In 1826 Baxter was convicted for having received a stolen brooch, and was sentenced to seven years' penal transportation, to be served in New South Wales.
[1] That same month the 33-year-old ruddy-faced Baxter was one of six freed ex-convicts assigned to work (with wages and keep) for 18-year-old novice settler Edward John Eyre at his newly established Hunter River property.
[2] For the next eight years Baxter was to accompany Eyre through nearly every one of his pastoralist, livestock overlanding, and exploration endeavours, most usually as his faithful overseer and best friend, but sometimes as a partner.
In 1840 Baxter and Eyre were equal minority shareholders in the special survey that led to settlement of the Clare Valley, holding adjacent sections of land.
In threatening situations, particularly with potentially hostile Aboriginals, the older and well-built Baxter often provided the strong physical presence which the tall but slightly-built Eyre lacked.
On the night of 29 April 1841, when the exploration party was low on supplies and in desperate need of water, near the coast south of present-day Caiguna in Nuytsland National Park, Baxter was murdered by Yarry and Joey, two of the Indigenous Australians with the group, who took guns and supplies, leaving only Eyre and the Aboriginal Wylie to complete the journey.
Eyre had been checking their horses at 10.30pm when Baxter, who had been asleep in his swag, was shot in the chest by a rifle when he aroused and attempted to foil the deserters and their plot.