[5] His father served in the 3rd Continental Light Dragoons[2] commanded by his brother George, and was disabled by a cannonball that crushed his instep at the Battle of Germantown at the age of 17.

[10] He also participated in the ill-fated invasion of Canada, serving under Isaac Shelby and future U.S. president William Henry Harrison.

He played the violin or fiddle along with his opponent, Robert P. Letcher, to attract voters, later claiming a narrow victory.

A persistent story says that while he was riding with a young woman he intended to marry, she was bucked off her horse and dragged to her death, with Baylor unable to save her.

While at the home of relatives on furlough from the Texian Army, J. W. Baylor Jr. died from wounds he received that had become infected.

That the Secretary of War, be required to issue to R. E. B. Baylor heir of Doctor J. W. Baylor deceased a certificate for 640 acres of land as a donation for participating in the battle of San Jacinto, and a certificate for 640 acres of land allowed to those who died in the service of the country.

[16] In August 1840,[17] Baylor was a participant of the Battle of Plum Creek, serving under Edward Burleson along with two other Baptist ministers, Z. N. Morrell and Thomas Washington Cox.

James Huckins, sent a petition to the Congress of the Republic of Texas asking the nation to charter a Baptist university.

He was one of two delegates, along with James S. Mayfield, elected to represent Fayette County at the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1845.

Baylor, later the same year, entered the running in the first election for the state's 2nd congressional district, finishing last out of four candidates, with the seat won by Timothy Pilsbury.

[22] After his retirement from the legal profession in 1863 he lived the remainder of his life in Gay Hill, Texas, where he built his home, Holly Oak.

"[22] Baylor is memorialized on the Waco campus by a seated bronze statue[22] unveiled for the 94th anniversary of the university's founding on February 1, 1939, sculpted by Pompeo Coppini and funded by the Texas Centennial Commission.

George W. Truett delivered the main address at the unveiling,[27] and one of Judge Baylor's former slaves, Ann Freeman, was presented on stage and applauded by the approximately 3000 attendees.

[30][31] Initially a supporter of Andrew Jackson when elected to Congress, Baylor would later change his views on the president.

A report commissioned by Baylor University found that in 1860 enslaved persons formed a significant portion of his wealth; the 1860 census records him as owning 33 slaves.

And in 1862, as the Civil War raged, he ordered the execution of a slave for "intent to rape a white female.

[34][35] During the deliberations of the 1845 state constitution, Baylor famously said, "I do think that any office coming directly from the people ought ever to be filled by the clergy of any denomination."

Francis W. Moore Jr., of Harris County, who took the position that "no man or set of men should be disenfranchised", pointed out the irony that Baylor himself was a minister of the gospel who had been directly elected by voters to be a delegate to the convention.