Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/454

  

BAINES, THOMAS (1806–1881), journalist and local historian, the third son of the late Edward Baines, M.P., was born at Leeds in 1806, In 1829 he settled in Liverpool as editor of the 'Liverpool Times' newspaper, and for thirty years was an active promoter of liberal interests in Lancashire. In 1852 he published a valuable history of the commerce and town of Liverpool, and in 1867 'Lancashire and Cheshire Past and Present,' having in 1859 settled in London at the Liverpool Office as a parliamentary agent. His last work, 'Yorkshire Past and Present,' was published in 1875; and on 31 Oct. 1881, he died at his residence, Seaforth Hall, near Liverpool. Two minor books of his were 'Agricultural Resources of Great Britain and the Colonies,' and 'Observations on the River Plate.' His county histories are characterised by fulness of details, clearness of statement, and orderly arrangement.



BAINHAM, JAMES (d. 1532), martyr, was, according to Foxe, a son of Sir Alexander Bainham, who was sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1497, 1501, and 1516, though his name does not occur in any of the pedigrees of the family. He was a member of the Middle Temple, and practised as a lawyer. He married the widow of Simon Fish, author of the 'Supplication of Beggars.' In 1531 he was accused of heresy to Sir Thomas More, then chancellor, who imprisoned and flogged him in his house at Chelsea, and then sent him to the Tower to be racked, in the hope of discovering other heretics by his confession. On 15 Dec. he was examined before Stokesley, Bishop of London, concerning his belief in purgatory, confession, extreme unction, and other points. His answers were as far as possible couched in the words of Scripture, but were not satisfactory to the court, and his approval of the works of Tyndale and Frith was evident. The following day, being threatened with sentence, he partially submitted, pleading ignorance, and was again committed to prison. In the following February he was brought before the bishop's chancellor to be examined as to his fitness for readmission to the church, and after considerable hesitation abjured all his errors, and, having paid a fine of 20l. and performed penance by standing with a faggot on his shoulder during the sermon at Paul's Cross, was released. Within a month after he repented of his weakness, and openly withdrew his recantation during service at St. Austin's church. He was accordingly apprehended and brought before the bishop's vicar-general on 19 and 20 April. One of the articles alleged against him was that he asserted Thomas Becket to be a thief and murderer, an opinion which the king adopted within a very few years. He was sentenced as a relapsed heretic and burned in Smithfield on 30 April 1532. In the 'Calendar of State Papers of Henry VIII' (v. app. 30) there is a notice of a contemporary account of an interview between him and Latimer, the day before his death.



BAIOCIS, JOHN . [See ]

BAIRD, DAVID (1757–1829), general, was the fifth son of William Baird of Newbyth, who was grandson of Sir Robert Baird, Bart., of Saughton, and cousin and heir of Sir John Baird, Bart., of Newbyth, and was born at Newbyth in December 1757. His father died in 1765, but his mother managed to obtain an ensigncy for him in the 2nd regiment in 1772. He joined his regiment at Gibraltar in 1773, and returned with it to England in 1776. In 1778 he was promoted lieutenant, and in the September of the same year, being then nearly twenty-one and of great height and fine military bearing, he was selected by Lord Macleod, a Scotch neighbour of his mother's, to be captain of the grenadier company in the Scotch regiment just raised by him, and at first called the 73rd, but afterwards famous as the 71st Highland light infantry. In 1779 the regiment embarked for India, captured Goree on the way, and after spending three months at the Cape reached India in January 1780. When Lord Macleod arrived, Hyder Ali was besieging Arcot, and his regiment was at once attached to a force under Sir Hector Monro, which was destined to relieve that city, and also to succour a force under Colonel Baillie, which was in danger of being cut off by Hyder Ali. To assist Baillie a small detachment, including the grenadier company of Macleod's regiment under Captain Baird, was sent off by Monro in advance. After a night march it effected a junction with Baillie, but on the next day the whole force was cut to pieces by Hyder Ali and his son, Tippoo Sahib. Baird had been severely wounded, and was left for dead, but nevertheless managed, with two companions, to find his way to the French camp. The