BAILLIE, a surname supposed to have been originally the same as Baliol. In the account of the Baillies of Lamington inserted in the appendix to Nisbet’s Heraldry, it is stated that Mr. Alexander Baillie of Castlecarry, a learned antiquarian, was of opinion that the family of Lamington were a branch of the illustrious house of the Baliols, who were lords of Galloway, and kings of Scotland. (See BALIOL, surname of.) An uncle of King John Baliol, named Sir Alexander Baliol of Cavers, was great chamberlain of Scotland in the reign of his nephew, in 1292. By Isabel, his wife, the daughter and heiress of Richard de Chillam, the widow of David de Strath— bogie, earl of Athol, he had two sons, Alexander and William Baliol. Alexander the eldest, after the abdication of his cousin, King John, joined the Scottish party, for which he was, by order of King Edward, imprisoned in the tower of London, but upon security given by his father and two gentlemen of the house of Lindsay, he was enlarged. (Rymer.) His other son, William, had the lands of Penston and Carnbroe, in the barony of Bothwell, Lanarkshire, the oldest of the possessions of the Baillies of Lamington. After the abdication of his cousin, he also joined the Scottish party, which rendered him so obnoxious to King Edward, that by act of the parliament of England, he was, in 1297, fined in four years’ rent of his estate. From Robert the Bruce he got a charter of the lands of Penston. He gave in pure alms to the monks of Newbattle licentiam formandi stagnum in terra de Carnbrue. The lands of Carnbroc continued in the same family till they were given over to a younger son, the ancestor of the Baliols or Baillies of the house of Carphin.

      In the list of captives taken with David the Second at the battle of Durham in 1346, occurs William Baillie (Rymer), the first time that the name is found thus written, or Englished, as it is expressed. After his release this William Baillie was, in 1357, knighted by David the Second, who granted him a charter, dated 27th January 1368, of the barony of Lamington, which has remained in the possession of his descendants till the present time. Lamington had previously belonged to a family of the name of Braidfoot. It is traditionally stated that the celebrated Sir William Wallace acquired the estate of Lamington by marrying Marion Braidfoot, the heiress of that family, and that it passed to Sir William Baillie on his marriage with the eldest daughter and heiress of Wallace. The statement, however, is incorrect. Sir William Wallace left no legitimate offspring, but his natural daughter is said to have married Sir William Baillie of Hoprig, the progenitor of the Baillies of Lamington.

      This Sir William Baillie of Hoprig and Lamington had two sons, William his heir, and Alexander, who, according to Baillie of Castlecarry, was the first of the family of Carphin. From him descended also, besides the Baillies of Parbroth, the Baillies of Park, Jerviston, Dunrogal, Carnbroe, Castle-carry, and Provand. The first of the latter family was Sir William Baillie of Provand, the cousin of the then laird of Lamington. In 1557, he was appointed to the then benefice of Lamington, being the first incumbent of it after the Reformation. At that period a certain proportion of the Lords of Council and Session were chosen from among the clergy, and in 1566 he was called to the bench, when he took the title of Lord Provand. He was lord president of the court of session from 1565 till his death in 1595. lIe left a daughter, Elizabeth, his sole heiress, who married Sir Robert Hamilton of Goslingtoun and Silvertonhill.

      Of the house of Carphin was Mr. Cuthhert Baillie, who was rector of Cumnock, commendator of Glenluce, and lord high treasurer of Scotland in 1512, in the reign of James the Fourth. (Lives of the Lord High Treasurers.)

      The eldest son of the above mentioned Sir William Baillie of Hoprig and Lamington, is designed Willielmus Baillie of Hoprig, in a charter from his cousin, "Joannes de Hamilton, Dominus de Cadiow," ancestor of the dukes of Hamilton, of the lands of Hyndshaw and Watston, dated 4th February 1895. He married Isabella, daughter of Sir William Seton of that ilk, ancestor of the earls of Wintoun, by whom he had Sir William, his son and heir, who was one of the hostages sent to England for James the First, in exchange for David Leslie of Leslie, in 1432. (Rymer.)

      The latter Sir William Baillie of Hoprig and Lamington, married Catharine, daughter of the above mentioned Sir John Hamilton of Cadzow.

      His son and successor, also named Sir William Baillie, was in 1484, one of the conservators of the peace with England, on the part of Scotland, then concluded at Nottingham, and in the year following he was witness to a charter of the lands of Cambusnethan, granted by John Lord Somerville to John Somerville, his son, by Mary Baillie his wife, daughter of this Sir William Baillie of Lamington. His son and brother were also witnesses to the same charter. He had two other daughters; Margaret married to John earl of Sutherland, and had issue, and Marion to John Lord Lindsay of the Byres, ancestor to the earls of Crawford.

      Sir William Baillie of Hoprig and Lamington, his son, in 1492, had a charter under the great seal to him and Marion Home his wife, in conjunct fee and infeftment. This lady was the daughter of Sir Patrick Home of Polwarth, comptroller of Scotland in the reign of James the Fourth, and ancestor of the earls of Marchmont, by whom he bad Sir William Baillie, his son and heir, and John Baillie, of whom descended the Baillies of St. John’s Kirk, Lanarkshire, of whom are come the Baillies of Jerviswood and Walston.

      Sir William Baillie, the eldest son, married his cousin Elizabeth, daughter and one of the heirs of line of John Lord Lindsay of the Byres, by whom he had Sir William his son and heir, and a daughter, Janet, married to Sir David Hamilton of Preston.

      Sir William Baillie of Lamington, his son and successor, was made principal master of the wardrobe to Queen Mary, by a gift under the privy seal, 24th January 1542. He married Janet Hamilton, daughter of James first earl of Arran, and duke of Chatelherault, by whom he had Sir William Baillie, his successor, and a younger son, of whom descended the Baillies of Bagbie and Hardington, and their cadets. His son, Sir William Baillie, was a steady adherent of Mary, queen of Scots, and fought for her at the battle of Langside for which he was afterwards forfeited, He married Margaret, daughter of John Lord Maxwell, widow of Archibald, earl of Angus, by whom he had one daughter, Margaret, married to her cousin, Edward Maxwell, commendator of Dundrennan, third son of Lord Herries of Terregles, on whom and his children by his daughter, he settled the estate, the heir of entail to assume the name of Baillie, a special act of parliament being procured for the purpose. Subsequently he had a son by a Mrs. Home, whom, on his wife’s death, he married, hoping thereby to legitimatize his son. He also endeavoured to reduce the settlement which he had made of his estates, so that this son, named William, might succeed; but it being proved that he was born while his father’s first wife was alive, he was not able to break the settlement. The young man went over to Germany, and entered into the service of the renowned Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, in which he attained to the rank of major-general. When the troubles began in Scotland, in 1638, he was, with other Scotch general officers in the Swedish service, called home by the Covenanters, to command their army. From the minutes of the parliament 1641, it appears that he made some faint efforts to reduce the settlement of the estate of Lamington, but in vain. (Nesbit’s Heraldry, Appendix, vol. ii. p. 138.) He served as lieutenant-general against the marquis of Montrose, by whom he was defeated at Alford and Kilsyth, in 1645. General Baillie married Janet, daughter of Sir William Bruce of Glenhouse, by Janet his wife, daughter and heiress of John Baillie of Letham, with whom he got the estate of Letham, in Stirlingshire. His eldest son James married Joanna, the daughter and heiress of entail of the first Lord Forrester of Corstorphine, and in her right became in 1679 second Lord Forrester. General Baillie's second son William, married Lilies, another of the daughters of the first Lord Forrester, by whom he had William, who subsequently succeeded as Lord Forrester. (See FORRESTER, lord.)

      Mr. Maxwell, who assumed the name of Baillie, grandson and heir of entail of the laird of Lamington, succeeded to the estate on the death of Sir William Baillie, and was knighted by James the Sixth.

      Female heirs have often held this estate, but in accordance with the entail, the name of Baillie descends with it.

      Vice-admiral Sir Thomas John Cochrane, K.C.B., son of admiral the Hon. Sir Alexander Forrester Cochrane, G.C.B., 9th son of the 8th earl of Dundonald, by his first wife, Matilda Wishart Ross, daughter of Lieut.-Gen. Sir Charles Ross of Balnagown castle, baronet, had, with other issue, Alexander Baillie Cochrane, Esq. of Lamington, born in November 1816, married Annabella Mary Elizabeth, daughter of A. K. Drummond, Esq. of Cadlands, Hunts; issue, two daughters.

