BALFOUR, Walter, clergyman, born in St. Minian's, Scotland, in 1776; died in Charlestown, Massachusetts, 3 January 1852. In early youth he was befriended by Robert Haldane, and at his expense was educated for the ministry of the Church of Scotland. After several years of service there as a preacher he came to the United States, and became a Baptist about 1806. He remained in that denomination until 1823, when he went over to the Universalists, and there seems to have found a congenial sphere, for he became prominent as a preacher and writer in that sect. His best-known book is entitled "Essays on the Intermediate State of the Dead " (Charlestown, 1828). A memoir by A. Whittemore, was published in Boston in 1830.