Richard Baldwin I (1653?–1698; fl. 1681–1698)
Richard Baldwin, bookbinder, publisher, printer, and bookseller, 1681–1698; at the Bull Court / Ball Court, near the Black Bull, in Great Old Bailey; at the Oxford Arms, Warwick Lane.
Note that Plomer's entries for the Baldwin family members are a bit confused:
Baldwins were active in the London booktrade from the latter seventeenth century when one Richard Baldwin (1653?–1698), the political publisher, was active, through the eighteenth century with the careers of his widow Abigail Baldwin (1658–1713), Richard Baldwin senior (1694?–1777), his sons Robert (1717–1748) and Richard junior (1724–1770), and their cousins Henry (1734–1813) and Robert Baldwin (1737–1810) (see Genealogical Appendix). A family preference for the names Richard and Robert, usually abbreviated to "R." in their imprints, complicates the problem in the eighteenth century. So Plomer conflates Richard Baldwin senior, Richard Baldwin junior, and Robert Baldwin into one entry—under Robert; and Nichols, contemporary and friend of the late eighteenth- early nineteenth-century generation of the family, was unaware of the brief mid-eighteenth-century career of Richard Baldwin junior's elder brother Robert, and he slightly muddles the death dates of Baldwins with whom he was probably acquainted.—C.Y. Ferdinand, "Richard Baldwin Junior, Bookseller," Studies in Bibliography 42 (1989): 254–255
A Dictionary of the Printers and Booksellers who were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1668 to 1725, by Henry Plomer (1922)
BALDWIN (RICHARD), bookseller, bookbinder and printer in London, (1) In Ball Court, near the Black Bull, Great Old Bailey; (2) Oxford Arms, Warwick Lane. 1681–98. One of the best-known publishers of his day, his publications consisting largely of political pamphlets and broadsides, satires on social life and on current literature, as well as plays and romances. The newspapers of the last twenty years of the seventeenth century are full of his advertisements and it is surprising that no biography of him exists. Dunton says that Baldwin was a native of Wickham; but there is more than one Wickham in England, and Dunton does not specify the county. Nothing is known as to his parentage, his apprenticeship, or his commencement in business. His name is first met with in the Term Catalogue for Hilary Term 1681, when he advertised a political pamphlet of twenty folio pages entitled The Certain Way to save England. [T.C. I. 429.] At this time he was also carrying on the business of a bookbinder in Ball Court, near the Black Bull in the Old Bailey, and numbered John Dunton among his customers. In the same year he published a newspaper called Mercurius Anglicus, previously printed by Robert Harford. [Timperley, p. 558.] He was also erroneously believed to have been the printer and publisher of the first and second parts of a notorious pamphlet, No Protestant Plot. In Michaelmas Term he brought an action in the Court of Common Pleas against Thomas Newcombe, John Towse, Randall Taylor, and Michael Foster, three of whom were stationers, for assault; but the particulars are wanting. [C.P.R. 2996, m. 256 recto.] In The Impartial Protestant Mercury of January 10th, 1681/2, is an account of an assault made on two of Baldwin's apprentices, which incidentally records that it was a long-established custom for bookbinders' servants on Saturday nights to post up the titles of such books as their masters had to bind which were to be published the following week. The title which led to the trouble was a political one, Rights of the Kingdom, or Customs of our Ancestors, the result being that one of the lads was forced to give security and a copy of the book was sent to one of the Secretaries of State. On May 1st Baldwin began to issue another newspaper called The Protestant Courant, and a complaint was lodged with the Judges of the King's Bench that it reflected upon the Government; but there is no record of what followed. [London Mercury, May 15–18, 1682; Timperley, p. 563.] In 1691 he was summoned before the House of Commons for printing and being the author of The New Observator, but made his peace by declaring that Dr. Wellwood was the author of the paper. [C. J. X. 558, 562, 566]. During the year 1695 he published a paper called The Post-Man, which drew a protest from the editor of The Post-Boy, who declared that the author of The Post-Man was Monsieur de Fonvive. [Post-Boy, Oct. 26–9, 1695]. In 1697 he was sued by the King's Printers for printing speeches. Baldwin continued to publish The Post-Man until his death in 1697/8. Space forbids notice of the many satires published by Baldwin, but Dunton has the following notice of him: "He printed a great deal, but got as little by it as John Dunton. He bound for me and others when he lived in the Old Bailey; but, removing to Warwick Lane, his fame for publishing spread so fast, he grew too big to handle his small tools. Mr. Baldwin having got acquaintance with Persons of Quality, he was now for taking a shop in Fleet street; but Dick, soaring out of his element, had the honour of being a Bookseller but a few months. However to do Mr. Baldwin justice, his inclinations were to oblige all men, and only to neglect himself. He was a man of a generous temper. ... His purse and his heart were open to all men that he thought were honest; and his conversation was very diverting. He was a true lover of King William; and, after he came on the Livery, always voted on the right side. ... He was as it were flattered into his grave by a long consumption; and now lies buried in Wickham parish his native place. "
Notes & Queries "London Booksellers Series" (1931–2)
BALDWIN, RICHARD (I). See ANNE BALDWIN, above.
—Frederick T. Wood, 18 July 1931
BALDWIN, RICHARD, (I). In 1681 he set up business in Ball Court, near the Black Bull, Great Old Bailey. About 1692 he moved to the Black Lion, between the two Temple Gates, in Fleet Street, and at about the same date (1691) he is also found at the Oxford Arms in Warwick Lane, where he died in 1698. (See ANNE BALDWIN above).
—Ambrose Heal, 8 August 1931