William Baikie ca.1638-1683

William BAIKIE ca.1638-1683

Biographical Note

William Baikie was the third son of James Baikie of Tankerness, an estate near Kirkwall, the main town of the Orkney Islands. Baikie attended Edinburgh University and graduated M.A. in 1657. His father purchased for him the estate of Holland on the island of Stronsay in 1670. His time was spent administering his estate and those of his relatives. He also owned property in Kirkwall itself. Just before his death on 19 October 1683, he drew up a deed bequeathing most of his books to found a ‘Publeck Liberarie of Kirkwall’.

Books

Baikie’s friend James Wallace, minister of Kirkwall, took charge of Baikie’s books on his death. Baikie had requested some be given to various relatives, the choice and number to be decided by Wallace, and Wallace produced a catalogue of the remainder for the Presbytery, who were to look after the collection, by the end of 1684. One hundred and fifty printed books were involved, and three volumes in manuscript. They were almost exclusively on theological subjects, but also with some philosophy, classical literature and dictionaries. Around a dozen of the titles had previously been owned by Baikie’s relative Thomas (d.1665), minister of Rousay, 1659-1665. Added to by Wallace, and subsequently, William Baikie’s collection was the founding nucleus of library provision in Kirkwall until 1891 when the older stock was sold off by the newly constituted free public library. Almost all were purchased by the Episcopal clergyman James Craven, who in 1897 printed (in an edition of twenty-five copies) a study of Baikie, with the text of the original mortification, the 1684 catalogue, and a catalogue of the books he had purchased and of missing Baikie books Craven reckoned that over forty were missing by this stage. The ex-Kirkwall books were presented to Aberdeen University Library in 1914, where they are now maintained as a special collection (shelfmark beginning BK), and can be accessed through the Library’s online catalogue.

Characteristic Markings

Baikie sometimes signed his name in his books, and frequently wrote notes on them. Wallace marked them all as belonging to the ‘Bibliotheck of Kirkwall, Gifted be Mr William Bakie, 1684’.

Sources

• Craven, J. B. Descriptive Catalogue of the Bibliotheck of Kirkwall (1683), with a Notice of the Founder, William Baikie, M.A., of Holland (Kirkwall: privately printed, 1897).