Papers of Robert Baillie (c 1672 - 1726)

Volume of notes and sermons preached by Robert Baillie (c 1672 - 1726), at Inverness, 1698 - 1705 and 1711, Edinburgh, 1705, and Lamington, 1705. Texts and dates are given for sermons or series of sermons preached at Inverness between 22 May 1698 and 27th February 1704, followed by detailed notes of others given there between 25th May 1704 and 25th March 1705, 2 preached in Edinburgh and Lamington in 1705, and part of another given in Inverness in 1711. It appeared to be Baillie's practice to preach from the same text, or portions of it, on successive Sundays.

Robert Baillie (c 1672 - 1726), said to be a cadet of Lamington (Lanarkshire), was educated at the University of Glasgow, and licensed and ordained to the charge of Lamington in 1693. He acted as a supply minister at Inverness, at the request of the General Assembly from 22 May - 14th August 1698. After declining a call to Keith in 1699, he was again sent back to Inverness by the General Assembly, and preached there for 23 weeks, from 11 October 1700 - 23 March 1701, before returning to Lamington. He was finally transferred to the Inverness second charge by a commission of the General Assembly in 1701, and returned to that brugh to travel in the work of the gospel Among the English people (GB 231 MS 0629, folio 2, verso; Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, new edn, vol. 6 (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1926), p. 461-462). He received calls to churches in Gladsmuir (East Lothian), London, and Rotterdam between 1710 and 1714, when the then moderator, William Mitchell, was instructed to inform Rotterdam that Baillie could not be spared from Inverness, and in 1712 he accompanied Carstares and Blackwood to London to watch over Church Patronage interests. In 1724 he was called again to Rotterdam, but refused to leave Scotland. He died at Inverness on 11 Feb 1726.

For further biographical details see Hew Scott, Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae: the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the Reformation, new edn, vol. 6 (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd,1926), p. 461-462; and Inverness Kirk-Session Records 1661-1800, ed. by Alexander Mitchell (Inverness: Carruthers, 1902).

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The volume has a King's College Library bookplate, but date and source of acquisition are not recorded. It was accessioned in the University Library in September 1912.

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Robert Baillie was succeeded in his charge at Inverness in 1727, by Alexander Fraser (d 1750), MA King's College, Aberdeen, 4th July 1695, who married Baillie's step-daughter, Isobel McBean, in 1706. Her father, Angus McBean (MA, King's College, 13th July 1675), was minister of the first charge at Inverness, from 1683 - 1687. This connection may explain why the volume was deposited in, or acquired by, the University.

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Records of Inverness Presbyterial Library, c 1706 - c 1743 (GB 231 MS 1066)

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