Charles Washington Baird

Background

Born on August 28, 1828 in Princeton, New Jersey, he was the second son to the evangelical Presbyterian historian Rev. Robert Baird, master of the Latin school in Princeton, New Jersey.

Education

He was educated abroad and at the University of the City of New York, from which he graduated in 1848. In the spring of 1852 he graduated from Union Theological Seminary.

Career

After graduation he immediately went abroad to become chaplain of the American Chapel in Rome under the care of the American and Foreign Christian Union. Returning to America in 1854, he found himself prevented by ill health from taking a parish and devoted himself instead to liturgical studies. In 1855 he published his Eutaxia or the Presbyterian Liturgies; Historical Sketches by a Minister of the Presbyterian Church, and in 1856, A Book of Public Prayer, Compiled from the Authorized Formularies of Worship of the Presbyterian Church, as Prepared by the Reformers, Calvin, Knox, and Others. In 1859 he became pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church of Bergen Hill in South Brooklyn, New York. In 1861, he accepted a call to the Presbyterian Church of Rye, Westchester County, New York, in whose service he remained until his death twenty-six years later.

His scholarly tastes found expression not only in addresses like that delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of the University of the City of New York (1886) on "The Scholar's Duty and Opportunity, " but in two very solid historical works, both based on prolonged and careful study of original sources. The first of these grew out of a Thanksgiving Day sermon, elaborated in six years of labor into The Chronicle of a Border Town: A History of Rye, 1660-1870 (1871). The subject of the second, The History of the Huguenot Emigration to America, 2 vols. (1885), was undoubtedly suggested to him by his long residence abroad in boyhood, and by the fact that his mother and his wife were both of Huguenot descent. It is a careful and scholarly production of some 800 pages, based as far as possible upon original sources. He himself had conducted researches in London at the State Paper Office, the British Museum, the Library of Lambeth Palace, etc. , and correspondents had explored for him archives at Paris, Leyden, and La Rochelle. The work was unfortunately left incomplete at his death; it does not describe the Huguenot settlements in the Southern and Middle States, or conclude with the general discussion of Huguenot character and the Huguenot element in the population of this country, as promised in the preface.

Achievements

• He is best remembered as an author of Eutaxia, or the Presbyterian Liturgies: Historical Sketches and A Book of Public Prayer, Compiled from the authorized formularies of the Presbyterian Church, As prepared by the Reformers Calvin, Knox, Bucer and Others.

Works

More photos

• book

  • History of the Huguenot Emigration to America

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Chronicle of a Border Town: History of Rye, Westchester County, New York, 1660-1870, Including Harrison and the White Plains Till 1788

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Eutaxia, Or, The Presbyterian Liturgies : Historical Sketches

    (Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating bac...)

  • Memorials of the Rev. Charles W. Baird, D.D: For Twenty-Six Years Pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Rye, New York, With a Few Selected Sermons and Sacred Poems (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Memorials of the Rev. Charles W. Baird, D.D:...)

Personality

A man of handsome appearance and refined manners, he displayed as pastor a tact and sympathy which made him beloved.

Connections

He was married to Margaret Eliza Strang, a young lady of Huguenot descent.

Father:

Robert Baird

Mother:

Fermine (Du Buisson) Baird

Wife:

Margaret Eliza Strang