Baird obtained a lieutenancy, and in September of the
same year he became captain of the grenadiers in the
73d regiment, then raised by Lord Macleod. With this
corps, which he joined at Elgin, he embarked for
Madras, where he arrived in January 1780, and
immediately entered upon active service. This young
and untried regiment had scarcely arrived in India,
when Hyder Ali, forcing his way through the Gauts, at
the head of 100,000 men, burst like a mountain torrent
into the Carnatic. He had interposed his vast army
between that of the British, commanded by Sir Hector
Monro, and a smaller force under the command of
Colonel Baillie, which were endeavouring to form a
junction. The latter having, though victorious,
sustained a serious loss in an engagement with Hyder
Ali’s troops, sent to the commander an account of his
difficult position, stating that, from the loss he had
sustained, and his total want of provisions, he was
equally unable to advance or remain in his then
situation. With the advice of a council of war, Sir
Hector judged the only course was to endeavour to aid
Colonel Baillie, with such a reinforcement as would
enable him to push forward in defiance of the enemy.
The detachment selected for this enterprise consisted
of about 1,000 men under Colonel Fletcher; and its
main force was composed of the grenadier and infantry
companies of Lord Macleod’s regiment, commanded by
Captain Baird. Hyder Ali having gained intelligence of
this movement, sent a strong body to cut them off on
their way, but, by adopting a long circuitous route,
and marching by night, they at length safely effected
a junction with Colonel Baillie. With the most
consummate skill, however, Hyder, determining that
they should never return, prepared an ambuscade; into
which, early on the morning of the 10th of September,
they unwarily advanced. The enemy, with admirable
coolness and self-command, reserved their fire till
the unhappy British were in the very midst of them.
The army under the command of Colonels Baillie and
Fletcher, and Captain Baird, marched in column. On a
sudden, whilst in a narrow defile, a battery of twelve
guns opened upon them, and, loaded with grape-shot,
poured in upon their right flank. The British faced
about; another battery opened immediately upon their
rear. They had no choice therefore but to advance;
other batteries met them here likewise, and in less
than half an hour fifty-seven pieces of cannon,
brought to bear on them at all points, penetrated into
every part of the British line. By seven o’clock in
the morning, the enemy poured down upon them in
thousands: Captain Baird and his grenadiers fought
with the greatest heroism. Surrounded and attacked on
all sides, by 25,000 cavalry, by thirty regiments of
Sepoy infantry, besides Hyder’s European corps, and a
numerous artillery playing upon them from all
quarters, within grape-shot distance, yet did this
gallant column stand firm and undaunted, alternately
facing their enemies on every side of attack. The
French officers in Hyder’s camp beheld with
astonishment the British grenadiers, under Captain
Baird’s command, performing their evolutions in the
midst of all the tumult and extreme peril, with as
much precision, coolness, and steadiness, as if upon a
parade ground. The little army, so unexpectedly
assailed, had only ten pieces of cannon, but these
made such havoc amongst the enemy, that after a
doubtful contest of three hours, from six in the
morning till nine, victory began to declare for the
British. The flower of the Mysore cavalry, after many
bloody repulses, were at length entirely defeated,
with great slaughter, and the right wing, com posed of
Hyder’s best forces, was thrown into disorder. Hyder
himself was about to give orders for retreat, and the
French officer who directed the artillery began to
draw it off, when an unforeseen and unavoidable
misfortune occurred, which totally changed the fortune
of the day. By some unhappy accident the tumbrils
which contained the ammunition suddenly blew up in the
centre of the British lines. One whole face of their
column was thus entirely laid open, and their
artillery overturned and destroyed. The destruction of
men was great, but the total loss of their ammunition
was still more fatal to the survivors. Tippoo Saib,
the son of Hyder, instantly seized the moment of
advantage, and without waiting for orders, fell with
the utmost rapidity, at the head of the Mogul and
Carnatic horse, into the broken square, which had not
had time to recover its form and order. This attack by
the enemy’s cavalry being immediately seconded by the
French corps, and by the first line of infantry,
determined at once the fate of our unfortunate army.
