1615–1691

Introduction

Born: No­vem­ber 12, 1615, Row­ton, High Er­call, Shrop­shire, Eng­land.

Died: De­cem­ber 8, 1691, Char­ter­house Li­ber­ty, Lon­don, Eng­land.

Buried: Christ Church, London, Eng­land; the church was de­stroyed in World War II, so the ex­act lo­ca­tion of his grave is now known on­ly to God.

portrait

Biography

Baxter was edu­cat­ed at Wrox­eter School, and for a time held the Mas­ter­ship of the Dud­ley Gram­mar School.

On tak­ing Ho­ly Or­ders, he be­came cur­ate of Kid­de­rmin­ster in 1640. Sub­se­quent­ly, he was for some time chap­lain to one of Crom­well’s re­gi­ments.

Through weak­ness he had to take an en­forced rest, dur­ing which he wrote his Saints’ Ev­er­last­ing Rest. On re­gain­ing his health, he re­turned to Kid­der­min­ster, where he stayed un­til 1660, when he moved to Lon­don.

At the Res­to­ra­tion, he be­came chap­lain to King Charles II, and was of­fered the bish­op­ric of Here­ford, which he de­clined.

On the pass­ing of the Act of Uni­for­mi­ty, he re­tired from ac­tive du­ty as an Ang­li­can min­is­ter. Around 1673, he ob­tained a li­cense as a Non-con­for­mist min­is­ter and be­gan lec­tur­ing in Lon­don.

Works

Sources

Lyrics