BAXTERIANS. The followers of Richard Baxter (1615-1691). Baxter was the son of a well-to-do person, but his father being a gambler, the early years of his life were spent with his grandfather. He was mainly self-educated. In 1638, after trying a court-life, he was ordained and was appointed Head-master of a school at Dudley. He soon left this post to take up ministerial work. On the outbreak of the civil war in 1642 he sided with the Parliament, and retired to Coventry, where he became chaplain to the garrison. He afterwards acted as chaplain to Colonel Whalley's regiment, and was pre sent at several sieges. Then, his health failing, he left the army, and quietly awaited his end. Meantime, he began to write his book " The Saints' Everlasting Rest " (published in 1650). He had formerly been preacher at Kidderminster (1641). His old parishioners now invited him to return, which he did. In 1660 he went to London
and became one of the King's chaplains. Here he took an Important part In preparing the " Reformed Liturgy." When the Act of Uniformity was passed, he left the Church of England (1662). In 1663 he went to live at Acton, and was occupied with literary work there until 1672, when the Act of Indulgence gave him an opportunity of returning to London. In 1685 he was brought before the brutal Judge Jeffreys and charged with libelling the Church in his " Paraphrase of the New Testament " (1685). He was condemned, fined, and imprisoned for nearly eighteen months. He died on the Sth of December, 1691. Baxter was remarkably catholic and tolerant for his period. He was viewed in one quarter as an Arminian, and in another as a Calvinist. See the Iteliquiae Basterianae, 1696; John Hunt; the D.N.B.