After successive prodigies of valour, the brave Sepoys
were almost to a man cut to pieces. Colonels Baillie
and Fletcher, assisted by Captain Baird, made one more
desperate effort. They rallied the Europeans, and,
under the fire of the whole immense artillery of the
enemy, gained a little, eminence, and formed
themselves into a new square. In this form did this
intrepid band, though totally without ammunition, the
officers fighting only with their swords and the
soldiers with their bayonets, resist and repulse the
myriads of the enemy in thirteen different attacks ;
until at length, incapable of withstanding the
successive torrents of fresh troops which were
continually pouring upon them, they were fairly borne
down and trampled upon, many of them still continuing
to fight under the very legs of the horses and
elephants. To save the lives of the few brave men who
survived, Colonel Baillie had displayed his
handkerchief on his sword, as a flag of truce; quarter
was promised, but no sooner had the troops laid down
their arms than they were attacked with savage fury by
the enemy. By the humane interference, however, of the
French officers in Hyder’s service, many lives were
saved.
The loss of the British in this engagement,
called the battle of Perimbancum, amounted to about
four thousand Sepoys, and about six hundred Europeans.
Colonel Fletcher was slain on the field. Colonel
Baillie, severely wounded, and several other officers,
with two hundred Europeans, were made prisoners. When
brought into the presence of Hyder, he, with true
Asiatic barbarism, received them with the most
insolent triumph. The British officers, with a spirit
worthy of their country, retorted with an indignant
coolness and contempt. "Your son will inform you,"
said Colonel Baillie, "that you owe the victory to our
disaster, rather than to our defeat." Hyder angrily
ordered them from his presence, and commanded them
instantly to prison. Captain Baird had received two
sabre-wounds on his head, a ball in his thigh, and a
pike-wound in his arm. He lay a long time on the field
of battle, narrowly escaping death from some of the
more ferocious of the Mysore cavalry, who traversed
the field spearing the wounded, and at last being
unable to reach the force under Munro, he was obliged
to surrender to the enemy.
The result of this battle was the immediate
retreat of the main army under Sir Hector Munro to
Madras. Colonel Baillie, Captain Baird, and five other
British officers, were marched to one of Hyder’s
nearest forts, and afterwards removed to Seringapatam,
where they were joined by others of their captive
countrymen, and subjected to a most horrible and
protracted imprisonment. It was commonly believed in
Scotland that Captain Baird was chained by the leg to
another man; and Sir Walter Scott, writing in May 1821
to his son, then a cornet of dragoons, with his
regiment in Ireland, when Sir David was commander of
the forces there, says, "I remember a story that when
report came to Europe that Tippoo’s prisoners (of whom
Baird was one) were chained together two and two, his
mother said, ‘God pity the poor lad that’s chained to
our Davie!’" She knew him to be active,
spirited and daring, and probably thought that he
would make some desperate effort to escape. But it was
not the case that he was chained to another. On the
10th of May all the prisoners had been put in irons
except Captain Baird; this indignity he was not
subjected to till the 10th of November following.
"When they were about," says his biographer, "to put
the irons on Captain Baird, who was completely
disabled in his right leg, in which the wound was
still open, and whence the ball had just then been
extracted, his friend Captain Lucas, who spoke the
language perfectly, sprang forward, and represented in
very strong terms to the Myar the barbarity of
fettering him while in such a dreadful state, and
assured him that death would be the inevitable
termination of Captain Baird’s sufferings if the
intention were persisted in. The Myar replied that the
Circar had sent as many pairs of irons as there were
prisoners, and they must be put on. Captain Lucas then
offered to wear two sets himself, in order to save his
friend. This noble act of generosity moved the
compassion even of the Myar, who said he would send to
the Kellidar, (commander of the fort,) to open the
book of fate. He did so, and when the messenger
returned, he said the book had been opened, and
Captain Baird’s fate was good; and the irons were in
consequence not put on at that time. Could they really
have looked into the volume of futurity, Baird would
undoubtedly have been the last man to be spared."
