Details of Sculptor

Surname

Baldwin

Alternative Surname

Baldwyn

First Name

Stephen

Initial of Surname

B

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

1661-62

Year of Death

Biographical Details

The family worked as stonemasons in Gloucester for many years. Stephen may have been the son of Samuel Baldwin, a monumental mason who died on 27 August 1645 and was buried at St Nicholas, Gloucester. In 1661 Stephen was paid £20 ‘for cuttinge and settinge up’ a statue of King Charles II in Worcester Guildhall and he later received a further £8 12s for his ‘men’s wages in settinge up the Pediston and the Arch’ (Worcester Audit of Account Books, 3, 1640-1669, cited by Gunnis 1968, 36) (2). The statue must either have been damaged or become worn, for Thomas White was paid for repairing it in 1712. Baldwin also replaced the damaged statue of King Charles I on Worcester High Cross, and his personification of Justice originally stood at the upper end of the High Street (1, 4). In 1662 the city of Gloucester ordered a similar figure of King Charles II (3). This was removed in the mid-18th century and was lost for many years before being discovered in pieces in a garden at Chaxhill in 1945.
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 36; Gibson 1997 (1), 165
Archival References: GPC