|
|
William Meath Baker of Hasfield and Fenton “WMB” 1 November 1857 to 15 January
1935
BAK00310
|
|
|
The home page of the Farndale family website of which this section is a part |
The Home page of the Baker family part of the website |
The Baker Family directory |
Notes on the Baker family history |
The Baker Family Tree, which is the best way to search the family history |
Headlines of William Meath Baker’s life are in brown.
Dates are in red.
Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.
References and citations are in turquoise.
Context and local history are in purple.
1857
William Meath Baker was the son of Rev Ralph B and Frances (nee
Singer) Baker (FAR00302).
He was born on 1 November 1857. He
was baptised at Christ Church, Hilderstone,
Staffordshire on 10 January 1858.
1861 Census - 22, Porchester Square,
Paddington
Ralph B Baker, Head ,
Married, Male, 58, 1803, Clergyman church England without cure of souls,
Kenton, Staffordshire, England
Frances C Baker, Wife, Married, Female, 38 , 1823, Ireland
Mary F Baker, Daughter,
Female, 12, 1849, Scholar, Ireland
Letitia J D Baker, Daughter, Female, 9, 1852, Scholar, Ireland
William M Baker, Son, Male, 3, 1858, Hilderstone, Staffordshire, England
Jessie Goward, Servant,
Unmarried, Female, 25, 1836, Housemaid, Scotland
Sarah Death, Servant,
Unmarried, Female, 22, 1839, Cook, Kentish Town, Middlesex, England
Sarah Addison, Servant,
Unmarried, Female, 22, 1839, Nurse, Staffordshire, England
WMB was educated at Eton and Trinity
College, Cambridge and gained his MA in 1886.
1875
On his father’s death in 1875, he inherited the Gloucestershire and
Fenton estates and Dr Percy Young,
Director of Music at Stoke, observed that he settled down to the duties of a
country squire and magistrate at Hasfield Court.
He inherited Hasfield Court and Fenton House from his father in
1875 and came of age in 1880. After his eldest son joined the Roman
Catholic church in 1918 they agreed to break the
entail on the estate so that it could be left to his second son
1880
Staffordshire Daily Sentinel, 1 November 1880. FENTON. CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS TO MR W M BAKER. Arrangements have
been made for a beautifully lithographed congratulatory address to be presented
today to Mr William Meath Baker, of Hasfield Court,
Gloucester, on the occasion of his attaining his twenty third birthday, and succeeding to the estates of the late Mr
William Baker, whose family have for many years taken great interest in the
welfare and improvement of this town. The address was signed by the Rev H C
Turner, vicar, the members of the local board, and many of the inhabitants, and
Mr. J Gimson was entrusted with the duty of making the presentation.
1881
The Staffordshire Daily Sentinel, 29 September
1881: THE BURIAL QUESTION. A notice has been
circulated throughout the district, signed by the Rev H C Turner, Messrs J
Gimson and F W Grove, churchwardens, and the committee, on the burial question,
calling attention to the fact of the churchyard being full; and that is just
been decided to accept the generous offer of Mr William Meath Baker to give a
quarter of an acre of land, adjoining the churchyard, as an addition to the
burial ground. The estimated cost of drainage, fencing etc is £70. Should the
amount not be raised, it will be necessary to make application to the Secretary
of State to close the churchyard, which would cause great inconvenience, as it
is believed two years at least must elapse before the proposed cemetery will be
ready for burials. It is suggested that as it is intended to benefit both
churchmen and Nonconformists it should be supported by every householder.
