Baines, Peter Augustine (1786–1843)

English churchman and educator. A Roman Catholic, he was first a monk in the Benedictine order before becoming a religious teacher and founding a school and seminary.

Baines was born at Kirkby in Lancashire, educated at the English Benedictine abbey of Lampspring, Hanover, Germany. After becoming a priest in 1810, he taught at the prominent Catholic private school Ampleforth College until 1817. In 1823, he bought Prior Park in the west of England, where he founded St Peter's, a lay college, and St Paul's, a theological seminary. Throughout this life, Baines enjoyed a reputation as an eloquent preacher.