Person Page 692

His Worship Sir John Baldwin JP KS (died 24 October 1545) was a British justice. Details of his early career are sketchy; he joined the Inner Temple some time before 1500, and was practicing in the Court of Requests by 1506, followed by an appointment as a Justice of the Peace for Buckinghamshire in 1510. He gave his first reading at Inner Temple in 1516, and served as its treasurer from 1521 to 1523. In 1529 he was returned to Parliament for Hindon, and in 1530 he was made Attorney General for Wales and for the Duchy of Lancaster. He delivered a third reading at the Inner Temple in 1531 on the subject of De prisonam frangentibus, and was created a Serjeant-at-law the same year, being promoted to King's Serjeant upon his creation.[1] In 1534 he was knighted, something Sir John Spelman noted as "unprecedented" for a Serjeant.[1]

After the death of Sir Robert Norwich in 1535 Baldwin was made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, with the investiture taking place on 19 April of that year. He died in office on 24 October 1545 and was buried in Aylesbury Church.