BAILLIE of Jerviswoode, the name of an ancient family, now possessors of the earldom of Haddington. Charles, Lord Binning, eldest son of the sixth earl of Haddington, having married Rachel, youngest daughter and at length sole heiress of George Baillie of Jerviswoode and Mellerstain, their second son, the Hon. George Hamilton, on inheriting the estates of his maternal grandfather, assumed the surname and arms of Baillie, and died at Mellerstain, 16th April, 1797, aged 74. His eldest son, George Baillie, Esq. of Mellerstain and Jerviswoode, was father, with other issue, of George Baillie Hamilton, who succeeded in 1858, as tenth earl of Haddington (see that title, and pages 177 and 179 of this volume).

The BAILLIES of Dochfour, Dunain, and others of the name in Inverness-shire, are descended from a son of the laird of Lamington, whose gallantry at the battle of Brechin, fought on the 18th of May 1452, between the earls of Crawford and Huntly, was rewarded by the latter, on whose side he was, with part of the Castle—lands of Inverness.

In Ross-shire are the Baillies of Tarradale and Redcastle.

BAILLIE of Polkemmet, originally Paukommot, the name of an ancient family in Linlithgowshire. One of its modern possessors, William Baillie, advocate, the eldest son of Thomas Baillie, writer to the signet, was raised to the bench in 1792, when he took the title of Lord Polkemmet. His son, Sir William Baillie, was in 1823, created a baronet.

      The surname of Baillie, in some instances, may have been derived from the word Bailiff, or the term bailie, which latter is in Scotland applied to a magistrate of a burgh.

BAILLIE, ROBERT, a learned Presbyterian minister, was born at Glasgow in 1599. his father, described as a citizen, was a son of Baillie of Jerviston, of the family of Carphin, descended from the Baillies of Lamington, while his mother was related to the Gibsons of Durie. He was educated at the university of his native city, where he took the degree of A.M. Having studied divinity, in due time he was ordained by Archbishop Law of Glasgow. Becoming tutor to the son of the earl of Eglinton, that nobleman presented him to the living of Kilwinning, in Ayrshire. In 1626 he was admitted a regent at Glasgow college. About the same time he appears to have prosecuted the study of the oriental languages, and was anxious to promote similar studies in the university. In 1629 he delivered an oration In Laudem Linguae Hebraeae. In 1633 he declined the offer of a living in Edinburgh. The attempt of Archbishop Laud to introduce the Common Prayer into Scotland met with his firm opposition; and, though episcopally ordained, he joined the presbyterians, and was in 1638 elected, by the presbytery of Irvine, their representative at the Assembly held at Glasgow that year. In 1639, as chaplain to Lord Eglinton’s regiment, he was with the army of the Covenanters, encamped on Dunse Law, under Alexander Leslie; on which occasion he appears to have caught some portion of the military ardour which then prevailed in the cause of liberty and religion. "It would have done you good," he remarks in one of his letters, "to have cast your eyes athort our brave and rich hills as oft as I did, with great contentment and joy; for I was there among the rest, being chosen preacher by the gentlemen of our shire, who came late with Lord Eglinton. I furnished to half a dozen of good fellows, muskets and pikes, and to my boy a broadsword. I carried myself, as the fashion was, a sword, arid a couple of Dutch pistols at my saddle; but, I promise, for the offence of no man, except a robber in the way; for it was our part alone to pray and preach for the encouragement of our countrymen, which I did to my power, most chearfully." (Baillie's Letters, vol. i. p. 174.) He afterwards states,

      "Our sojours grew in experience of arms, in courage, in favour, daily. Every one encouraged another. The sight of the nobles, and their beloved pastors, daily raised their hearts. The good sermons and prayers, morning and even, under the roof of heaven, to which their drums did call them for bells; the remonstrances very frequent of the goodness of their cause; of their conduct hitherto, by a hand clearly divine; also Lesly’s skill and prudence and fortune, made them all as resolute for battle as could be wished. We were feared that emulation among our nobles might have done harm, when they should be met in the field; but such was the wisdom and authority of that old, little, crooked soldier, that all, with an incredible submission, from the beginning to the end, gave over themselves to be guided by him, as if he had been great Solyman..... . . Had you lent your ear in the morning, or especially at even, and heard in the tents the sound of some singing psalms, some praying, and some reading Scripture, ye would have been refreshed. True, there was swearing, and cursing, and brawling, in some quarters, whereat we were grieved; but we hoped, if our camp had been a little settled, to have gotten some way for these misorders; for all of any fashion did regret, and all promised to do their best endeavours for helping all abuses. For myself, I never found my mind in better temper than it was all that time since I came from home, till my head was again homeward; for I was as a man who had taken my leave from the world, and was resolved to die in that service without return." (Ibid. p. 211.) The treaty of Berwick, negotiated with Charles in person, produced a temporary cessation of hostilities.

      In 1640, when the Covenanters again appeared in arms, Mr. Baillie joined them, and towards the end of that year, he was sent to London, with other commissioners, to prefer charges against Laud, for the innovations which that prelate had obtruded on the Church of Scotland. He had previously published ‘The Canterburian’s Self-Conviction;’ and he also wrote various other controversial pamphlets. In 1642 he was, along with Mr. David Dickson, appointed joint professor of divinity at Glasgow, where he took the degree of D.D., and was employed chiefly in teaching the oriental languages, in which he was much skilled. In January 1651, on the removal of his colleague to the university of Edinburgh, he obtained the sole professorship. So great was the estimation in which he was held, that he had at one time the choice of the divinity chair in the four Scottish universities. In 1643 he was elected a member of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, an interesting account of the proceedings at which he has given in his Correspondence. He was a leading member of all the General Assemblies from 1638 to 1653, excepting only those held while he was with the divines at Westminster. In 1649 he was sent to Holland as a commissioner from the Church, for the purpose of inviting over Charles the Second, under the limitations of the Covenant. After the Restoration, on the 23d January 1661, he was admitted principal of the university of Glasgow. He was afterwards offered a bishoprie, which he refused. When the new archbishop of Glasgow, Andrew Fairfoul, arrived at his metropolitan seat, he did not fail to pay his respects to the learned principal. Baillie admits that "he preached on the Sunday, soberly and well." "The chancellor, my noble kind scholar," he afterwards states, "brought all in to see me in my chamber, where I gave them sack and ale, the best of the town. The bishop was very courteous to me. I excused my not using of his styles, and professed my utter difference from his way, yet behoved to intreat his favour for our affairs of the college, wherein he promised liberally. What he will perform time will try." (Letters, vol. ii. p. 461.) According to another account, the archbishop visited him during his illness, and was accosted in the following terms: "Mr. Andrew, I will not call you my lord, King Charles would have made me one of these lords; but I do not find in the New Testament that Christ has any lords in his house." In other respects he is said to have treated the prelate very courteously. Mr. Baillie died in July 1662, at the age of sixty-three. He was the author of several publications, in Latin and English, one of which, entitled ‘Opus Historicum et Chronologicum,’ published at Amsterdam in 1663, and reprinted in 1668, is mentioned in terms of praise by Spottiswood. Excerpts from his ‘Letters and Journals,’ in 2 volumes octavo, were published at Edinburgh in 1755. These contain some valuable and curious details of the history of those times. The Letters and Journals themselves are preserved entire in the archives of the Church of Scotland, and in the university of Glasgow. Many of these letters are addressed to the author’s cousin-german, William Spang, minister of the Scottish staple at Campvere, and afterwards of the English congregation at Middelburg in Zeeland. Mr. Baillie understood no fewer than thirteen languages, among which were Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Samaritan, Arabic, and Ethiopic.

Mr. Baillie was twice married. His first wife was Lilias Fleming, of the family of Cardarroch, in the parish of Cadder, near Glasgow. Of this marriage there were several children, but only five survived him. His eldest son, Henry, studied for the church, but never got a living, His posterity inherited the estate of Carnbroe, which some years ago was sold by General Baillie. The first wife died in June 1653, and in October 1656, he married Mrs. Wilkie, a widow, the daughter of Dr. Strang, the former principal of Glasgow university. By this lady he had a daughter, Margaret, who became the wife of Walkinshaw of Barrowfield, and grandmother of the celebrated Henry Home, Lord Kames. Miss Clementina Walkinshaw, the mistress of Prince Charles Stuart, was also a descendant of Mr. Baillie’s daughter.

      Mr. Wodrow extols Baillie as a prodigy of erudition, and commends his Latin style as suitable to the Augustan age. In foreign countries, says Irving, he appears to have enjoyed some degree of celebrity, and is mentioned by Saldenus as a chronologer of established reputation. Although amiable and modest in private life, in his controversial writings he displayed much of the characteristic violence of the times.

      The following is a list of Mr. Baillie’s works:

Operis Historici et Chronologici libri duo, cum Tribus Diatribus Theologicis. 1. De Haereticorum Autocatacrisi. 2.

An Quicquid in Deo eat, Dens sit. 3. De Praedestinatione.

Amst. 1663, fol. These three Dissertations printed separately.

Amst. 1664, 8vo.

A Defence of the Reformation of the Church of &otland, against Mr. Maxwell, Bishop of Ross.

