Family and Education

b. c.1560, ?2nd s. of George Baildon (d.1588) of Methley, Yorks. and Anne, da. of Thomas Falkingham of Barton-le-Willows, Lincs., wid. of James Standish of Killingholme, Lincs. m. (1) by 1582, Frances (bur. 21 May 1587), da. and coh. of Henry Johnson of Walton Head, Kirkby Overblow, Yorks., 1s. 3da. d.v.p.; (2) by 1589, Margaret (bur. 22 Sept. 1598), da. of Richard Gooderick† of Ribston, Yorks. 6s. (3 d.v.p.) 2da.; (3) Isabel (bur. 9 Mar. 1601), da. of Sir Philip Tyrwhitt, 1st bt., of Stainfield, Lincs., wid. of Robert Haldenby of Haldenby, Yorks., s.p.; (4) 2 May 1604 Anne (d.1630/1), da. of John Jennyngs of Dennington, Suff., wid. of Francis Colby alias Wentworth of Leiston, Suff. s.p. kntd. 23 July 1603. d. 24 June 1622.1 sig. Fra[ncis] Bayldon.

Offices Held

Constable, Kippax 1588-9; bailiff, Cowick and Snaith manors, Yorks. 1595-at least 1609;2 commr. sewers, Yorks. (W. Riding) 1603-11, Suff. 1609,3 swans, Yorks. 1605-d.;4 j.p. Suff. by 1608-at least 1614,5 W. Riding 1615-d.;6 commr. piracy, Suff. 1612;7 treas. maimed soldiers, W. Riding 1619-20.8

Biography

Baildon came from an obscure branch of a Yorkshire gentry family. His first wife brought him a small property in Kirkby Overblow, in the West Riding, which had been saved by a family settlement when her father was attainted for his part in the Northern rebellion of 1570. He also owned land in the Crown manor of Kippax, in the same Riding, which he improved by mining coal. His annual income was only £150, but his fourth marriage in 1604 brought him a Suffolk estate of £500 p.a. By 1607 he was living at Blythburgh in east Suffolk, by which date or shortly after, he was appointed to the Suffolk bench. He had moved to Huntingfield, about eight miles away, by 1611 when he was assessed at £10 for the Privy Seal loan.9

Baildon almost certainly owed his election at Orford in 1614 to his friend Sir Michael Stanhope*, the dominant electoral patron in the borough. Stanhope nominated Baildon to help arbitrate in a land dispute, and, when in London, Baildon usually lodged in Stanhope’s town house in Clerkenwell.10 Baildon left no trace on the records of the Addled Parliament and was the only member of his family to sit in the Commons.

Baildon probably moved back to the West Riding soon after the dissolution as he was added to the local bench in April 1615 and described himself as of Methley, a parish seven miles south of Leeds, when he drew up his will that November. However, he was still being described as of Huntingfield as late as 1617, when he was outlawed for debt. His outlawry almost certainly related to his role as surety for his third wife’s brother, Sir Edward Tyrwhitt*, as it was subsequently stated that he was too afraid to ‘walk abroad ... for fear to be arrested’ by Tyrwhitt’s creditors. He died at Monk Fryston in the West Riding on 24 June 1622, leaving as his heir his grandson by his first marriage, who alienated the Kippax property to Sir William Slingsby*. The children of his second marriage were puritans; one (indicted for highway robbery in his youth) emigrated to Connecticut in 1635, and two others became officers in the parliamentary army in 1642.11

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Author: John. P. Ferris

Notes

• 1. W.P. Baildon, Baildon and the Baildons, iii. 1, 3-4, 8, 17, 32-5; Clay, Dugdale’s Vis. Yorks. iii. 434; Vis. Suff. ed. Metcalfe, 46; PROB 11/94, f. 369; Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 116.
• 2. Baildon, iii. 19, 23, 27
• 3. C181/1, f. 58; 181/2, ff. 94v, 145v.
• 4. C181/1, f. 106; 181/3, f. 48v
• 5. SP14/33, f. 58; C66/1988.
• 6. C231/4, f. 1; C193/13/1.
• 7. C181/2, f. 174v.
• 8. Baildon, iii. 31.
• 9. Ibid. 1, 10-15, 19, 26, 46-7; J.J. M[uskett], ‘Suff. directory’, East Anglian, n.s. viii. 293.
• 10. Bodl. Tanner 283, f. 83v; Baildon, iii. 31.
• 11. PROB 11/140, f. 433; Baildon, iii. 31, 43, 46-7, 51, 58, 63.