John Baker (1598 - 1672)

Born 1598 in Edgmond, Shropshire, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 25 Apr 1672 at about age 74 in Edgmond, Shropshire, England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Mark Shernick [send private message]

Biography

John was a Friend (Quaker)

John Baker was born in 1598. He passed away at Edgmond, Shropshire, England in 1672.

His descendants in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania have claimed that John was "definitely" a son of Sir Richard Baker's family of Sissinghurst, Kent. They've made this claim since 1895, but the exact route of relationship is unclear and the documentation is a bit thin.

The fullest telling of this family lineage may be found in the book "Our Family Ancestors" (1895) by Thomas M. Potts of Canonsburg, PA, who devotes the entirety of Chapter 40 to the Baker family. As Mr. Potts points out on the first page, the claim of descent from Sir Richard Baker of Sissinghurst is based entirely on the research of Mr. Thomas Baker of Lancaster County.

"Thomas Baker, of Lancaster County, this state, made some personal inquiry and research into the family history, while abroad some years ago, in England, Ireland and Wales. From his examination he claims to have traced this family to Sir Richard Baker, born 1568 and died February 18, 1645. That he was father of John Baker, born 1598, and died about 1670; and that he [John] was father of Joseph Baker, Sr., of Shropshire, born 1630, emigrated to Pennsylvania, 1685, and died in Chester County, 1716."

To illustrate these relationships more clearly, Mr. Potts supplies a family tree diagram, on p. 320, in which the subject of this profile is designated as John Baker Sr. He adds these notes:

"JOHN BAKER ,SR., probably the same who was born in 1598, and said to have been a son of Sir Richard Baker, died at Edgmond, Shropshire, England 2 mo. 25, 1672. His death is recorded by the Friends Monthly Meeting of Edgmond, Shropshire, but no other information is given, and there seems to be no record of wife or children, with the Friends there. He is supposed to have been the father of John Baker and Joseph Baker, Sr., who came to Pennsylvania."

Thomas Baker himself, the author of this research, provides a few more details in a profile he submitted (with his photo) to the editors of a local biographical dictionary.

From the Biographical Annals of Lancaster County Pennsylvania (1903) p. 496:

"Mr. Baker traces his ancestry back definitely to Sir Richard Baker, who was born in the county of Kent, England, in 1568, and died in February, 1644. He was the author of the Chronicles of the Kings of England.

"His son, John Baker, born in 1598, died about 1672. They are first found in the North of England, where they were property owners in the fifteenth century, and in the seventeenth century were strong supporters of George Fox, and suffered imprisonment under Cromwell. Around 1650, representatives of the family were at or near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire."

While these claims may be true, no further documentation is provided or immediately evident. The Wikipedia article for Richard Baker (by no means definitive) says that Sir Richard married Margaret Mainwaring "about 1600" and had eight children, but it lists only seven: three sons and four daughters:

1. Sir Thomas Baker, b. 1602
2. Mainwaring Baker, b. 1603
3. Arthur Baker
4. Anne Baker, b. 1607
5. Margaret Baker
6. Cecily Baker, and
7. Frances Baker.

There is no mention of an eldest son named John born in 1598. Given his birth two years before the estimated marriage date (1600), it is quite possible that John was the son of an earlier marriage by an unknown wife, or an illegitimate son left off the lists.

One must also allow that the Quaker records for John's birth may have been lost or destroyed. Quakers were often lynched during this period of history, and their records were treated with equal disrespect.

Norma Baker McCullough's 1981 book The Bakers of Sissinghurst and Other Relatives gives a fairly detailed pedigree of Sir Richard Baker's family, but sheds no real light on the John Baker mystery. In fact Wikipedia's article seems to be based on her work.

After much internet debate amongst genealogists, there seems to be a general agreement that the Bakers of Edgmond, Shropshire and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania do probably descend from the Bakers of Sissinghurst, but a very hot debate over the exact route of the lineage continues.

Some think John is not the son of Sir Richard Baker, but more likely descends from a gentleman named Robert Baker of Edgmond, Shropshire. At least one website in the Netherlands (Genealogie Online) traces John to another John Baker (1576 - 1594) of Norfolk, who emigrated to Exeter County, Massachusetts, and who is allegedly a grandson of "Bloody" John Baker and a cousin to Sir Richard Baker.

