William Baldwin

William Baldwin (fl. 1547) was an English author. Life From the West Country of England, perhaps Shropshire, or even from Wales. Nothing certain is known of Baldwin's life until 1547, when he started employment as a corrector in the London printing shop of Edward Whitchurch. Previously, he seems to have studied logic and philosophy at Oxford. During the reigns of Edward VI and Queen Mary, it appears Baldwin played an occasional role in the production of theatrical exhibitions at court, while continuing to work at the printing shop. Records of the master of the revels, Thomas Cawarden, show that he had a hand in 'a comedy concerning the way of life' and a morality play, but this cannot be confirmed. He is probably the William Baldwin who was ordained deacon by Archbishop Grindal in 1563; the same man was described as a minister in the 1587 Mirror for Magistrates, and was noted to have given up printing for an appointment in the church, viz. as vicar of Tortington, Sussex, in 1559–60; and then as rector of St Michael-le-Querne, London, in 1561. He died some time before 1 November 1563. A further possible identification is in Stowe's account in Historical Memoranda of one Baldwin preaching at Paul's Cross in September 1563, who died a week later of the plague. Works Baldwin wrote and published a number of works between 1547 and 1569. The 1547 A Treatise of Morall Phylosophie, contayning the Sayinges of the Wyse, authored by Baldwin and printed by Whitchurch, was a small black-letter octavo of 142 leaves. An enlarged edition of this work was later published by Thomas Paulfreyman, and continued to be popular for a century.