Introduction

Biography

Charles was the son of evan­gel­ic­al Pres­by­te­ri­an his­to­ri­an Ro­bert Baird, mas­ter of the La­tin school in Prince­ton.

He went to Eur­ope in 1835 with his fa­ther, when the eld­er Baird went to rep­re­sent the For­eign Ev­an­ge­li­cal So­cie­ty, whose mis­sion was to sup­port the Pro­test­ant cause in the Ca­tho­lic coun­tries of Eur­ope.

Charles re­turned to Am­er­ica for his for­mal edu­ca­tion, at­ten­ding the Uni­ver­si­ty of the Ci­ty of New York, and Un­ion Theo­lo­gic­al Sem­in­ary, New York Ci­ty, in 1852.

From 1852–54, he was chap­lain to the Am­er­ican Em­bas­sy in Rome. In 1854–55, he was agent of the Am­er­ican and For­eign Chris­tian Un­ion in New York.

Baird spent the year of 1855, at just 27 years of age, writ­ing Eu­tax­ia, which was ini­tial­ly pub­lished ano­ny­mous­ly (though evi­dent­ly most re­view­ers were aware of the book’s au­thor).

Baird’s first pas­tor­ate was at the Re­formed (Dutch) Church on Ber­gen Hill, Brook­lyn, 1859–61. In 1861, he moved to the Pres­by­te­ri­an Church in Rye, New York, re­main­ing there the rest of his life.

Works

• Eutaxia, or the Pres­by­te­ri­an Li­tur­gies: His­tor­ic­al Sketch­es (New York: M. W. Dodd, 1855)
• A Book of Pub­lic Pray­er (New York: Charles Scrib­ner, 1857)
• History of Bed­ford Church: Dis­course De­liv­ered at the Ce­le­bra­tion of the Two Hun­dredth An­ni­ver­sa­ry of the Found­ing of the Pres­by­te­ri­an Church of Bed­ford, West­ches­ter Co., New York, March 22d, 1881 (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1882)
• History of the Hu­gue­not Emi­gra­tion to Am­er­ica (New York, Dodd, Mead & Com­pa­ny, 1885)
• Chronicle of a Bor­der Town: His­to­ry of Rye, West­che­ster Coun­ty, New York, 1660–1870, In­clud­ing Har­ris­on and the White Plains Till 1788