(Life of Sir David Baird, vol. i. P. 44.) Each
pair of irons was nine pounds weight. Captain Lucas
died in prison. Captain Baird was preserved by
Providence to revenge the sufferings which he and his
fellow-prisoners endured by the glorious conquest of
Scringapatam on the 4th of May, 1799.
He remained a prisoner for three years and a
half. He and his companions were only allowed a gold
fanam, value about sixpence, a-day each, to
support themselves in prison, a pittance which could
only purchase them the poorest necessaries, and
Captain Baird, on recovering from a severe attack of
dysentery, suffered so much from hunger that he was
often tempted to snatch his neighbour’s share, and ate
with greediness whatever happened to be left. On the
cessation of hostilities, in March 1184, he and the
surviving prisoners were released, and in July he
joined his regiment at Madras. In 1785 the number of
the regiment was changed to the 71st. It was also
called the Glasgow Highland light infantry, from the
success with which the recruiting had been carried on
in that city. So destructive had been the carnage in
this regiment in the short time it had been in India,
that it was said Captain Baird and one sergeant were
the only two individuals belonging to the original
73d. In 1787 he removed with his regiment to Bombay.
On the 5th of June of that year he became major of the
71st, and in October he returned home on leave of
absence. In December 1790 he obtained the
lieutenant-colonelcy of his regiment, the 71st; and in
1791, on his return to India, he joined the army under
Marquis Cornwallis.
As commander of a brigade of Sepoys, Colonel
Baird was present at the attack of a number of Droogs,
or hill forts, and at the siege of Seringapatam in
February 1792; and likewise at the storming of Tippoo
Sultaun’s lines and camps on the island of
Seringapatam. In 1793 he commanded a brigade of
Europeans, and was present at the reduction of
Pondicherry. He was afterwards appointed to the
command at Tanjore. On the drafting of the 71st into
other regiments, in October 1797 he embarked at Madras
for Europe. In December, when he arrived at the Cape
of Good Hope, he was appointed brigadier-general, and
placed on that staff, in command of a brigade. On June
18, 1798, he was appointed major-general, and returned
to the staff in India. In January 1799 he arrived at
Madras, in command of two regiments of foot, together
with the drafts of the 28th dragoons, and on the 1st
of February joined the army at Velore, where he was
appointed to the command of the first European
brigade.
On the 4th of May of that memorable year General
Baird commanded the storming party at the assault of
Seringapatam. One o’clock was fixed upon for the
assault, it being known that the natives usually
sought shelter and repose from the heat of the sun at
that hour. When the precise moment arrived, Baird
ascended the parapet of the trenches in full view of
both armies, "a military figure," observes Colonel
Wilks, "suited to such an occasion ;" and, drawing his
sword, and gallantly waving it, shouted out, "Now, my
brave fellows, follow me, and prove yourselves worthy
of the name of British soldiers !" His personal
appearance added greatly to the chivalrous bearing of
his manner. His figure was tall and symmetrical; his
countenance cheerful and animated. On his open manly
brow were legibly displayed the indications of that
lofty courage, that firmness of purpose, and that
vigour of intellect which so conspicuously marked his
whole career. Within seven minutes the British flag
floated from the outer bastion of the fortress; and
before night Seringapatam was in possession of the
besiegers. General Baird, who was undoubtedly entitled
to the governorship of the town which he had thus
taken, fixed his head-quarters at the palace of
Tippoo, who was among the slain, He was next day
abruptly commanded to deliver up the keys of the town
to Colonel Wellesley, who, as it happened, had no
active share in the capture, but who was appointed to
the command by his brother, the governor-general. "And
thus," said Baird, "before the sweat was dry on my
brow, I was superseded by an inferior officer ;" that
"inferior officer" being afterwards the duke of
Wellington!
In consequence of his signal success on this
occasion, he was presented by the army, through
General Harris, the commander-in-chief, with the state
sword of Tippoo Sultaun. The field officers under his
immediate command at the assault presented him at the
same time with a dress sword. In 1800 he was removed
to the Bengal staff.