An Antidote against Arminianism. Lond. 1641, 8vo. 1652, 8vo.

The Unlawfulness and Danger of a Limited Prelacie and Episcopacie. Lond. 1641, 4to.

A Parallel or briefe comparison of the Liturgie with the Masse-Book, the Brevisrie, the Ceremoniall, and other Roish Ritualls. Loud. 1641, 1642, 1646, 1661, 4to.

Queries anent the Service Booke.

A Treatise on Scotch Episcopacy.

Ladensium Awnszavazeaf;, the Canterburian’s Self-Con viction; or an evident Demonstration of the avowed Arminianisme, Poperie, and Tyrannie of that Faction, by their owne confessions: with a Postscript to the Personat Jesuite, Lysimachus Nicanor. Loud. 1641. 4to.

Satan the Leader in chief to all who resist the Reparation of Sion; as it was cleared in a Sermon to the Honourable House of Commons at their late Solemn Fast, Febr. 28, 1643, 4to.

Errours and Induration are the great sins and the great Judgments of the time; preached in a Sermon before the Right Honourable the House of Peers in the Abbey Church at Westminster, July 30, 1645, the day of the monthely Fast. Lond. 1645, 4to.

An Historical Vindication of the Government of the Church of Scotland, from the manifold base Calumnies which the most malignant of the Prelats did invent of old, and now lately have been published with great industry in two pamphlets at London; the one intituled Issachara Burden, &c. written and published at Oxford by John Maxwell, a Scottish Prelate, &c. Lond. 1646, 4to.

A Dissuasive from the Errours of the Time; wherein the Tenets of the Principail Sects, especially of the Indcpendents, are drawn together in one Map, &c. Lond. 1645, 4to. 1646, 4to. 1655, 4to.

Anabaptism, the true Fountaine of Independency, Brownisme, Antinomy, Familisme, &c. in a Second Part of the Dissuasive from the Errours of the Time. Lond. 1647, 4to.

A Review of Dr. Bramble, late Bishop of Londonderry, his Faire Warning against the Scotes Disciplin. Delf. 1649, 4to. Baillie’s Review was reprinted at Edinburgh; and having been translated into Dutch, it was published at Utrecht.

A Scotch Antidote against the English Infection of Arminianism. Lond. 1652, 12mo.

Appendix practica ad Joannis Buxtorfii Epitomen Grammaticae Hebraeae. Edin. 1653, 8vo.

A Reply to the Modest Inquirer. Perhaps relating to the dispute between the Resolutioners and Protesters.

Catechesis Elenctica Errorum qui hodie vexant Ecclesiam. Lond. 1654, 12mo.

The Dissuasive from the Errours of the Time, Vindicated from the Exceptions of Mr. Cotton and Mr. Tombes. Lond. 1655, 4to.

Letters and Journals, containing an Impartial Account of Public Transactions, Civil, Ecclesiastical, and Military, in England and Scotland, from the beginning of the Civil Wars, in 1637, to the year 1662. With an Account of the Author’s Life prefixed, and a Glossary annexed, by Robert Aitken. Edin. 1775, 2 vols. 8vo. The same edited from the author’s MS. by David Laing, Esq. Edin. 1841-2. 8 vols. 8vo.

BAILLIE, ROBERT, of Jerviswood, a distinguished patriot of the reign of Charles the Second, sometimes called the Scottish Sydney, was the son of George Baillie of St. John’s Kirk, Lanarkshire, a cadet of the Lamington family, who had become proprietor of the estate of Jerviswood in the same county. From his known attachment to the cause of civil and religious liberty, he had long been an object of suspicion and dislike to the tyrannical government which then ruled in Scotland. The following circumstances first brought upon him the persecution of the council. In June 1676, the Reverend Mr. Kirkton, a non-conformist minister, who had married the sister of Mr. Baillie, was illegally arrested on the High Street of Edinburgh by one Carstairs, an informer employed by Archbishop Sharp; and, not having a warrant, he endeavoured to extort money from his prisoner before he would let him go. Baillie being sent for by his brother-in-law, hastened to his relief, and succeeded in rescuing him. Kirkton had been inveigled by Carstairs into a mean-looking house near the common prison, and on Mr. Baillie with several other persons coining to the house, they found the door locked in the inside. Baillie called to Carstairs to open, when Kirkton, encouraged by the voices of friends, desired Carstair’s, who after his capture had in vain attempted to procure a warrant, either to set him free, or to produce a warrant for his detention. Instead of complying with either request, Carstairs drew a pocket pistol and a struggle ensued between Kirkton and him for its possession. Those without hearing the noise and cries of murder, burst open the door, and found Kirkton on the floor and Carstairs sitting on him. Mr. Baillie drew his sword, and commanded him to rise, asking at the same time if he had any warrant to apprehend Mr. Kirkton. Carstairs said he had a warrant for conducting him to prison, but he refused to produce it, saying he was not bound to show it. Mr. Baillie declared that if he saw any warrant against his friend, he would assist in carrying it into execution. He offered no violence whatever to Car-stairs, but only threatened to sue him for the illegal arrest of his brother-in-law. He then, with Mr. Kirkton and his friends, left the house. Upon the complaint of Carstairs, who had procured an antedated warrant, signed by nine of the privy council, Mr. Baillie was called before the council, and by the influence of Sharp fined in six thousand merks, (£318; Wodrow says the fine was £500 sterling;) to be imprisoned till paid. After being four months in he was liberated, on payment of half the fine to Carstairs. The above mentioned Mr. Kirkton wrote a memoir of the church during his own times, from which Wodrow the historian derived much valuable assistance.

      In the year 1683, seeing no prospect of relief from the tyranny of the government at home, Mr. Baillie and some other gentlemen commenced a negotiation with the patentees of South Carolina, with the vIew of emigrating with their families to that colony; in this following the example of Cromwell, Hampden, and others previous to the commencement of the Civil wars; but in both instances the attempt was frustrated, and in Mr. Baillie’s case fatally for himself. About the same time that this negotiation was begun, he and several of his co-patriots had entered into a correspondence with the heads of the Protestant party in England; and, on the invitation of the latter, he and five others repaired to London, to consult with the duke of Monmouth, Sydney, Russell, and their friends, as to the plans to be adopted to obtain a change of measures in the government. On the discovery of the Rye-House Plot, with which he had no connection, Mr. Baillie and several of his friends were arrested, and sent down to be tried in Scotland. The hope of a pardon being held out to him, on condition of his giving the government some information, he replied, " They who can make such a proposal to me, neither know me nor my country." Lord John Russell observes. " It is to the honour of Scotland, that if witnesses came forward voluntarily to accuse their associates, as had been done in England." He had married, early in life, a sister of Sir Archibald Johnston of Warriston, who was executed in June, 1633, and during his confinement previous to trial, Mr. Baillie was not permitted to have the society of his lady, although she offered to go into irons, as an assurance against any attempt of facilitating his escape. He was accused of having entered into a conspiracy to raise rebellion, and of being concerned in the Rye-House Plot. As his prosecutors could find no evidence against him, he was ordered to free himself by oath, which he refused, and was in consequence fined six thousand pounds sterling. His persecutors were not satisfied even with this, for he was still kept shut up in prison, and denied all attendance and assistance, which had such an effect upon his health, as to reduce him almost to the last extremity. Bishop Burnet, in his History of his own Times,' tells us that the ministers of state were most earnestly set on Baillie's destruction, though he was now in so languishing a condition, that if his death would have satisfied the malice of the court, it seemed to be very near. He adds, that "all the while he was in prison, he seemed so composed and cheerful, that his behaviour looked like the reviving of the spirit of the noblest of the old Greeks or Romans, or rather of the primitive Christians, and first martyrs in those best days of the church."

      The woodcut at right is taken from an early portrait of Mr. Baillie, painted in 1660. The original miniature is in possession of George Baillie, Esq., of Jerviswood and Mellerstain.

