Broadside regarding the Reverend George Baird's Prayer
Broadside regarding the Reverend George Baird's Prayer
This broadside begins: 'PRAYER / OF THE / REVEREND GEORGE BAIRD, D.D. / PRINCIPAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, ONE OF THE MINISTERS / OF THE CITY, - AND / CHAPLAIN TO THE CORPS OF EDINBURGH VOLUNTEERS, / Offered up when the CORPS received their COLOURS, September 26. 1794'.
Broadsides, cheap and accessible, were often used as moral forums with 'lessons of life' included in the narrative. Broadside authors tended to see themselves as moral guardians and teachers in society. As such, publishers often disseminated 'educational' texts outlining the social and personal consequences of undisciplined or immoral behaviour.
The Reverend George Husband Baird (1761-1840) was a close friend of the poets Robert Burns and Michael Bruce. Both Baird and Burns eventually became involved in Bruce's funeral arrangements and in fund raising to provide for Bruce's destitute mother. Baird was ordained as the minister of Dunkeld in 1787. Five years later he moved to Greyfriars Church in Edinburgh and simultaneously became Joint Professor of Oriental Languages at Edinburgh University. He went on to become Principal and by 1800 was the Moderator of the General Assembly for the Church of Scotland.