1881 Census – Hasfield
Court, Hasfield, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire
Frances Crofton Baker, Head ,
Widow, Female, 57, 1824, Householder, Ireland
Mary Frances Baker, Daughter,
Single, Female, 32 , 1849, Householder’s
daughter, Ireland
Letitia Jane Baker, Daughter, Single, Female, 28, 1853, House holders daughter, Ireland
William Meath Baker, Son, Single, Male, 23,
1858, Landowner, b a Stafford,
Staffordshire, England
Alice Frances Crofton, Visitor, Single, Female, 32, 1849, Ireland
Helen Julianna Jenkins, Visitor, Single, Female, 36, 1845, Bond
holder, Ireland
John Belmont, Servant,
Widower, Male, 59, 1822, Domestic servant butler, Marwood, Devon, England
Thomas Smith , Servant,
Single, Male, 18, 1863, Domestic servant footman, Aston, Gloucestershire,
England
Elizabeth An Bedding, Servant, Single,
Female, 28, 1853, Domestic servant housemaid, Forthampton,
Gloucestershire, England
Laura Box, Servant, Single,
Female , 27, 1854, Domestic servant cook,
Monmouthshire, Wales
Clara Louisa James, Servant, Single, Female, 32, 1849, Domestic
servant ladies maid, Tipton, Staffordshire, England
Kate Lake, Servant, Single, Female, 16, 1865, Domestic servant
kitchen maid, Ashleworth, Gloucestershire, England
Rose Emme Colebrook, Servant, Single, Female, 19, 1862, Domestic
servant house maid, Carmarthenshire, Wales
Louisa Westlake, Servant,
Married, Female, 39, 1842, Domestic servant housekeeper, Somerset, England
1884
WMB married Hannah Corbett, daughter of
Captain R J Corbett of Hyeres, France in 1884.
Gloucestershire
Chronicle, 31 May 1884: At the British Consulate,
Marseille, and, on the 24th inst, at Saint Pauls
Church, Hyeres les Palmiers, by the Rev J A
Alexander, assistant chaplain, assisted by the Rev Canon Beresford, rector of
Hovey-cum-Rotherby, Leicestershire, William Meath
Baker, only son of the late Rev Ralph Bourne Baker, of Hasfield
Court, Gloucestershire, and Fenton house, Staffordshire, to Hannah Mary, only
daughter of Captain RJ Corbett, ret list Indian Staff Corps, of La Pinedo,
Hyeres.
The Homeward Mail from India, China and the East,
4 June 1884: Baker – Corbett. May 24, at Hyeres les Palmiers, William Meath Baker, only son of the late Rev R B
Baker, of Hasfield Court, Gloucester, and Fenton
House, Staffordshire, to Hannah Mary, only daughter of Capt R J Corbett,
Retired List, Indian Staff Corps, of La Pinedo, Hyeres.
They had three children.
1896
He became High Sheriff of Gloucester in
1896.
1909
His wife Hannah died in 1909 and he married Sybil Agatha Wyrley of Norfolk. She was an amateur
singer with a lovely voice and a pianist.
The Staffordshire Sentinel, Daily and Weekly, 15 July 1909: A marriage will shortly take place between Mr William
Meath Baker, of Hasfield Court, Gloucestershire and
Fenton house, Stoke-on-Trent and Sibyll Agatha Wyrley, daughter of the late Mr Wyrley of Wretham Hall, Norfolk,
and the Birch, the Close, Norwich.
The pottery business continued to trade as
William Baker & Co and continued to make printed, sponged and pearly white
granite war for export, mainly to Canada from one factory and encaustic tiles
at the other factory. WMB did not take an active role in running the factories, but made regular visits to Fenton and was
involved in the development of public and private buildings in the town. He
built Fenton Town Hall. Many of the extensive works bore his initials WMB.
He was a keen climber
and had regular trips to the Welsh hills and to Switzerland.
Regular house parties were held at Hasfield. On one occasion there
was a call for someone to play the part of an old man. WMB’s brother
in law, Richard Baxter Townshend, who had
married Letitia Baker was persuaded to take the part. His voice was too high
falsetto and soft for the role and he attempted a deeper voice,
but was unable to keep it up and the audience were in tears with
laughter. Townshend had been a cattle rancher and gold prospector and was a
good shot. He had a weatherbeaten face and was known to ride about Oxford on a tricyle. As he was somewhat deaf, he invented a bicycle
bell that sounded continuously.
Friendship with Sir Edward Elgar
WMB was a close friend of the composer, Sir
Edward Elgar, and was one of the friends portrayed in Elgar's 'Enigma
Variations' of 1899. He had been acquainted with the family of Edward Elgar’s
future wife and thus became acquainted with Edward Elgar himself. WMB’s mansion
at Hasfield Court was about ten miles from a village called Red-Marley d’Abitot where a friend of WMB’s sister, Mary Baker lived.
