William Baldwin Biography

Not much is known about William Baldwin’s background although it is thought he could have been of Welsh ancestry. It is considered by most scholars that his birth was around 1515 and it is possible he received a degree from Oxford in 1533 although this is not a verifiable fact.

At some stage in his adult life Baldwin came to work in Whitchurch’s printing house in London and from 1547 he worked as a printers assistant there for six years.

Whitchurch was a man opposed to Roman Catholicism and supported the Protestant Reformation and published sixty eight books including religious works and Baldwin’s writing for example, A Treatise of Moral Philosophy (1549) and Wonderful News of the Death of Paul the Third (1552).

Baldwin’s A Mirror for Magistrates was completed in 1555 but could not be published until after the end of Mary I’s reign. It seems likely that Baldwin continued working in London until at least 1559 and was well considered by his peers despite his Protestant religious views. It is thought possible that he became a preacher and is likely that he died in 1563.

Baldwin was a well known as a writer, translator and editor with wide ranging interests and a complex linguistic and narrative style. His work shows a knowledge of the political power of writing and reflects his efforts to use Erasmian humanism to aid the cause of the Protestant Reformation.