Richard Baker
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Richard Baker (1568 - 1645)

Sir Richard Baker
Born in Sissinghurst, Kent, Englandmap
Ancestors ancestors
[sibling(s) unknown]
Husband of — married about 1600 [location unknown]
Descendants descendants
Died at about age 77 in Fleet Prison, London, Englandmap
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Profile last modified | Created 9 May 2011
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Biography

Sir Richard Baker "the Chronicler" (1568 - 1645) is remembered mainly as a famous author and historian. Because he assumed his wife's debts he fell into dire poverty, but while held at the debtor's prison in Fleet Street, London, he penned several well-received books, most notably A Chronicle of the Kings of England from the Time of the Romans Government Unto the Death of King James.

We learn Sir Richard Baker's birthdate and parentage from his Wikipedia profile, which reads:

"Richard Baker, born about 1568 at Sissinghurst, Kent, was the elder son of John Baker and Katherine Scott, the daughter of Sir Reginald Scott (d. 16 December 1554) of Scot's Hall near Ashford, Kent, and Emeline Kempe, the daughter of Sir William Kempe of Olantigh, by Eleanor, daughter of Sir Robert Browne.

"Richard Baker's father, John Baker, was the second son of Sir John Baker, the first Chancellor of the Exchequer."

Richard Baker had a younger brother named Thomas, who is doubtless the ancestor of William Baker of Lismacue House in County Tipperary, Ireland. They form a very large branch of the Peerage in Ireland.

Nick Kingsley tells us, in his excellent website on Landed Families, that Sir Richard was educated at Hart Hall (matriculated 1584; MA by decree 1594) and at one of the Inns of Court in London.

During the early 1590s he "travelled on the Continent, journeying as far east as Poland." After returning from this grand tour, he settled down to serve as a young Member of Parliament for Arundel, 1593 and East Grinstead, 1597.

Sir Richard married to Margaret Mainwaring ca. 1600, began a family, and was Knighted at Theobald's Palace by King James I in 1603.

He served as a Justice of the Peace for Middlesex and High Sheriff of Oxfordshire, 1620-21. Unfortunately, "he made the mistake of becoming surety for some of the debts of his wife's family, as a result of which he was bankrupted in 1625 and reduced to poverty; his Oxfordshire property was seized by the Crown in 1625 and his other property was sold by 1635, when he took refuge in the Fleet Prison, where he spent the last ten years of his life."

Research

Sir Richard may well have been one of the best educated debtors held at Fleet Street prison, where men of rank were allowed to keep apartments so long as they made the appropriate payments to the warders in charge. He managed to keep his library of classical and modern authors with him, enabling him "to turn to the consolations of scholarship. It was while living in the Fleet that he composed his celebrated historical work, the Chronicle of the Kings of England (1643)."

Upon his death in 1645, his family were left at loose ends. What became of them?

As noted, about the year 1600 Sir Richard had married to Margaret Mainwaring, daughter of Sir George Mainwaring of Ightfield, Shropshire. Because Ightfield, Shropshire, is only 15 miles from Edgmond, many genealogists assume that some of Sir Richard Baker's newly impoverished family moved to Edgmond, to be near their mother's family, and became identical to the Bakers of Edgmond, for whom there are good records.

Facing hardship and persecution for their decision to join the Quaker church, many of the Bakers of Edgmond emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1684. The line of descent from Sir Richard to the Bakers of Edgmond, Shrophsire is therefore a matter of keen interest to many of the descendants of the Baker family who settled Edgmont township in Chester County, Pennsylvania, for they earnestly believe they may also be descendants of Sir Richard Baker.

Sir Richard and Lady Margaret certainly did have offspring: at least 5 children, two sons and three daughters who are well recorded.

Kingsley lists them as follows:

(1) Sir Thomas Baker (b. 1602), perhaps baptised at Cranbrook (Kent), 16 May 1602; educated at Brasenose College, Oxford (matriculated 1617, aged 15; BA 1620) and Inner Temple (admitted 1621); knighted at Woodstock by King Charles I, 8 August 1625; lived at Kingston (Kent); married, 9 April 1629 at St Mary, Lambeth (Surrey), Frances, daughter of Sir Thomas Wilford of Ileden near Kingston (Kent) and had issue five sons and three daughters; living in 1642;

(2) Mainwaring Baker (b. 1603), baptised at Hornchurch (Essex), 16 February 1603/4; died young before 1617;

(3) Arthur Baker (c.1605-44); educated at Brasenose College, Oxford (matriculated 1617, aged 12; BA 1620) and Inner Temple (admitted 1621; called to bar, 1639); barrister-at-law; married, 18 July 1642 at St Mary, Lambeth, Catherine Powell, but had no issue; buried at the Temple Church, London, 2 April 1644;

(4) Anne Baker (b. 1607), baptised at St Giles Cripplegate, London, 22 March 1607;

(5) Margaret Baker, unmarried in 1651 when she was mentioned in her mother's will;

(6) Cecily Baker; perhaps dead by 1651;

(7) Frances Baker; married, 18 October 1645 at St Anne & St Agnes, London, Robert Smith, citizen and tailor of London; living in 1654.

The claim that Sir Richard had two sons named John and Robert who took up residence at Edgmond, Shropshire, has been repeated often, and it is not unreasonable. But this claim certainly requires more research and documentation.

John and Robert Baker have some very clear documentation still existing among the archives of Edgmond, England. But to this date, no birth or baptism records have been found that would absolutely prove that Sir Richard fathered these two brothers.

They are attached here merely as a recognition of the fact that their descendants in Pennsylvania have long claimed descent from Sir Richard and the Bakers of Sissinghurst, Kent. This is not a recent invention of the internet, but rather a time-honored tradition that dates back to family histories published in 1895.

With the advent of electronic databases, perhaps the families of some of the old claimants for John and Robert Baker will finally find the missing documentation they have been wanting for more than a century.

Sources

  • Baker, Richard (1568 - 1645) - Thoma / Thomae Family Website - for a lively debate over the question whether Sir Richard had a sons named John or Robert whose children emigrated to Edgmont township in Chester (Lancaster) County Pennsylvania.
  • Kingsley, Nick - Bakers of Sissinghurst, Baronets - Landed Families of Britain and Ireland Blog (retrieved 8 July 2019). Scroll down to the bottom for Baker, Sir Richard (1568 - 1645) and a detailed listing of his children -- a list which does not include a son named John.
  • Lee, Sidney "Baker, Richard (1568 - 1645)" Dictionary of National Biography, 1885 - 1900. Vol. 3 at WikiSource here.




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