The friend was Caroline Alice Roberts, daughter of the late Major General Sir
Henry Gee—Roberts of Indian Mutiny and Sikh Wars fame. Mary and Alice studied
geology together with the local rector who was known as ‘the Professor’ and
they would often go fossil hunting on the Severn.
Alice Roberts started to
take music lessons from an Edward Elgar who taught the violin at Worcester High
School. Despite a lack of talent, she tried hard at her lessons and the reason
soon became apparent. She became engaged to Edward Elgar. When they visited Hasfield Court, Mary Baker found Edward rather shy. Alice
Robert’s family, including two rather severe aunts were horrified at the idea
that Alice wanted to marry a music teacher and she was cut of from various
wills and ostracised. Of course the snobbery was
misplaced since Sir Edward Elgar would become one of the country’s most famous
composers!
However WMB and Mary continued
to welcome the Elgars and their friends to Hasfield. Mary
Baker took them on holiday to Germany in 1892 and they visited Bayreuth, Heildelberg and the Bavarian Highlands.
In 1896 Mary Baker
married Rev Alfred Penny and then moved to Wolverhampton. By his first
marriage, Alfred had a daughter called Dora who later wrote “Memories of a
Variation” which includes many stories about life at Hasfield.
Mary Baker became great
friends with the Elgars. She described how Edward Elgar would bring in
hedgehogs from the woods at Hasfield and feed them in
the house. There is a story of him sitting in a strawberry bed and wishing that
someone would bring him champagne in a bedroom jug.
When he visited the
potteries in October 1896, the first performance of Edward Elgar’s oratorio,
King Olaf was performed at the Victoria Hall, Hanley. The work had been
commissioned for the Hanley Festival. It was conducted by Elgar himself. After
the performance, Elgar wrote “If ever I may come to the Potteries again I may come among friends.” WMB was in the audience
and had already been a friend of Edward Elgar for many years.
R B Townshend, Dora Penny and WMB would be immortalised in
consequence of Edward Elgar’s visits to Hasfield. In October 1898, Edward Elgar was at his piano one evening and
his wife liked a new theme and asked what it was. He replied, ‘nothing, but
something might be made of it.” He played some more and asked Alice who it
was like. Alice replied that “it is exactly the way WMB goes out of the room.”.
She added “surely you are doing something that has never been done before.”
This was the origin of the Enigma Variations, one of the greatest orchestral
works written by a British composer. Were it not for Alice Elgar’s
interruption, we might never have had one of the greatest of all English
orchestral works. Elgar called the tune, which he had not recognised as
anything worthwhile, “Enigma”, not in the sense of a riddle to be solved, but,
he said, a “dark saying [that] must be left unguessed”,
expressing the “nothingness” from which it came.
Elgar dedicated the variations to ‘my friends pictured within’.
Each section was headed by the initials of the friend portrayed,
beginning with “CAE” or Caroline Alice Baker, who he lovingly portrayed.
He called the third variation “RBT” and his funny voice and his
bicycle bell can be heard in the music. The piece
remembered Richard Baxter Townshend, a friend whose caricature of an old man in
an amateur theatre production is captured in the variation. The variation
depicts an amateur actor and mimic, capable of extreme changes to the pitch of
his voice, a characteristic which the music imitates.
He called his fourth variation “WMB” and the variation is highly
energetic and includes a sharp bang of the door. The
piece recalled William Meath Baker, 'country squire, gentleman and scholar',
informing his guests of the day's arrangements. The piece depicts a country
squire, gentleman and scholar who has just forcibly read out the arrangements
for the day and hurriedly left the music room with an inadvertent bang of the
door."
He called the tenth variation “Dorabella” after Dora Penney, which
was her nickname from Cosi Fan Tutte ands the music parodies her youthful
stammer.
The piece depicted Dora Penney, daughter of
the Rector of Wolverhampton and a close friend of the Elgars.
