John Baillie (divine)


Rev John Baillie was a British minister of the Secession Church.

Life

Baillie was born in 1741, and came to note as one of the nine students involved in the Associate Divinity Hall in 1765.
In 1767 he became minister of the Carliol-Street meeting-house at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. His convivial habits having led him into irregularities peculiarly inconsistent with his profession, he was suspended in 1784.
He then assisted William Tinwell, the author of A Treatise of Practical Arithmetic, in conducting a school. Afterwards he lectured in a schoolroom in St. Nicholas's churchyard at Newcastle, and in 1797 his friends fitted up the chapel at the Old Postern Gate for his use. He was in pecuniary difficulties for several years previous to his death, which occurred at Gateshead on 12 December 1806.

Family

He married Frances, a teacher in Newcastle, almost 40 years his junior.

Works

He published several detached sermons, including:
  1. A Course of Lectures upon various antient and interesting Prophecies; tending to strengthen the faith and enliven the hopes of believers in the Divine Saviour, to whom all the Prophets bare witness. Lecture i. Haggai ii. 6-10, Newcastle, 1784, 8vo.
  2. An Impartial History of the Town and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and its Vicinity, Newcastle, 1801, 8vo.
  3. History of the French War, from 1791 to 1802, 8vo.
He also assisted in writing a History of Egypt.