Robert Baillie
1602–1662
Letter-writing chronicler of the Assembly; later Principal of Glasgow.
Biography
Glasgow professor of divinity who served as Scottish commissioner from late 1643. His private *Letters and Journals* — printed by the Bannatyne Club (1841-42) — supply more inside detail of the Assembly's business than any other surviving source. Baillie pushed the presbyterian case but with a politic moderation that often made him the Scottish delegation's chief negotiator. He became Principal of Glasgow at the Restoration but died within months.
Principal works
- Letters and Journals (posthum. 1775; def. ed. 1841–42)
- A Dissuasive from the Errours of the Time (1645)
Scottish Commissioner
Under the Solemn League and Covenant (1643) the Church of Scotland sent commissioners — ministers and ruling elders — to sit with the Assembly. They had voice in debate but no formal vote, yet their influence on the Standards, especially on worship and presbyterian polity, was decisive. Alexander Henderson, Samuel Rutherford, George Gillespie, and Robert Baillie were the leading ministerial commissioners.