But for the Bakers and Hasfield Court,
the Enigma Variations would not have been what they were.
Staffordshire Sentinal, 13 March 1985: “Enigma” person? WILLIAM MEATH BAKER (1857 – 1935) pottery
manufacturer, Fenton. BECAME High Sheriff of Gloucestershire and their
entertained the composer Edward Elgar and his wife. The 4th of elgar's enigma variations is said to have been inspired by
the memory of Baker striding out of the music room at Hasfield
court and inadvertently banging on the door. He was a keen mountain climber and
made several ascents in the Swiss Alps.
1911
1911 Census - Hasfield
Court Near Gloucester, Hasfield, Gloucestershire
William Meath Baker , Head, Married, Male, 53, 1858, Private means, Staffordshire Hilderston
Sibyll Agatha Wyrley Baker, Wife,
Married, Female, 42, 1869, Norfolk Wretham
Frederick John Sowter, Servant, Single, Female, 26 , 1885, Page domestic, Derbyshire Derby
George Sowter, Servant, Single, Male, 16, 1895, Page domestic,
Derbyshire Wirksworth
Agnes Gretton, Servant,
Single, Female, 41 , 1870, Housekeeper
domestic, Stafforshire Admeston
Louisa Coles, Servant,
Single, Female, 25, 1886, Lady’s maid domestic, Oxfordshire Watlington
Rosa Kate Shepherd, Servant, Single, Female, 20, 1891, Housemaid
domestic, Middlesex Enfield
Nellie May Baylifs, Servant, Single,
Female, 19, 1892, Kitchen maid domestic, Gloucestershire Turley
Clara May Carter, Servant, Single, Female, 18, 1893, Rulley domestic, Gloucestershire Tirley
Priscilla Jane Carter, Servant, Single, Female, 16, 1895, Between
maid domestic, Gloucestershire Tirley
1921
1921 Census - The Court, Hasfield, Gloucestershire
William Meath Baker , Head, Male, 1857, 63, Hilderstone,
Staffordshire, England No Occupation
Sibyll Agatha Wysley Baker, Wife,
Female, 1869, 52, Norfolk, England - -
Sarah Sparrowhawk, Servant ,
Female, 1867, 53, Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire, Wales, Domestic, Private
Mabel Mathilda Dee, Servant, Female, 1896, 25, Gloucester,
Gloucestershire, England, Domestic, Private
Ellen Ruth Norman, Servant, Female ,
1891, 29, Surrey, England, Private
Rose Katherine Mansell, Servant, Female, 1888, 33, Gloucester,
Gloucestershire, England, Private
Dorothy Minnie Churchill, Servant, Female, 1903, 18, Salwayash, Dorset, England, Private
1935
However
the factory ceased trading in the depression year of 1932 and the family
interest in the factory reduced after that.
The Gloucester Journal, 23 May 1936: WILL OF MR W
MEATH BAKER. Mr William Meath Baker, JP, of Hasfield Court,
Gloucestershire, who died on January 15 last, aged 77 years, left gross estate
of the value of £74,265 8s 5d with net personalty
£11,547 8s 3d. Mr Francis Ralph Baker, of the same address, son, and Mrs Mary
Frances Penny, of the Close, Lichfield, Staffs, sister, are the executors
Testator left: the right of presentation to the united benefice of Hasfield with Tirley to his son
Francis Ralph Baker, the right of presentation of the living of Fenton to the
rector of Stoke-on-Trent. He also left £100 each to his grandchildren Lucinda
Helen Mary Frances Baker, Judith Baker and William
Oliver Baker; £100 each to his godsons Maxwell Johnston and Stanhope Francis St
Maur Williams; and the residue of his property, including certain settled
funds, to his son Francis Ralph Baker. He stated that he had already made
provision for his other two sons.
The Staffordshire Advertiser, 23 May 1936: Mr
William Meath Baker, JP, of Hasfield Court,
Gloucestershire, who died on January 15, 1935, aged 77, left estate of the
gross value of £74,265, with net personalty £11,547.
He left the right of presentation of the living of Fenton to the rector both
Stoke-on-Trent.