This surname is derived from an occupation. 'the bakester,' a baker of bread, with the feminine suffix; originally a woman's occupation. Langland speaks of 'Baksteres and brewesteres, And bochiers manye.' 'Baxter, bakstare, baker': Promptorium Parvulorum.

Backster is one of the names in Foxe's list of Marian martyrs. The ordinances of the Guild of the Purification (Bishop's Lynn. 1367), are signed by 'Johannes Austyn, baxter' (English Guilds). Capgrave says, 'In this same tyme (b. c. 205) lyved the eloquent man which hite (was called) Plautus, and for al his eloquens he was compelled for to dwell with a baxter, and grind his corne at a querne.'

Giliana le Bacster, Huntingdonshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

John le Bakestere, Norfolk, ibid.

Elias le Baxtere, 1302. Writs of Parliament.

Bartholomew le Bakestere. Calendarium Inquisitionum Post Mortem.

Andrew le Bakester. Calendarium Rotulorum Originalium.

Agnes Bakester, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Cecilia Bakester, vidua, ibid.

William Mytton, badusterx Yorkshire, 1430:: Corpus Christi Guild (Surtees Society).

Patrick Adamson (1537-92), a Scotch prelate. 'His enemies taunted him with being a bakers son, "ane baxter's sone "': Dictionary of National Biography i. III.

This surname comes from the occupation of "bakester," originally a woman that baked, Old English bsecestre a female baker. In Middle English the ending -esire being unstressed soon lost its final e, and -ster came to be regarded as an emphatic form of -er, and consequently was applied to men as well as women, so that the early Middle English feminine bakstere became later Middle English masculine baxster. In Latin charters the word or name is rendered pistor. Between 1153 and 1177 William pistor witnessed a grant by David Olifard to the Hospital of Soltre (Soltre, p. 4) and c. 1188—1202 Aldied pistor was one of the witnesses to a charter of the kirk of Haddington (RPSA., p. 153). Between 1200—1240 Reginald Baxtar witnessed the gift of the church of Wemys in Fife to Soltre (Soltre, p. 13). Geffrei le Baxtere of Lossithe of the county of Forfare took the oath of fealty, 1290 (Bain, II, p. 208). Thomas dictus Baxter, burgess of Irvine, made a grant in 1323 for support of a chaplain in the parish church of Irvine (Irvine, I, 123), and Hutredus pistor was burgess of Roxburgh, c. 1330 (Kelso, p. 369). William Baxtare was a crossbowman in Edinburgh Castle in 1312 (Bain, II, p. 409), and Robert Baxter was a town official in Aberdeen in 1398 (CRA., p. 375). Baxter was and still is a common surname in Angus, and as Forfar was a royal residence the first Baxters there may have been the royal bakers. Bacster 1533, Bakster 1467, Baxstar 1505, Baxstair 1506, Baxstare 1531, Baxster 1512.

This is a Gaelic name of Scottish origin, viz Mac a' Bhacstair (son of the baker), and in Scotland the Mac is sometimes retained. The MacBaxters are a sept of the MacMillan clan. An early spelling of the name in Ireland was Bacstar and Backystre— the latter in 1341as a burgess of Aherlow. In Ireland the name is quite numerous; 90 per cent of the births registered for Baxter are in Ulster, mainly Antrim.

It has been found in that province since the beginning of the seventeenth century, Martin Baxter being one of the undertakers settled in Co. Fermanagh. The name, however, was not confined to Scottish Protestants, for among the Papists transplanted in 1656 was Garrett Baxter of Co. Sligo. One John Baxter was a lieutenant in the Co. Dublin troop of militia in 1659 and later a John Baxter, perhaps ‘the same man, was captain in the Foot Guards (Leinster). The Ormond MSS. also record an Edmond Bagster among the army rank and file in 1644 and a William Baxter an officer in 1684.Two of the name are listed by de Burgh as extensive Irish landowners in Counties Mayo and Leix (Queen's) in 1878: both were resident in Scotland.

= Backster, q.v.

Elias le Baxtere.—Hundred Rolls

Quite numerous in Ulster this name came from Scotland where Mac a’ Bhacslair is a branch of the Clan MacMillan. SIF 15

“Female Baker” in Scots.

(English, Welsh) One who made bread.

The Old English and Scottish form of Baker. See termination Stek. See also English Sum. i., 114, &c. John le Bakestere. H.R.

A baker.

(Anglo—Saxon.) Bagster, a baker.

The Scot and from the Old Norse, Engl. form of Baker.