Henry Baird

January 17, 1832 (age 74)

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

He served, 1855, as a tutor in classics at Princeton College, pursuing at the same time graduate studies in the Seminary. At the end of that period he accepted a call to the chair of Greek language and literature in New York University. He continued in the service of New York University until in 1902 increasing age inclined him to seek relief from the regular duties of teaching. Four years later he died in Yonkers, New York, of apoplexy, in his seventy-fifth year. In addition to the labor of teaching, Baird wrote very widely. He produced many addresses and articles like "The Diplomatic Services of Benjamin Franklin, " an address before the American Philosophical Society, April17, 1890 (Proceedings, XXVIII, 209-25), and "Hotman and the Franco-Gallia, " American Historical Review, July 1896. He also published nine volumes. These were not in the field of Greek language or literature, with the single exception of a book of travel entitled Modern Greece (1856), which devotes fifty pages to the modern Greek language and modern Greek literature. Besides The Life of the Rev. Robert Baird (1866) and Theodore Beza, the Counsellor of the French Reformation (1899), his most important works were six volumes on the Huguenots: The History of the Rise of the Huguenots of France (1879) in two volumes; The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre (1886) in two volumes; The Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1895) in two volumes. This series, on which the writer spent more than thirty years, deserves a permanent place among the monuments, all too scanty, of American historical writing upon European subjects. It is based to a great extent upon original contemporary sources, which are freely cited by extract and reference upon practically every page. For manuscript research the author had little opportunity, but he knew the printed original sources thoroughly. To be sure, his enthusiasm for the Huguenots occasionally suspended the full operation of his critical faculties. For example, he writes of the abjuration of Henry of Navarre, which brought peace to France and to Europe, that he shall be obliged "to trace the decadence which led to an act as disastrous to public morality as disgraceful to the King himself. " But his treatment is straightforward and free from all taint of casuistry, and no observant reader has any trouble in eliminating the personal equation of the investigator.

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Works

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Theodore Beza: The Counsellor of the French Reformation, 1519-1605 (Classic Reprint)

(Excerpt from Theodore Beza: The Counsellor of the French ...)

The Life of the Rev. Robert Baird, D. D.: -1866

(Originally published in 1866. This volume from the Cornel...)

The Huguenots And The Revocation Of The Edict Of Nantes, Volume 1

(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

The strength and weakness of the Edict of Nantes - Primary Source Edition

(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

History of the Rise of the Huguenots (Complete)

The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre (Classic Reprint)

(Vage The Barricades and the Edict op Union .. ,. .3 Guise...)

Henry Martyn Baird

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clergyman historian

Background

He was born on January 17, 1832 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Robert Baird and Fermine (Du Buisson) Baird, and brother of Charles Baird.

Education

A large part of his boyhood was spent with his parents in Geneva and Paris; he graduated from the University of the City of New York in 1850. His bent for linguistic and historical study was already declared. He spent a year in historical studies at home in New York, a year in Athens, and a year in Rome. He then studied theology for two years at Union Theological Seminary in New York, but graduated from the Seminary at Princeton in 1856.

Career

He served, 1855, as a tutor in classics at Princeton College, pursuing at the same time graduate studies in the Seminary. At the end of that period he accepted a call to the chair of Greek language and literature in New York University.

He continued in the service of New York University until in 1902 increasing age inclined him to seek relief from the regular duties of teaching. Four years later he died in Yonkers, New York, of apoplexy, in his seventy-fifth year.

In addition to the labor of teaching, Baird wrote very widely. He produced many addresses and articles like "The Diplomatic Services of Benjamin Franklin, " an address before the American Philosophical Society, April17, 1890 (Proceedings, XXVIII, 209-25), and "Hotman and the Franco-Gallia, " American Historical Review, July 1896. He also published nine volumes. These were not in the field of Greek language or literature, with the single exception of a book of travel entitled Modern Greece (1856), which devotes fifty pages to the modern Greek language and modern Greek literature. Besides The Life of the Rev. Robert Baird (1866) and Theodore Beza, the Counsellor of the French Reformation (1899), his most important works were six volumes on the Huguenots: The History of the Rise of the Huguenots of France (1879) in two volumes; The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre (1886) in two volumes; The Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1895) in two volumes. This series, on which the writer spent more than thirty years, deserves a permanent place among the monuments, all too scanty, of American historical writing upon European subjects. It is based to a great extent upon original contemporary sources, which are freely cited by extract and reference upon practically every page. For manuscript research the author had little opportunity, but he knew the printed original sources thoroughly. To be sure, his enthusiasm for the Huguenots occasionally suspended the full operation of his critical faculties. For example, he writes of the abjuration of Henry of Navarre, which brought peace to France and to Europe, that he shall be obliged "to trace the decadence which led to an act as disastrous to public morality as disgraceful to the King himself. " But his treatment is straightforward and free from all taint of casuistry, and no observant reader has any trouble in eliminating the personal equation of the investigator.