      On the 23d December 1684 Mr. Baillie was arraigned before the high court of justiciary on the capital charge, when he appeared in a dying condition. He was carried to the bar in his nightgown, attended by his sister, the wife of Mr. Ker of Graden, who sustained him with cordials ; and not being able to stand he was obliged to sit. He solemnly denied having been accessary to any conspiracy against the king's or his brother's life, or of being an enemy to the monarchy. Every expedient being resorted to, to insure his conviction, he was found guilty on the morning of December 24th, and condemned to be hanged that afternoon at the market-cross of Edinburgh, his head to be fixed on the Netherbow Port, and his body to be quartered, the quarters to be exhibited on the gaols of Jedburgh, Lanark, Ayr, and Glasgow. On hearing his sentence he said, "My lords, the time is short, the sentence is sharp, but I thank my God who hath made me as fit to die as you are to live." He was attended to the scaffold by his faithful and affectionate sister. He was so weak that he required to be assisted in mounting the ladder. As soon as he was up he said, "My faint zeal for the Protestant religion hath brought me to this ;" but the drums interrupted him. He had prepared a speech to be delivered on the scaffold, but was prevented. "Thus," says Bishop Burnet, "a learned and worthy gentleman, after twenty months' hard usage, was brought to such a death, in a way so full, in all the steps of it, of the spirit and practice of the courts of the Inquisition, that one is tempted to think that the methods taken in it were suggested by one well studied, if not practised in them." Dr. Owen, who was acquainted with Baillie, writing to a friend in Scotland before his death, said of him, "You have truly men of great spirit among you ; there is, for a gentleman, Mr. Baillie of Jerviswood, a person of the greatest abilities I ever almost met with." Mr. Baillie's family was for the time completely ruined by his forfeiture. His son George, after his execution, was obliged to take refuge in Holland. He afterwards returned with the prince of Orange, in 1688, when he was restored to his estates. He married Grizel, the daughter of Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth.

George Baillie, Esq. of Jerviswoode and Mellerstain, (born in 1763, died in 1841,) nephew of the seventh earl of Haddington, had issue, 1. George Baillie Hamilton, who succeeded his cousin as tenth earl of Haddington, (see page 174 of this volume ;) 2. Eliza, born in 1803, married the second marquis of Breadalbane ; 3. Charles Baillie, born in 1804, lord-advocate 1858, a lord of session 1859, under the title of Lord Jerviswoode, married, with issue ; 4. Robert, major in the army ; 5. Rev. John, a canon of York ; 6. Captain Thomas, R.N. ; 7. Mary, married George John James, Lord Haddo, eldest son of George, fourth earl of Aberdeen, with issue; 8. Georgina, married in 1835, Lord Polwarth, with issue, died in 1859 ; 9. Catherine Charlotte, married in 1840, fourth earl of Ashburnham, with issue; 10. Grisel, born in 1822.

      Evan Baillie, an eminent merchant of Bristol, born in Inverness-shire in 1742, died at Dochfour in that county, in June 1835, left two sons, Colonel Hugh Baillie of Redcastle and Tarradale, Ross-shire, and James Evan Baillie, Esq. of Culduthel and Glenelg.

BAILLIE, JOHN, of Leys, a distinguished East Indian officer, born in Inverness-shire in 1773, appointed a cadet on the Bengal establishment in 1790. He received the commission of ensign in March 1793, and of lieutenant in November 1794. In 1797 he was employed by Lord Teignmouth to translate from the Arabic language an important work on the Mohammedan law, compiled by Sir William Jones. On the first formation of the college of Fort-William, about 1800, he was appointed professor of the Arabic and Persian languages, and of the Mohammedan law in that institution. Soon after the commencement of the war with the confederated Mahratta chieftains in 1803, he offered his services as a volunteer in the field, and proceeded to join the army then employed in the siege of Agra. His captain's commission is dated 30th September 1803. The precarious situation of affairs in the province of Bundlecund requiring the superintendence of an officer, qualified to conduct various important and difficult negotiations, on which depended the establishment of the British authority in that province, he was appointed by the commander-in-chief to the arduous and responsible office of political agent. It was necessary to occupy a considerable tract of hostile country, in the name of the Peishwa ; to suppress a combination of refractory chiefs, and to conciliate others ; to superintend the operations, both of the British troops and of their native auxiliaries ; and to establish the British civil power and the collection of revenue, in this province, which was not only menaced with foreign invasion, but disturbed with internal commotion. All these objects were, by the zeal and activity of Captain Baillie, accomplished within three months. In a letter to the court of directors, it was stated as the opinion of the governor-general in council, that on occasion of the invasion of the province by the troops of Ameer Khan, in May and June 1804, " the British authority in Bundlecund was alone preserved by his fortitude, ability, and influence." His services were continued in the capacity of a member of the commission appointed in July 1804, for the administration of the affairs of Bundlecund; and excepting the short interval of the last five months of 1805, which he spent at the presidency, he continued engaged in this important service until the summer of 1807. He thus effected the peaceable transfer to the British dominions of a territory yielding an annual revenue of eighteen lacs of rupees, (£225,000 sterling,) with the sacrifice only of a jaghire, of little more than one lac of rupees per annum. In July 1807, on the death of Colonel Collins, he was appointed resident at Lucknow, where he remained till the end of 1815, and in June 1818, he was placed on the retired list. He was promoted to the rank of major in the Bengal army in January 1811, and to that of lieutenant-colonel in July 1815. After his return to England, he was, in 1820, elected M.P. for Hedon, for which he sat during two parliaments, until the dissolution of 1830. In that year he was returned for the Inverness burghs, and re-elected in 1831 and 1832. He had been chosen a director of the East India Company on the 28th of May 1823. He died in London, on the 20th April 1833, aged sixty.—Annual Obituary.

BAILLIE, MATTHEW, M.D., a distinguished anatomist and the first physician of his time, was born October 27, 1761, in the manse of Shotts, Lanarkshire, He was the son of the Rev. James Baillie, D.D., then minister of that parish, subsequently of Bothwell, on the Clyde, in the same county, and afterwards professor of divinity in the university of Glasgow, a descendant, it is supposed, of the family of Baillie of Jerviswood. On his mother's side he was also related to eminent individuals, Dr. William Hunter and Mr. John Hunter, the anatomists, being her brothers ; while his own sister was the highly gifted and celebrated Joanna Baillie. In 1773 he was sent to Glasgow college, where he studied for five years, and so greatly distinguished himself, that in 1778 he was removed, on Snell's foundation, to Baliol college, Oxford. In 1688, Mr. John Snell, with a view to support episcopacy in Scotland, devised to trustees the estate of Uffton, near Leamington, in Warwickshire, for educating in that college, Scots students from the university of Glasgow. This fund now affords one hundred and thirty- two pounds per annum to each of ten exhibitions, and one of these it was young Baillie's good fortune, in consequence of his great attainments, to secure. At the university of Oxford he took his degrees in arts and medicine. In 1780, while still keeping his terms at Oxford, he became the pupil of his uncles, and when in London he resided with Dr. William Hunter, who, childless himself, seems to have adopted him as a son, and to have fixed upon him as his successor in the lecture-room, in which, at this period, he sometimes assisted. Easy in his manners, and open in his communications, he soon became a favourite with the students, and greatly relieved Dr. Hunter of the arduous task of teaching in his latter years. The sudden death of the latter, in March 1783, soon left him, in conjunction with Mr. Cruickshank, his late uncle's assistant, to support the reputation of the anatomical theatre, in Great Windmill Street, which had been founded by his uncle. [Memoirs of Eminent Physicians and Surgeons. London, 1818, p. 37.]

      Dr. Baillie began his duties as an anatomical teacher in 1784, and he continued to lecture, with the highest reputation, till 1799. In 1787 he was elected physician to St. George's Hospital. In 1790, having previously taken his degree of M.D. at Oxford, he was admitted a fellow of the Royal college of Physicians. He was also elected a fellow of the Royal Society, to whose Transactions he had contributed two anatomical papers. He was also chosen president of the new medical society. The subject of morbid anatomy seems to have early attracted his attention, and the valuable museum of his uncle, to which lie had so full access, opened to him an ample field for its investigation. Before his time, no regular system or method of arrangement had been pursued by anatomical writers, which could render this study useful. By a nice and accurate observation of the morbid appearances of every part of the body, and the peculiar circumstances which in life distinguish them, he was enabled to place in a comprehensive and clear compass, an extensive and valuable mass of information, before his time in a confused and undigested state. In 1795 he published his valuable work, which acquired for him a European fame, entitled 'The Morbid Anatomy of some of the most important parts of the Human Body,' which he subsequently enlarged, and which was translated into French and German, and has gone through innumerable editions. In 1799 be commenced the publication of A Series of Engravings to illustrate some parts of Morbid Anatomy,' from drawings by Mr. Clift, the conservator of the Hunterian Museum in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields; which splendid and useful work was completed in 1802.    

