Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- [c. 1701]-1737 (Creation)
Level of description
Fonds
Extent and medium
3 volumes.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
William Baxter (1650-1723), classicist and antiquary, was born in Llanllugan, Montgomeryshire. He attended Harrow School for five years from the age of eighteen. He worked as a schoolmaster in Hitchin, 1676-1679, Stoke Newington, 1689-1694, and Tottenham High Cross, 1694-1710, and was headmaster of the Mercer's School, London, 1710-1721. On 16 July 1689 Baxter married Sarah Cartwright of Hillingdon, Middlesex, and they had five children. He died at Hillingdon on 31 May 1723 following a long illness. Baxter's first published work was the Latin grammar, De Analogia (London: R. Everingham, 1679, Wing B1457). This was followed by editions of Anacreon in 1695, Horace in 1701 and his most famous work the Glossarium Antiquitatum Britannicarum (London: W. Bowyer, 1719, ESTC T40850). Various other works, including his commentary on Juvenal, were left unpublished or unfinished at his death. Due to Baxter's failing health the Glossarium had been published with the help of the Welsh scholar Moses Williams (1685-1742). Williams later published some of Baxter's unfinished works as Reliquiæ Baxterianæ; sive, Willielmi Baxteri Opera Posthuma (London: [William] Bowyer, 1726, ESTC T144349). He also published Proposals for Printing by Subscription D. Gulielmi Baxteri Quæsupersunt Enarrationes & Notæ in D. Junii Juvenalis Satyras (London: [William] Bowyer, 1732, ESTC T135764) but no edition was forthcoming.
Archival history
Purchased from Moses Williams' widow, along with Williams' other manuscripts, by William Jones (1675-1749), F.R.S., tutor to the second Earl of Macclesfield; bequeathed by Jones to the Earl of Macclesfield; kept at Shirburn Castle until their sale at auction in 2008. Other Moses Williams manuscripts at Shirburn Castle were sold to Sir John Williams in 1899, incorporated into his own collection at Llanstephan, and were donated by him to NLW in 1909 (now NLW, Llanstephan MSS 1-154).
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Sotheby's; London; Purchased at auction, lot 3879; 13 March 2008; 004494850, 004494873, 004494901.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Manuscripts of, or relating to, William Baxter, [c. 1701]-1737, comprising his commentary on Juvenal's Satires, [c. 1701], notes on the Codex Bezae text of the New Testament, [?early 18 cent.], and a transcript by Moses Williams of the Juvenal commentary, 1732-1737.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Arranged according to NLW MSS reference numbers: NLW MSS 23973-5.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Usual copyright laws apply.
Language of material
- Ancient Greek
- English
- Hebrew
- Latin
- Welsh
Script of material
Language and script notes
Latin, Greek, some English, Hebrew and Welsh.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Alternative identifier(s)
Virtua system control number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Baxter, William, 1650-1723 -- Archives. (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Description follows NLW guidelines based on ISAD(G) 2nd ed.; AACR2; and LCSH
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
January 2012.
Language(s)
- English
Script(s)
Sources
The following sources were used in the compilation of this description: Mark McDayter, 'Baxter, William (1650-1723)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography WWW site, viewed 6 December 2011; The Dictionary of Welsh Biography down to 1940 (London, 1959); Sotheby's, The Library of the Earls of Macclesfield removed from Shirburn Castle, Part Eleven: English Books and Manuscripts (London, 2008); Arthur Percival, 'William Baxter (1649-1723)', Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (1957), 58-86.
Archivist's note
Description compiled by Rhys Morgan Jones.