William Baxter manuscripts

Manuscripts of, or relating to, William Baxter, [c. 1701]-1737, comprising his commentary on Juvenal's Satires, [c. 1701], notes on the Codex Bezae text of the New Testament, [?early 18 cent.], and a transcript by Moses Williams of the Juvenal commentary, 1732-1737.

William Baxter (1650-1723), classicist and antiquary, was born in Llanllugan, Montgomeryshire. He attended Harrow School for five years from the age of eighteen. He worked as a schoolmaster in Hitchin, 1676-1679, Stoke Newington, 1689-1694, and Tottenham High Cross, 1694-1710, and was headmaster of the Mercer's School, London, 1710-1721. On 16 July 1689 Baxter married Sarah Cartwright of Hillingdon, Middlesex, and they had five children. He died at Hillingdon on 31 May 1723 following a long illness. Baxter's first published work was the Latin grammar, De Analogia (London: R. Everingham, 1679, Wing B1457). This was followed by editions of Anacreon in 1695, Horace in 1701 and his most famous work the Glossarium Antiquitatum Britannicarum (London: W. Bowyer, 1719, ESTC T40850). Various other works, including his commentary on Juvenal, were left unpublished or unfinished at his death. Due to Baxter's failing health the Glossarium had been published with the help of the Welsh scholar Moses Williams (1685-1742). Williams later published some of Baxter's unfinished works as Reliquiæ Baxterianæ; sive, Willielmi Baxteri Opera Posthuma (London: [William] Bowyer, 1726, ESTC T144349). He also published Proposals for Printing by Subscription D. Gulielmi Baxteri Quæsupersunt Enarrationes & Notæ in D. Junii Juvenalis Satyras (London: [William] Bowyer, 1732, ESTC T135764) but no edition was forthcoming.

Arranged according to NLW MSS reference numbers: NLW MSS 23973-5.

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Sotheby's; London; Purchased at auction, lot 3879; 13 March 2008; 004494850, 004494873, 004494901.

William Baxter (1650-1723), classicist and antiquary, was born in Llanllugan, Montgomeryshire. He attended Harrow School for five years from the age of eighteen. He worked as a schoolmaster in Hitchin, 1676-1679, Stoke Newington, 1689-1694, and Tottenham High Cross, 1694-1710, and was headmaster of the Mercer's School, London, 1710-1721. On 16 July 1689 Baxter married Sarah Cartwright of Hillingdon, Middlesex, and they had five children. He died at Hillingdon on 31 May 1723 following a long illness. Baxter's first published work was the Latin grammar, De Analogia (London: R. Everingham, 1679, Wing B1457). This was followed by editions of Anacreon in 1695, Horace in 1701 and his most famous work the Glossarium Antiquitatum Britannicarum (London: W. Bowyer, 1719, ESTC T40850). Various other works, including his commentary on Juvenal, were left unpublished or unfinished at his death. Due to Baxter's failing health the Glossarium had been published with the help of the Welsh scholar Moses Williams (1685-1742). Williams later published some of Baxter's unfinished works as Reliquiæ Baxterianæ; sive, Willielmi Baxteri Opera Posthuma (London: [William] Bowyer, 1726, ESTC T144349). He also published Proposals for Printing by Subscription D. Gulielmi Baxteri Quæsupersunt Enarrationes & Notæ in D. Junii Juvenalis Satyras (London: [William] Bowyer, 1732, ESTC T135764) but no edition was forthcoming.

The following sources were used in the compilation of this description: Mark McDayter, 'Baxter, William (1650-1723)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography WWW site, viewed 6 December 2011; The Dictionary of Welsh Biography down to 1940 (London, 1959); Sotheby's, The Library of the Earls of Macclesfield removed from Shirburn Castle, Part Eleven: English Books and Manuscripts (London, 2008); Arthur Percival, 'William Baxter (1649-1723)', Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (1957), 58-86.

Title based on contents.

January 2012.

Description compiled by Rhys Morgan Jones.

Usual copyright laws apply.

Purchased from Moses Williams' widow, along with Williams' other manuscripts, by William Jones (1675-1749), F.R.S., tutor to the second Earl of Macclesfield; bequeathed by Jones to the Earl of Macclesfield; kept at Shirburn Castle until their sale at auction in 2008. Other Moses Williams manuscripts at Shirburn Castle were sold to Sir John Williams in 1899, incorporated into his own collection at Llanstephan, and were donated by him to NLW in 1909 (now NLW, Llanstephan MSS 1-154).

Published

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