      In 1800 Dr. Baillie resigned his office in St. George's Hospital, and thenceforward devoted himself to general practice as a physician, in which he was so successful that he was known in one year to have received ten thousand pounds in fees. His work on the Morbid Anatomy of the Human Body had placed his character high as a pathognomic physician, and every difficult case in high life came under his review. So fixed was his reputation in public opinion, that even his leaving London for a period of some months at a time made no alteration in the request for him at his return—not usually the case with the general run of his professional brethren. Besides publishing 'An Anatomical Description of the Gravid Uterus,' he contributed many important papers to the Philosophical Transactions and medical collections of the day. Having been called in to attend the duke of Gloucester, whose malady however proved past cure, his mode of treatment gave so much satisfaction to the family of his royal highness, that it is thought to have paved the way for his being commanded to join in consultation the court physicians, in the case of George the Third, during his mental aberration, and he continued a principal director of the royal treatment during the protracted illness of the king. Amid the mingled hopes and fears which agitated the nation for so long a time, Dr. Baillie, from the known candour of his nature, was looked up to with confidence as one whose opinion could be relied upon. The air of a court, so apt to change the sentiments, and cause the individual to turn with every political gale, was considered incapable of bending the stubbornness of his tried integrity; and it is even said that his opinion differed often from that of his more politic colleagues. [Memoirs of Eminent Physicians and Surgeons, p. 40.] His conduct seems to have given such high satisfaction that on the first vacancy in 1810, he was appointed one of the physicians to the king, with the offer of a baronetcy, which he declined.

      Dr. Baillie died on 23d September 1823, leaving to the London College of Physicians the whole of his extensive and valuable collection of preparations, with six hundred pounds to keep it in order. He had married early in life Sophia, sister of Lord Denman, late lord chief justice of the court of Queen's Bench, by whom he had one son and one daughter. His estate of Duntisbourne in Gloucestershire went to his son. He left large sums to medical institutions and public charities. While yet a young man, his uncle William having had an unfortunate misunderstanding with his brother John Hunter, left at his death the small family estate of Longcalderwood in Lanarkshire, to his nephew, in prejudice of his own brother, to whom Dr. Baillie restored it, as being of right his surviving uncle's.

The portrait of Dr. Baillie (left) is from a rare print.

The leading features of Dr. Baillie's character were openness and candour. He never flattered the prejudices of his patients, or pretended to a knowledge which he did not possess. He knew well the ravages and consequences of disease, and how difficult it is to rectify derangements of structure when once permanently formed. In money matters his liberality was remarkable. He has often been known to return fees where he conceived the patient could not afford them, and also to refuse a larger sum than what he considered was his due.

      Shortly after his death an elegant tribute to his memory was delivered to the students of anatomy and surgery in Great Windmill Street, London, by his eminent successor in that lecture-school, Sir Charles Bell: " You, who are just entering on your studies," he said, " cannot be aware of the importance of one man to the character of a profession, the members of which extend over the civilized world. You cannot yet estimate the thousand chances there are against a man rising to the degree of eminence which Dr. Baillie attained; nor know how slender the hope of seeing his place supplied in our day. It was under this roof that Dr. Baillie formed himself, and here the profession learned to appreciate him. He had no desire to get rid of the national peculiarities of language; or, if he had, he did not perfectly succeed. Not only did the language of his native land linger on his tongue, but its recollections clung to his heart; and to the last, amidst the splendour of his professional life, and the seductions of a court, he took a hearty interest in the happiness and the eminence of his original country. But there was a native sense and strength of mind which more than compensated for the want of the polish and purity of English pronunciation. He possessed the valuable talent of making an abstruse and difficult subject plain; his prelections were remarkable for that lucid order and clearness of expression which proceed from a perfect conception of the subject; and he never permitted any vanity of display to turn him from his great object of conveying information in the simplest and most intelligible way, and so as to be most useful to his pupils. It is to be regretted that his associate in the lectureship made his duties here unpleasant to him, and I have his own authority for saying that, but for this, he would have continued to lecture for some years longer. Dr. Baillie presented his collection of morbid specimens to the College of Physicians, with a sum of money to be expended in keeping them in order, and it is rather remarkable that Dr. Hunter, his brother, and his nephew, should have left to their country such noble memorials as these. In the college of Glasgow may be seen the princely collection of Dr. Hunter; the college of surgeons have assumed new dignity, surrounded by the collection of Mr. Hunter—more like the successive works of many men enjoying royal patronage or national support, than the work of a private surgeon; and lastly, Dr. Baillie has given to the College of Physicians, at least, that foundation for a museum of morbid anatomy, which we hope to see completed by the activity of the members of that body. Dr. Baillie's success was creditable to the time. It may be said of him, as it was said of his uncle John, every time I hear of his increasing eminence it appears to me like the fulfilling of poetical justice, so well has he deserved success by his labours for the advantage of humanity.' Yet I cannot say that there was not in his manner sufficient reason for his popularity. Those who have introduced him to families from the country must have observed in them a degree of surprise on first meeting the physician of the court. There was no assumption of character or warmth of interest exhibited. He appeared what he really was—one come to be a dispassionate observer, and to do that duty for which he was called. But then, when he had to deliver his opinion, and more especially when he had to communicate with the family, there was a clearness in his statement, a reasonableness in all he said, and a convincing simplicity in his manner that had the most soothing and happy influence on minds, excited and almost irritated by suffering and the apprehension of impending misfortune. After so many years spent in the cultivation of the most severe science—for surely anatomy and pathology may be so considered—and in the performance of professional duties on the largest scale, —for he was consulted not only by those who personally knew him, but by individuals of all nations,—he had, of late years, betaken himself to other studies, as a pastime and recreation. He attended more to the general progress of science. He took particular pleasure in mineralogy; and even from the natural history of the articles of the Pharmacopoeia he appears to have derived a new source of gratification. By a certain difficulty which he put in the way of those who wished to consult him, and by seeing them only in company with other medical attendants, he procured for himself, in the latter part of his life, that leisure which his health required, and which suited the maturity of his reputation; while he intentionally left the field of practice open to new aspirants. When you add to what I have said of the celebrity of the uncles William and John Hunter, the example of Dr. Baillie, and farther consider the eminence of his sister Joanna Baillie, excelled by none of her sex in any age, you must conclude with me that the family has exhibited a singular extent and variety of talent. Dr. Baillie's age was not great, if measured by length of years; he had not completed his sixty-third year, but his life was long in usefulness. lie lived long enough to complete the model of a professional life. In the studies of youth; in the serious and manly occupations of the middle period of life; in the upright, humane, and honourable character of a physician ; and above all in that dignified conduct which became a man mature in years and honours, he has left a finished example to his profession." [Annual Register for 1823.]

      Dr. Baillie would never allow any likeness of himself to be published. He sat to Hoppner for his portrait, in order to make a present of it to his sisters, but finding that this picture had been put into the hands of an engraver, he interfered to prevent its being used by him, as he exceedingly disliked the idea of seeing his face in the print-shop windows. The engraving, however, was already completed, and his sense of justice would not allow him to deprive the engraver of the fruits of his labour. He therefore purchased the copperplate, and permitted only a few copies to be taken from it, which were presented to friends. His collected medical works were published in 1825, with a memoir of his life by James Wardrop, surgeon.

The following is a list of Dr. Baillie's works :

The Morbid Anatomy of some of the most Important Parts of the Human Body. Lond. 1793, 8vo. Appendix to the first edition of the Morbid Anatomy. Loud. 1798, 8vo. 2d edit. corrected and greatly enlarged. 1797, 8vo. 7th edit. 1807. A Series of Engravings, tending to illustrate the Morbid Anatomy of some of the most Important Parts of the Human Body. Fascic. lx. Loud. 1799, 1802, royal 4to. 2d edit. 1812.

Anatomical Description of the Gravid Uterus.

Case of a Boy, seven years of age, who had Hydrocephalus, in whom some of the Bones of the Skull, once firmly united, were, in the progress of the disease, separated to a considerable distance from each other. Med. Trans. iv. p. 1813.

Of some Uncommon Symptoms which occurred in a Case of Hydrocephalus Internus. Ib. p. 9.

Upon a Strong Pulsation of the Aorta, in the Epigastric Region. Ib. p. 271.

Upon a Case of Stricture of the Rectum, produced by a Spasmodic Contraction of the Internal and External Spineta of the Anus. Med. Trans. v. p. 136. 1815.

Some Observations respecting the Green Jaundice. Ib. p. 143.

class=Section8>

Some Observations on a Particular Species of Purging. Ib. p. 166.

The Want of a Pericordium in the Human Body. Trans. Med. et Chic. p. 91. 1793.

Of Uncommon Appearances of Disease in the Blood Vessels. Ib. p. 119.

Of a Remarkable Deviation from the Natural Structure, in the Urinary Bladder and Organs of Generation of a Male. Trans. Med. et Chir. p. 189. 1793.

A Case of Emphysema not proceeding from Local Injury. Ib. p. 292.

An Account of a Case of Diabetes, with an Examination of the Appearances after Death. Ib. p. 170. 1800.

An Account of a Singular Disease in the Great Intestines. Ib. p. 144.

An Account of the Case of a Man who had no Evacuation in his Bowels for nearly fifteen weeks before his death. Ib. p. 179.

Of a Remarkable Transposition of the Viscera. Phil. Trans. Abr. xii. 483. 1788.

Of a Particular Structure in the Human Ovarium. Ib. 535. 1789.