In 1801 General Baird was appointed to the
command of an expedition intended to act against
Batavia, but which was afterwards sent to Egypt. In
1802 he returned in command of the Egyptian Indian
army overland to India. In September of that year he
was removed to the Madras staff, and commanded a large
division of the army forming against the Mabrattas. He
was afterwards employed in the Mysore country. In
consequence of the great reduction of his division of
the army, by the drafts made from it by General Sir
Arthur Wellesley, who was employed in the same
service, General Baird resigned his command and sailed
for Britain with his staff, March 1803. In December he
obtained the royal permission to wear the Turkish
order of the crescent. In June 1804 he was knighted by
patent, and, on the 18th of August following, became a
military companion of the Bath.
On 30th October 1805 he was promoted to the rank
of lieutenant-general, and commanded an expedition
against the Cape of Good Hope. Arriving there January
5, 1806, he attacked and beat the Dutch army on the
8th, and on the 18th received the surrender of the
colony. He remained in the government of the Cape till
January 1807, when he was recalled, and arrived in
Britain in March of that year. On the 19th July he was
transferred from the colonelcy of the 54th to that of
the 24th, and placed on the foreign staff under
General Lord Cathcart. At the siege of Copenhagen,
where he commanded a division, he was slightly
wounded. He was afterwards employed for a short time
in Ireland, with the command of the "drill camp"
there, and was sworn in a member of the Irish privy
council.
Having been ordered to the Peninsula, in the
beginning of November 1808 he arrived at Corunna, in
command of about 10,000 men, and formed a junction
with the army under General Sir John Moore. In the
battle of Corunna, January 16, 1809, he commanded the
first division of the army, and lost his left arm. On
the death of Sir John Moore, he succeeded to the chief
command, and on communicating the intelligence of the
victory to government, he received for the fourth time
the thanks of parliament, the previous occasions
being, for the operations of the army in India in
1799, for those of Egypt in 1801, and for the Danish
expedition. On this occasion also he received the red
riband, on being appointed a knight grand cross of the
Bath. On the 18th of April he was created a baronet by
patent, and received a grant of the most honourable
armorial bearings, having relation to his military
transactions. Attached is a portrait of Sir David from
a painting by Sir Henry Raeburn.
On Sir David’s return to Edinburgh after the
Spanish campaign, he called upon the then possessor of
the mansion on the Castlehill where he was born, and
requested to be allowed to see the house in which he
had passed his infancy, and the garden behind, where
he said he had spent many happy days in boyish
amusements. This was readily conceded, and after
viewing the house, he was conducted to the garden,
where he saw the children of the tenant of the house
engaged in the very same species of mischievous sport
which he declared had often been his own, namely,
throwing stones and kail castocks down the chimneys of
the houses in the Grassmarket below. (Chambers’
Traditions of Edinburgh, vol. i. p. 155.)
Sir David married, 4th August 1810, Miss
Campbell Preston of Ferntower and Lochlane, Perthshire,
niece of Sir Robert Preston, of Valley-field, Baronet.
In 1814 he was promoted to the rank of general. In
1820 he was appointed commander of the forces in
Ireland, and sworn of his majesty’s privy council
there, and in 1828 he became governor of Fort-George
in Scotland. He died at an advanced age, August 18,
1829, at his seat of Ferntower in Perthshire, where he
passed the latter years of his life, and leaving no
issue, was succeeded in the baronetcy by his nephew,
Captain Baird. His widow survived till 28th May 1847.
A monument erected by her on Tom-a-Chastel, a most
romantic hill on her estate, to the memory of her
gallant husband, is in the form of an obelisk, of
Aberdeen granite, eighty-two feet four inches in
height, and an exact fac simile of Cleopatra’s needle;
most fitting model for the monument of the gallant
soldier who was the first with a European army to
ascend the Red Sea, cross the desert, descend the
Nile, and display the united standards of Britain and
Brama on the shores of Alexandria. (New Stat. Acc.
vol. x. p. 741.)