When one looks for additional records to confirm the time and place of death of John Baker, there is another debate afoot. While Thomas Baker seems to have done a fair job of finding Quaker death records for John Baker, and plainly asserts that he died in Edgmond, Shropshire, some persist in claiming that he died in Aylesbury, and still others claim he died in Exeter county, Massachusetts.

One may certainly find several men named John Baker being transported as prisoners from England to the colonies in America. John lived, after all, during that period of English history marked by two civil wars, and his alleged grandfather, "Bloody" Sir John Baker (1488 - 1558) was a strong supporter of the Tudor family. As Cavalier gentlemen who sided with the Royalists during the Civil Wars, the Bakers of Sissinghurst were a top priority for arrest and deportation during the period of Cromwell's rule.

Finding the exact lineage and all supporting paperwork needed to tell John Baker's story in detail will require much more sleuthing than has been done in past. What little can be gathered from an afternoon of searching on the internet has been posted below.

Sources

• Edgmond Genealogical Records - Forebears.io website (retrieved 12 July 2019)

• Edgmond, Shropshire Genealogy - FamilySearch.org website (retrieved 12 July 2019)

• John Baker (1598 - 1672)- Heidi Moore Stanton Family Tree - Genealogy.com. This version is notable because it indicates John died 25 April 1672 at Topsfield, Essex, Massachusetts, a place of death that differs greatly from the claims of death near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England.

• John Baker of Aylesbury (1598 - 1672) - Geni.com

• John Baker (1598 - 1680) of Edgmond, England - A tree at the Dutch site genealogieonline.net traces John Baker not to Sir Richard Baker, but to one of his cousins: John Baker (1576 - 1594), born in Norfolk, who was the son of "Bloody" Sir John Baker (1488 - 1558), Knight of Sissinghurst, Kent.

• John Baker (1488 - 1558) - Wikipedia

• Richard Baker (Chronicler) - Wikipedia

• Appleton, William. Ancestry of Priscilla Baker (Cambridge, MA: Press of John Wilson & Sons, 1870). See Family of Baker and the history of John Baker of Norwich, Norfolk on p. 3 and ff. This is the main source for documents on John Baker of Norfolk, who allegedly descends from Sir John Baker of Sissinghurst.

• Anon. Biographical Annals of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania: Biographical and Genealogical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens and Many of the Early Settlers (J.H. Beers & Co., 1903). Available at Archive.org. See sketch of John Baker, b. 1598, within biography of Thomas Baker, pp. 496 and ff.

• Baker, Sir Richard. A Chronicle of the Kings of England from the Time of the Roman Government unto the Death of King James (London: George Sandridge, 1670) at Archive.org.

• Burke's Landed Gentry provides the following information: "Sir Richard Baker, M.P., of Middle Aston, Oxon [Oxfordshire], and St. Bride's, London, the history (who m. Margaret, dau. of Sir George Mainwaring [sic] of Ightfield, Salop [Shropshire], and d. in Fleet debtors' prison 18 Feb. 1644/5, bur. St. Bride's) son of John Baker, disinherited elder son of Rt Hon. Sir John Baker, of Sissinghurst, Kent (See Burke's Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies, Baker, Bt., of Sissinghurst)." Note that the Mainwarings of Ightfield are living only 15 miles away from the Bakers of Edgmond, Shropshire. John Baker of Edgmond, Shropshire, married Mary (maiden name unknown) and was the father of John, Mary, Hannah who married Francis Yarnall, Sarah, and Joseph Baker all of whom came to Pennsylvania.

• Fletcher, W.G.D. Shropshire Parish Registers, Diocese of Lichfield [includes Edgmond] (Shropshire: Shropshire Parish Registers Society, 1913). Vol. XIII at Archive.org

• Futhey, John Smith and Gilbert Cope. History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches. (Philadelphia: L.H. Everts, 1881). Available at Archive.org. See short biographies of Baker family on pp. 469 - 470.

• Hotten, John Camden. The Original Lists of Persons of Quality: Emigrants; religious exiles; political rebels; serving men sold for a term of years; apprentices; children stolen; maidens pressed; and others who went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700 : with their ages and the names of the ships in which they embarked, and other interesting particulars; from mss. preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office, England. (London: Hotten, 1874).

• McCullough, Norma Baker. The Bakers of Sissinghurst and Other Relatives. (London: Private Printing, 1981).

• Potts, Thomas Maxwell. Our Family Ancestors (Canonsburg, PA: Published by the Author, 1895). Available at Archive.org. See Ch. XL The Baker Family, p. 318 and ff.