BAILLIE, JOANNA, an eminent poetess and acknowledged improver of English poetic diction, sister of Dr. Matthew Baillie, the subject of the preceding memoir, was born in 1762. Her birthplace was the manse of Bothwell, a parish on the banks of the Clyde, in the Lower ward of Lanarkshire, of which her father, the Rev. James Baillie, D.D., afterwards professor of divinity in the university of Glasgow, was at that time minister. She was the younger of his two daughters. Within earshot of the rippling of the broad waters of the Clyde, she spent her early days. That river, confined within lofty banks, makes a fine sweep round the magnificent ruins of Bothwell Castle, and forms the semicircular declivity called Bothwell Bank, that " blooms so fair," celebrated in ancient song ; "meet nurse for a poetic child." In the immediate vicinity is " Bothwell Brig," where the Covenanters were defeated in June 1679.

"Where Bothwell Bridge connects the margin steep,
And Clyde below runs silent, strong, and deep,
The hardy peasant, by oppression driven
To battle, deem'd his cause the cause of Heaven ;
Unskill'd in arms, with useless courage stood,
While gentle Monmouth grieved to shed his blood."

After her father's death, her mother, who was a daughter of Mr. Hunter of Longcalderwood, a small estate in the parish of East Kilbride, in the same county, went there to reside, with her two daughters, Agnes and Joanna, but when the latter was about twenty years of age, Mrs. Baillie removed with them to London, to be near her son, Dr. Mathew Baillie, and her two brothers, Dr. William Hunter and Mr. John Hunter, the eminent anatomists. In London or the neighbourhood Miss Baillie resided for the remainder of her life, she and her sister having for many years kept house together at Hampstead. The incidents of her life are few, being confined almost exclusively to the publication of her works. Her earliest pieces appeared anonymously. Her name first became known by her dramas on the Passions. The first volume was published in 1798, under the title of ‘A Series of Plays, in which it is attempted to delineate the stronger passions of the mind, each passion being the subject of a tragedy and a comedy.’ In a long introductory discourse on the subject of the drama, she explains her principal purpose to be to make each play subservient to the development of some one particular passion. "Let," she says, "one simple trait of the human heart, one expression of passion, genuine and true to nature, be introduced, and it will stand forth alone in the boldness of reality, whilst the false and unnatural around it fades away upon every side, like the rising exhalations of the morning." In thus, however, restricting her dramas to the illustration of only one passion in each, she excluded herself from the varied range of character which is necessary to the acting drama, and circumscribed the proper business of the piece; hence, her dramas are more adapted for perusal than for representation. Nevertheless, their merits were instantly acknowledged, and a second edition of this her first volume was called for in a few months. In 1802, she published a second volume of her plays. In 1804 she produced a volume of miscellaneous dramas, and the third volume of her plays on the Passions appeared in 1812. All these raised her name to a proud pre-eminence in the world of literature, and she was considered one of the most highly gifted of British poetesses.

      Like Byron, however, Miss Baillie early came under the censure of the Edinburgh Review, but she turned a deaf ear to its upbraidings, and halted not in the path which she had traced out for herself, at its bidding. Byron’s spirit was aroused, and he retaliated in the most bitter satire in the English language; Miss Baillie placed the unjust judgment quietly aside, and silently went on her way rejoicing. On the appearance of her second volume of Plays, a very unfavourable opinion was expressed of them in the fourth number of the Edinburgh Review, namely that for July 1803, and her theory of the unity of passion unequivocally condemned. In the thirty-eighth number, that for February 1812, when the third volume had appeared, the reviewer was still more severe. Her views were styled "narrow and peculiar," and her scheme "singularly perverse and fantastic." Miss Bail-lie’s plan of producing twin dramas, a tragedy and a comedy, on each of the passions, was thoroughly disapproved of by Mr. Jeffrey, who appeared to think that her genius was rather lyrical than dramatic. In his estimation her dramas combined the faults of the French and English schools, the poverty of incident and uniformity of the one with the irregularity and homeliness of the other, her plots were improbable, and her language a bad imitation of that of the elder dramatists. In this verdict the literary public have not agreed, and the bitter feeling in which the review was written, as in the still more memorable case of Byron, tended to defeat its own purpose. It was well remarked by one of the impartial critics of Miss Baillie’s writings, that in her honourable pursuit of fame, she did not "bow the knee to the idolatries of the day ;" but strong in the confidence of native genius, she held her undeviating course, with nature for her instructress and virtue for her guide.

       Amongst those who, from their first appearance, had expressed an enthusiastic admiration of her plays on the Passions, was Mr. (afterwards Sir) Walter Scott, who, when in London in 1806, was introduced to Miss Baillie by Mr. Sotheby, the translator of Oberon. The acquaintance thus begun soon ripened into affectionate intimacy, and for many years they maintained a close epistolary correspondence with each other. Between these two eminent individuals, there were in fact many striking points of resemblance. They had the same lyrical fire and enthusiasm, the same love of legendary lore, and the same attachment to the manners and customs, to the hills and woods of their native Scotland. Many of Scott’s letters to her are inserted in Lockhart’s Life of the great novelist.

      During a visit which Miss Baillie paid to Scotland in the year 1808, she resided for a week or two with Mr. Scott at Edinburgh. While in Glasgow, previous to her proceeding to that city, she had sought out Mr. John Struthers, the author of the Poor Man’s Sabbath, then a working shoemaker, a native of the parish of East Kilbride, whom she had known in his early years. Mr. Struthers, in the memoirs of his own life (published with his poems in 2 vols. in 1850), thus commemorates this event. "In the year 1808 the author had the high honour and the singular pleasure of being visited at his own house in the Gorbals of Glasgow by Joanna Baillie, then on a visit to her native Scotland, who had known him so intimately in his childhood. He has not forgotten, and never can forget, how the sharp and clear tones of her sweet voice thrilled through his heart, when at the outer door she, inquiring for him, pronounced his name—far less could he forget the divine glow of benevolent pleasure that lighted up her thin and pale, but finely expressive face, when, still holding him by the hand she had been cordially shaking, she looked around his small, but clean apartment, gazed upon his fair wife and his then lovely children, and exclaimed that he was surely the most happy of poets." Through Miss Baillie’s recommendation, Mr. Scott brought Mr. Struthers’ ‘Poor Man’s Sabbath’ under the notice of Mr. Constable, the eminent publisher, who was induced to bring out a third edition of that excellent poem, consisting of a thousand copies, for which he paid the worthy author thirty pounds, with two dozen copies of the work for himself.

      In 1810, ‘The Family Legend,’ a tragedy by Miss Baillie, founded on a Highland tradition, was brought out at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh. That theatre was then under the management of Mr. Henry Siddons, the son of the great Mrs. Siddons, who had married Miss Murray, the sister of Mr. William Henry Murray, his successor as manager and lessee, and the granddaughter of Murray of Broughton, the secretary of the Pretender during the rebellion of 1745. The Family Legend of Joanna Baillie was the first new play produced by Mr. Siddons, and Scott took a great interest in its representation. We learn from Lockhart’s Life of Scott that he was consulted in all the minutiae of the costume, attended every rehearsal, and supplied the prologue. The epilogue was written by Henry Mackenzie. In a letter to the authoress, dated January 30th, 1810, Scott thus communicates the result:

"MY DEAR MISS BAILLIE,—You have only to imagine all that you could wish to give success to a play, and your conceptions will still fall short of the complete and decided triumph of the Family Legend. The house was crowded to a most extraordinary degree; many people had come from your native capital of the west; everything that pretended to distinction, whether from rank or literature, was in the boxes, and in the pit such an aggregate mass of humanity, as I have seldom if ever witnessed in the same space. It was quite obvious from the beginning, that the cause was to be very fairly tried before the public, and that if anything went wrong, no effort, even of your numerous and zealous friends, could have had much influence in guiding or restraining the general feeling. Some good-natured persons had been kind enough to propagate reports of a strong opposition, which, though I considered them as totally groundless, did not by any means lessen the extreme anxiety with which I waited the rise of the curtain. But in a short time I saw there was no ground whatever for apprehension, and yet I sat the whole time shaking for fear a scene-shifter, or a carpenter, or some of the subaltern actors, should make some blunder, and interrupt the feeling of deep and general interest which soon seized on the whole pit, box, and gallery, as Mr. Bayes has it. The scene on the rock struck the utmost possible effect into the audience, and you heard nothing but sobs on all sides. The banquet-scene was equally impressive, and so was the combat. Of the greater scenes, that between Lorn and Helen in the castle of Maclean, that between Helen and her lover, and the examination of Maclean himself in Argyle’s castle, were applauded to the very echo. Siddons announced the play ‘for the rest of the week,’ which was received not only with a thunder of applause, but with cheering and throwing up of hats and handkerchiefs. Mrs. Siddons supported her part incomparably, although just recovered from the indisposition mentioned in my last. Siddons himself played Lorn very well indeed, and moved and looked with great spirit. A Mr. Terry, who promises to be a fine performer, went through the part of the Old Earl with great taste and effect. For the rest I cannot say much, excepting that from highest to lowest they were most accurately perfect in their parts, and did their very best. Malcolm de Gray was tolerable but stickish— Maclean came off decently—but the conspirators were sad hounds. You are, my dear Miss Baillie, too much of a democrat in your writings; you allow life, soul, and spirit to these inferior creatures of the drama, and expect they will be the better of it. Now it was obvious to me, that the poor monsters, whose mouths are only of use to spout the vapid blank verse which your modern playwright puts into the part of the confident and subaltern villain of his piece, did not know what to make of the energetic and poetical diction which even these subordinate departments abound with in the Legend. As the play greatly exceeded the usual length  (lasting till half-past ten) we intend, when it is repeated to-night, to omit some of the passages where the weight necessarily fell on the weakest of our host, although we may hereby injure the detail of the plot. The scenery was very good, and the rock, without appearance of pantomime, was so contrived as to place Mrs. Siddons in a very precarious situation to all appearance. The dresses were more tawdry than I should have judged proper, but expensive and showy. I have got my brother John’s Highland recruiting party to reinforce the garrison of Inverary, and as they mustered beneath the porch of the castle, and seemed to fill the court-yard behind, the combat scene had really the appearance of reality. Siddons has been most attentive, anxious, assiduous, and docile, and had drilled his troops so well that the prompter’s aid was unnecessary, and I do not believe he gave a single hint the whole night; nor were there any false or ridiculous accents or gestures even among the underlings, though God knows they fell often far short of the true spirit. Mrs. Siddons spoke the epilogue extremely well: the prologue, which I will send you in its revised state, was also very well received. Mrs. Scott sends her kindest compliments of congratulation; she had a party of thirty friends in one small box, which she was obliged to watch like a clucking hen till she had gathered her whole flock, for the crowd was insufferable. I am going to see the Legend to-night, when I shall enjoy it quietly, for last night I was so much interested in its reception that I cannot say I was at leisure to attend to the feelings arising from the representation itself. People are dying to read it. If you think of suffering a single edition to be printed to gratify their curiosity, I will take care of it. But I do not advise this, because until printed no other theatres can have it before you give leave. My kind respects attend Miss Agnes Baillie, and believe me ever your obliged and faithful servant, WALTER SCOTT."

      The Family Legend had a run of fourteen nights, and was soon after printed and published by James and John Ballantyne. (Lockhart’s Life of Scott, pp. 186, 187.) It was afterwards brought out on the London stage, and the authoress upon one occasion when, in the year 1815, it was performed at one of the London theatres, was accompanied to the theatre by Lord Byron and Mr. and Mrs. Scott, who were then in London, to witness the representation.

      In 1823 she published a ‘Collection of Poetical Miscellanies,’ which was well received. It contained, with some pieces of her own, Scott’s dramatic sketch of Macduff’s Cross, besides several poems by Mrs. Hemans, some jeux d’esprits by the late Catherine Fanshawe, and a ballad entitled Polydore, originally published in the Edinburgh Annual Register for 1810, and written by Mr. William Howison, author of an ‘Essay on the Sentiments of Attraction, Adaptation, and Variety.’

      In 1836, Miss Baillie published three more voliimes of plays, all illustrative of her favourite theory. "Even in advanced age," says a writer in the North American Review for October 1835, "we see Miss Baillie still tracing the fiery streams of passion to their sources,—searching into the hidden things of that dark mystery, the heart,— and arranging her startling revelations in the imposing garb of rich and classical poetry." Among the host of her dramatic writings are the tragedies of Count Basil, and de Montfort. Sir Walter Scott has eulogised "Basil’s love and Montfort’s hate," as something like a revival of the inspired strain of Shakspeare.

       De Montfort was brought out on the London stage by John Philip Kemble, in 1801, soon after its publication. The great Mrs. Siddons performed the part of Lady Jane, and both her acting in the piece as well as that of her brother, Mr. Kernble, was so powerful that it ought to have sustained the play had there been any stage vitality in it. At that period it was acted for eleven nights. It was then laid aside till 1821, when it was again produced, to exhibit Kean in the principal character; but that great actor declared that though a fine poem, it would never be an acting play. Mr. Campbell, in his life of Mrs. Siddons, records this remark, and makes the following very just observations: Miss Baillie "brought to the drama a wonderful union of many precious requisites for a perfect tragic writer: deep feeling, a picturesque imagination, and, except where theory and system misled her, a correct taste, that made her diction equally remote from the stiffness of the French, and the flaccid flatness of the German school; a better stage style than any that we have heard since the time of Shakspeare, or, at least, since that of his immediate disciples. But to compose a tragedy that shall at once delight the lovers of poetry and the populace is a prize in the lottery of fame, which has literally been only once drawn during the whole of the last century, and that was by the author of Douglas. If Joanna Baillie had known the stage practically, she would never have attached the importance which she does to the development of single passions in single tragedies; and she would have invented more stirring incidents to justify the passion of her characters, and to give them that air of fatality which, though peculiarly predominant in the Greek drama, will also be found to a certain extent, in all successful tragedies. Instead of this, she contrives to make all the passions of her main characters proceed from the wilful natures of the beings themselves. Their feelings are not precipitated by circumstances, like the stream down a declivity, that leaps from rock to rock; but for want of incident, they seem often like water on a level, without a propelling impulse." (Life of Mrs. Siddons, vol. ii. p. 254.) The style of her dramas, however, is regular and vigorous; her plots, though simple, exhibit both originality and carefulness of construction; and altogether her plays display a deep and thorough knowledge of the workings of the human heart. At right is a portrait of Joanna Baillie from a painting by Sir W. Newton.

      As an authoress, the leading feature of her ge nius was simple greatness. She had no airs, artifice, or pretension. Profound subtlety, a deep penetration into character, and a wonderful fertility of invention, mark all her dramas. Her touches of natural descrIption, the wild legendary grandeur which at times floats around her, the candour, charity, and womanliness of her nature, and the strong yet delicate imagery in which she enshrines her thoughts, with her sound morality and the simplicity and force of her language, impart a pleasing charm to her writings, and distinguish them from those of all her contemporaries.

      Besides her dramas, Miss Baillie was the authoress of various poems and songs, on miscellaneous subjects, which were collected and published in one volume in 1841. These are, in general, remarkable for their truth and feeling and harmony of diction, qualities in which she was surpassed by few modern poets. Among the best of her poems are, one entitled "The Kitten," which first appeared in an early volume of the Edinburgh Annual Register, and the Birthday address to her sister, Miss Agnes Baillie, both of which have been often quoted. The latter is equal, if not in some respects superior, to the fine lines of Cowper, written "On receiving his Mother’s Picture." The most popular of her songs are, "The Gowan Glitters on the Sward ;" " Welcome Bat and Owlet Gray ;" "Good Night, Good Night ;" "It fell on a Morning ;" which originally appeared in the collection of Scotch songs called ‘The Harp of Caledonia,’ edited by John Struthers, and published in Glasgow in 1821; ; "Woo'd and Married and a’ ;" and" Hooly and Fairly." The two latter were written for Mr. George Thomson’s celebrated collection of Scotch melodies, as was also " When white was my o’erlay as foam o’ the linn," a new version of "Todlin Hame." Her Scotch songs, distinguished by their simplicity, their quiet pawky humour, and pastoral tenderness, are known by heart by all Scotsmen.

      Miss Baillie passed the greater portion of her life in retirement, and in her latter years in strict seclusion, at her villa at Hampstead, where she died on the 23d February 1851, in her eighty-ninth year, retaining all her faculties to the last.

      Her sister, who was also a poetess, and to whom she was much attached, always resided with her. The following lines are from the beginning of an ‘Address to her Sister Agnes, on her Birthday:’

"Dear Agnes, gleamed with joy and dashed with tears,
O’er us have glided almost sixty years,
Since we on Bothwell’s bonny braes were
By those whose eyes long closed in death have been,
Two tiny imps, who scarcely stooped to gather
The slender harebell on the purple heather;
No taller than the foxglove’s spiky stem,
That dew of morning studs with silver gem.
Then every butterfly that crossed our view
With joyful shout was greeted as it flew;
And moth, and ladybird, and beetle bright,
In sheeny gold, were each a wondrous sight.
Then as we paddled barefoot, side by side,
Among the sunny shallows of the Clyde,
Minnows or spotted parr, with twinkling fin,
Swimming in mazy rings the pool within,
A thrill of gladness through our bosoms sent,
Seen in the power of early wonderment.
Active and ardent, to my fancy’s eye,
Thou still art young, in spite of time gone by.
Though oft of patience brief and temper keen,
Well may it please me, in life’s latter scene,
To think what now thou art, and long to me hast been."