Sir David Baird was deservedly popular with the
army. Although a strict disciplinarian, he had the
power to an extreme degree of winning the attachment
and respect of the men under his command. "There was,"
says General Middlemore, who served with him in Egypt,
"something about him which gave at once complete
confidence in him: his countenance bespoke a mind
spotless from guile or subterfuge. You felt that truth
beamed in all his features—it was impossible to doubt
him—you might implicitly place your life, and honour,
and happiness, on his bare word. He could not
deceive; and as he was firm and inflexible upon every
point of discipline and duty, so was he incapable of
injuring a human being. With the courage of a hero,
his heart was as kind and gentle as a woman’s." His
power over his soldiers, even under the most trying
circumstances, was strikingly exemplified at
Wallajahbad in 1797, when the order came for breaking
up the 71st regiment, which he bad so long commanded,
and drafting the men fit for service into other
regiments. The order was read to the men by the
adjutant, Sir David being too much affected to read it
himself. "The effect produced by it," says his
biographer, "was beyond description. It seems as if a
sudden dismay had seized the whole regiment. It was a
moment of trial in which there was something awful;
but Baird, who knew his duty, and who always did it,
addressed the men thus: ‘My poor fellows—not a word—
the order must be obeyed.’ And then, to conceal
emotions of which even he need not have been ashamed,
he turned round, and ordered the band to strike up the
popular Scottish air, the chorus of which is in these
words—
"The king commands, and we’ll obey,
Over the hills and far away."
He is said himself to have been passionately fond of
the native airs of his country. He frequently spoke,
with the most affectionate delight, of the way in
which his mother used to sing them, and he had them
similarly arranged for the band of his regiment. The
Life of Sir David Baird by Theodore Hook was published
at London in 1832 in two volumes.
BAIRD, GEORGE HUSBAND,
the very rev., D.D., principal of the university of
Edinburgh, the author and unwearied promoter of the
scheme for the education of the Highlanders, was born
in 1761, in the parish of Borrowstounness, where his
father, a considerable proprietor in the county of
Stirling, rented a farm from the duke of Hamilton. He
received the rudiments of his education, first at the
parish school of Borrowstounness, and subsequently,
upon his father acquiring and removing to the property
of Manuel, in West-Lothian, at the grammar school of
Linlithgow. In 1773 he entered as a student at the
university of Edinburgh; and while there, acquired the
special notice of Principal Robertson, Professor
Dalzel, and others of the professors, for his
diligence and proficiency. At college he and the late
Professor Finlayson, and Josiah Walker, who were
fellow-students with him, associated for the
prosecution of studies beyond what was required by the
college courses; by which he was enabled to make
himself master of most of the European languages.
These three young men, it is stated in the sketch of
Baird’s life in Kay’s Edinburgh Portraits, are said to
have entered into an agreement to promote the
advancement of one another in life to the utmost of
their power; and though, it is added, there was a
degree of singularity in the compact, and perhaps no
real increase from it in the disposition to serve each
other, it is certain that individually all the three
parties mentioned could ascribe important advantages
to the good offices of one or other in that
association, one much to be commended and imitated.
The reverse of such conduct, from unworthy feelings of
envy and jealousy, is too often exhibited in
after-life by those who had once been schoolfellows
and close companions in their youth. In 1784 he was
recommended by Professor Dalzel as tutor to the family
of Colonel Blair of Blair. In 1786 he was licensed by
the presbytery of Linlithgow, and in the following
year he was ordained to the parish of Dunkeld, to
which charge he had been presented by the duke of
Athol, through the influence of his friend, Mr.
Finlayson. At Dunkeld he remained for several years,
living as an inmate of the duke’s family, and
superintending the education of his grace’s three
sons, the last survivor of whom was the late Lord
Glenlyon. In 1789 or 1790 he was presented to Lady
Yester’s church, Edinburgh, but at the request of the
duke and duchess of Athol, he declined it. In 1792 he
was transferred to the New Greyfriars church,
Edinburgh and at the same time was elected professor
of oriental languages in the university there. In
1793, on the death of Dr. Robertson, he was, when not
more than thirty-three years of age, appointed the
principal of the university.
