BALDWIN, Edward (1632-91), of the Inner Temple and Wiltons, Beaconsfield, Bucks.

Baldwin’s father, of Bedfordshire origin, settled in Guildford where he probably practised as an attorney. He played no known part in the Civil War, but in 1657 he was appointed to the Surrey assessment commission and elected mayor of Guildford. Baldwin’s uncle, who lived in Beaconsfield, named him as his executor, and he may have settled at Wiltons soon after the Restoration but without abandoning his legal practice. A Tory in politics, he became recorder of Wycombe, six miles from his home, in 1683. He was confirmed in office under the new charter two years later and elected to James II’s Parliament, in which he was named only to the committee to examine expiring laws. He refused his consent to the first two questions on the repeal of the Penal Laws and Test Act, and was replaced as recorder by Sir James Etheridge. He presumably accepted the Revolution and resumed his post as recorder for a few months in 1689, but then resigned in favour of Edmund Waller II. He is not known to have stood for Parliament again. He was buried at Beaconsfield on 21 Nov. 1691, the only member of his family to sit in Parliament.London Vis. Peds. 13; PCC 34 Laud, 33 Fane; Manning and Bray, Surr. i. 39; Beaconsfield par. reg.