The high literary fame which she acquired by her works never succeeded in drawing her generally into society. Her life was pure and virtuous in the highest degree, and characterised by the most consummate integrity, kindness, and active benevolence. Gentle and unassuming to all, she possessed an unchangeable simplicity of manner and character, and while she counted amongst her friends most of her contemporaries celebrated for their genius or their virtues, many foreigners, from various parts of Europe, on their coming to England, sought introductions to her.

      The series of plays on the passions consists of Count Basil, a tragedy, portraying love; The Trial, a comedy; De Montfort, a tragedy, depicting hatred, with The Election, a comedy; Ethelwald, a tragedy, Part I.; the same, Part II.—both on ambition; Orra, a tragedy founded on fear; The Dream, a tragedy in prose, in three acts; The Siege, a comedy in five acts; The Beacon, a serious musical drama in two acts, the subject hope, interspersed with some pleasing songs; Romiero, a tragedy; The Alienated Manor, a comedy; and Henriquez, a tragedy.

      Her miscellaneous plays are Rayner, a tragedy; The Country Marriage, a comedy; Constantia Paleologus, or the last of the Caesars, a tragedy; The Family Legend, a tragedy; The Martyr, a drama; The Separation, a tragedy; The Strip-ling, a tragedy, in prose ; The Phantom, a musical drama; Enthusiasm, a comedy; Witchcraft, a tragedy in prose; The Homicide, a tragedy in prose, with occasional passages in verse; The Bride, a drama; and The Match, a comedy. None of these are acting pieces. The Separation, and Henriquez, one of her series on the passions, were attempted on the London stage, but without success.

      Her Miscellaneous works consist of Metrical Legends, Songs and Poems on general subjects. A volume of her fugitive verses was published in 1840. Many of the early specimens of her genius were collected in this volume. Under the head of Miscellaneous were classed various pieces divided into Songs, Romantic and other ballads, and poems of a tender domestic character. Among them were Lord John of the East, Malcolm's Heir, Sir Maurice, the Moody Seer, and the tragic and appalling ballad of the Elder Tree; also, Lines on the Death of Sir Walter Scott. The third portion of the volume contained subjects of a devotional character; some of these it appears, as she states in her preface, were written for "the kirk, at the request of an eminent member of the Scotch church, at a time when it was in contemplation to compile, by authority, a new collection of hymns and sacred poetry for the general use of parochial congregations." The plan meeting with opposition was, however, relinquished.

      A complete edition of Miss Baillie’s works was published by Messrs. A. Lougman and Co., in 1851, soon after her death. In this volume is inserted a poem entitled Ahalya Baee, which had been previously printed for private circulation, and amongst the fugitive verses are some short poems never before published. The following is a list of her productions :—

Series of Plays; in which it is attempted to delineate the Stronger Passions of the Mind, each Passion being the subject of a Tragedy or Comedy. Lond. 1798, 1802, 2 vols. 8vo. 5th edit. 1806, 2 vols. 8vo. Vol iii. 1812, 8vo.  ADVANCE \d 5

Miscellaneous Plays. Lond. 1804, 8vo. 2d edit. 1806, 8vo.
The Family Legend; a Tragedy. 1810, 8vo.
Collection of Poetical Miscellanies. London, 1823, 8vo.
Additional Plays on the Passions. London, 1836, 8vo.
Fugitive Verses, Miscellaneous Poems and Songs. London, 1841, 8vo.
Complete edition of Works. London, 1851, Imp. 8vo.

BAILLIE, LADY GRIZEL, see HOME, Lady Grizel.

BAILZIE, or BAILLIE, WILLIAM, a physician of the fifteenth century, studied medicine in Italy with so much reputation that he was first made rector, and afterwards professor of medicine in the university of Bologna, about 1484. He adopted the Galenic system in preference to the Empiric, and wrote ‘Apologia pro Galeni Doctrina contra Empiricos,’ Lyons, 1550. According to Dempster, he returned to Scotland and died there, but the date of his death is not recorded. In his Scots writers, Mackenzie supposes him to be the author also of an octavo book, called ‘De Quantitate Syllabarum Graecarum et de Dialectis,’ published in 1600.

---

Letters and Journals of Robert Baillie A M
Principal The University of Glasgow

PREFACE

THE Letters and Journals of PRINCIPAL BAILLIE chiefly relate to public affairs, civil as well as ecclesiastical, and extend in a regular and nearly unbroken series from January 1637 to May 1662, or within a few weeks of his death. The value of this series in illustrating the history of that remarkable period has long been acknowledged, although the work is only now for the first time printed in an entire and genuine form, from the Author's Manuscripts. The very nature of such Letters, sometimes intended for the information of a wide circle, yet addressed to different individuals, on a variety of topics, and with no view to ultimate publication, precludes the work from being regarded as strictly historical; yet these Letters not only serve to exhibit the succession of public events, but what is equally valuable, to convey the expression of the hopes, the fears, and the prevalent feelings of the time, in immediate connection with such occurrences. That Baillie has done so in a clear and interesting manner, will not be disputed.

The three volumes can be downloaded pdf format here...

Volume 1  |  Volume 2  |  Volume 3

---

Isabella Baillie
The famous Scottish Soprano

[Dame] Isabella [aka Bella, aka Isobel] BAILLIE, the famous Scottish Soprano, was born at 3.15 a.m. on the 9th of March, 1895 at 2 Princes Street, in the District of Wilton, Roxburghshire, Scotland to Martin Pott Baillie (Master Baker) [born in 1860 in Wilton, Roxburgh, Scotland] and Isabella Hetherington Douglas [born in Selkirk in 1860] who married on the 31st of December, 1885 in Selkirk, Scotland. Isabella (Junior) had three elder siblings Alexander, Margaret and Annie, each born in Penicuik, Midlothian, Scotland.

By the 1901 Census for England, the family were residing at 2 Malveen Street, Elswick, Newcastle on Tyne where Martin is listed as an Employer Baker/Confectioner. In the very early 1900s, the family suffered severe blows when firstly Martin was committed to a Lunatic Asylum in Lancashire, and secondly died there on the 6th of February, 1904.

The 1911 Census for 74 Moss Side, Hulme, South Manchester lists the family then as Isabella (Senior) as a widow, Margaret as a Shipping Clerk, Annie as a Dyer and Cleaner's Shop Assistant, and Isabella (Junior) as a Shop Assistant in a Piano Shop. The great potential of Isabella (Junior) as a concert soprano emerged c. 1920. ...

Isabella worked in a music shop and as a clerk at Manchester Town Hall, and made her orchestral debut with the Hallé Orchestra in 1921 under the name Bella Baillie, having already appeared in several Manchester chamber concerts series. After studies in Milan, she won immediate success in her opening season in London in 1923.

Her favourite work was Handel's Messiah, of which she gave more than 1,000 performances during her career. She was often in demand for choral works; apart from Messiah, she was noted in Haydn's The Creation, Mendelssohn's Elijah, and Brahms's A German Requiem. In 1933 she became the first British performer to sing in the Hollywood Bowl in California. In 1937 Arturo Toscanini chose her to sing Brahms' Requiem.

Her performances in Gluck's Orpheus (always in English) and Gounod's Faust were very popular. However, her strength was in British music, including Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music (of which she was one of the original singers) and Elgar's The Kingdom. With the exception of 1933, she sang at the Three Choirs Festival every year from 1929 to 1955. Miss Baillie sang 'Messiah' for the Halle Orchestra annually for twenty-six consecutive seasons and for the Royal Choral Society at the Royal Albert Hall on thirty-three occasions. In all she sang this work for over fifty years.

She taught at the Royal College of Music (1955–57, 1961–64), Cornell University (1960–61) and the Manchester School of Music (from 1960). She sang with Kathleen Ferrier on the occasion of Ferrier's first complete performance of 'Messiah'. They often sang together in that work and others subsequently. She made her first test recording for HMV in 1924, but nothing came of this. However, she made her first commercially released recordings for Columbia in 1925 and her last, at the age of 79, in 1974. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1951, and was promoted in 1978 to Dame Commander (DBE). She died in Manchester in 1983, aged 88.

I have compiled a medley of five Scots Songs recorded by Isabella as Isobel Baille in the 1940s and 1950s .. v.i.z.

'Oh Whistle And I'll Come Tae Ye My Lad', 'Wee Willie Winkie', 'Annie Laurie', 'Skye Boat Song' and 'An Eriskay Love Lilt'.

Scottish Medley Isobel Baillie

Baillie in the Dictionary of National Biography

A History and Genealogy of the Family of Bailie
Of North of Ireland in part including the Parish of Duneane, Ireland, and Barony (Parish) of Dunain, Scotland by George Alexander Bailie (1902)