As principal he was once called upon to exercise
college discipline in the case of three of the
students who afterwards attained to great distinction,
which has rendered this instance of the maintenance of
academic authority memorable in the annals of the
university. A challenge having been sent to one of the
professors, the parties implicated in this
misdemeanor, namely, Lord Henry Petty (after wards the
marquis of Lansdowne), the late Francis Horner, Esq., M.P., and Mr. (now Lord) Brougham, were summoned
before the Senatus Academicus. The only one who
appeared was Brougham, and the rebuke of the principal
was at once so administered and so received, that a
friendship ensued between them, which was continued
long after the former had entered upon public life. In
1799 Principal Baird was translated to the New North
church; and in 1801, on the death of Dr. Blair, he was
removed to the High church, where he continued to
officiate till his death. He married the eldest
daughter of Thomas Elder, Esq. of Forneth, Lord
Provost of Edinburgh. His later years, until prevented
by the infirmities of age, were principally occupied
in promoting his truly benevolent and philanthropic
plan, for extending a religious education among the
poorer classes of his fellow countrymen in the
Highlands and Islands of Scotland. At the meeting of
the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland iu May
1824, he brought forward his motion for increasing the
means of education throughout Scotland, but
particularly in the Highlands and Islands, and in
large towns. The Assembly of 1825 gave its sanction to
the scheme proposed; which mainly owed its success to
the talents, labour, industry, personal influence, and
pious enthusiasm of the originator of the plan; who
lived to see a provision secured, by his exertions,
for the Christian education of many thousand children
of the poor. Such was his zeal to forward the
educational interests, and to improve the moral
condition of his Gaelic countrymen, that, in the
autumn of 1827, in the 67th year of his age, he
visited the Highlands of Argyleshire, the western
parts of Inverness and Ross, and the Western Islands,
traversing the whole country from Lewis to Kintyre.
The following year he visited for the same purposes,
the North Highlands, and the Islands of Orkney and
Shetland. Through his means also, the late Dr. Andrew
Bell of Madras bequeathed £5,000 to the scheme for
education in the Highlands. In 1832 the thanks of the
General Assembly were conveyed to him by Dr. Chalmers,
the moderator, in the following terms :— "The benefits
you have conferred on the cause of education in the
Highlands and Islands of Scotland will ever associate
your name with the whole of that immense region, and
hand down your memory to distant ages as the moral
benefactor of many thousand families. I feel confident
that I do not outrun the sympathy of a single
individual in our church, when, in its name, I offer
you, as the head of a noble and national enterprise,
the meed of our united thanks, for the vigour, and
activity, and the enthusiasm wherewith, at an advanced
period of life, you have addressed yourself to this
great undertaking, and may now be said to have fully
and firmly established it." By his benevolent
exertions the worthy principal is said to have
contributed much to the freeing the minds of the
Highlanders from the superstitions which they were so
fond of cherishing, and particularly to the expulsion
of the fairies from the Highland hills.
Dr. Baird died on the 14th January 1840, at his
residence of Manuel near Linlithgow, in the 79th year
of his age. He was, when a young man, a correspondent
of the poet Burns, and his name appears among the list
of subscribers to the first or Kilmarnock edition of
his poems.—Obituaries of the time.
Photograph of a youthful
Richard Alexander Baird, 2nd great grandfather of
Guy Lamoyne Black. He was married first to Emma
Linda Hiskey (1840-1890) and then to Margaret
Henrietta Camp (1848-1941). He was the son of Samuel
Baird (1801-1859) and Matilda Rutledge (1813-1876).
The Life of The Rev.
Robert Baird, D. D.
By his son, Henry M. Baird, Professor in the
University of the City of New York (1866) (pdf)
Baird from the Dictionary of
National Biography
The Baird Family
Centennial
The Last Baird Laird of
Auchmedden and Strichen
The Case of Mr. Abington by John Malcolm Bulloch
(1934) (pdf)
The Bairds of
Auchmedden and Stricken, Aberdeenshire
By John Malcolm Bulloch (1934) (pdf)
