John Baker

c 1526 to c 1595 (estimated)

BAK00009A

The Bakers Home Page Return to the Home Page of the Bakers Family part of the website

The Bakers of Highfields Story The Story of the Dods and Bakers and of Highfields, Fenton House and Hasfield Court. A journey through the history of Cheshire and Staffordshire, an Anglo-Saxon nobleman who retained his lands after the Conquest, pottery at Stoke on Trent, an encounter with Elgar, and the history of an Elizabethan manor house at Audlem

The Bakers of Highfields The family tree of the Bakers of Highfields

The Dod Family The Family Tree of the Dods, predecessors to the Bakers of Highfields

The Bakers of Fenton House and Hasfield Court The Family Tree of the pottery Bakers of Stoke on Trent

The Bellyse Family The Family Tree of the Bellyse Family

The Farndale Story The main part of this website tells the story of the Farndale family from Yorkshire Descendants of Arthur Baker, the story of the Farndale ancestry is told through the main part of this website You can also return to the Farndale website home page

The Hall Family The genealogy of the family of James Hall, linked to the Baker family through marriage to Arthur Baker

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c 1526

John Baker may have been born, almost certainly in Coventry, in or about 1530, the son of an unknown Baker, but his possible origins are explored at BAK00007.

According to Dugdale, when Sampson Baker, John's brother, died in 26 Elizabeth (1584), John was aged about 50. He would therefore have been born sometime around 1534, leaving John Baker his brother and heir L years of age (Dugdale, William, Sir, (1607-1677), The antiquities of Warwickshire illustrated : from records, leiger-books, manuscripts, charters, evidences, tombes, and armes : beautified with maps, prospects, and portraictures", Hollar, Wenceslaus, Page 716).

c 1550

He must have married, but we don’t know who to.

He had a son Humphrey Baker (BAK00010A), who we know was Sampson Baker’s nephew from the will, but in a marriage settlement (The marriage settlement of Humfrey Baker and Bridget, daughter of Gregory Moore of Borne (Lincolnshire) gent, 1584 Derbyshire Record office, D156/M/L/1/2) and also in the Inquisition Post Mortem for Sampson (The National Archives, C 142/205/195), Humphrey was described as John's son. He also had a daughter Bridgett Baker (BAK00010B), and a son Edward Baker (BAK00010C), both mentioned in the will Sampson Baker (BAK00008).

1562

There was a grant of the rectories of Hinxston and Harleston, now or late in the tenure of John Baker and late of Barnwell priory ; and of the rectory of Swasey and Drayton, now or late in the tenure of Ralph Gowre and late of the Carthusian priory by Coventry, co. Warwick. (Patent Rolls of the reign of Elizabeth I, Volume 2, 1560 to 1563, pages 70, 224). Given John’s brother Sampson’s subsequent acquisition of the same Carthusian priory mentioned in the grant, it seems likely that this John Baker is the same individual. Hinxston refers to Hinxton and Harleston refers to Harston, two villages located south of Cambridge. Before the Dissolution, their rectories and tithes were held by Barnwell Priory, an important Augustinian house in Cambridge. Swasey refers to Swavesey and Drayton refers to Fen Drayton, adjacent villages northwest of Cambridge. The grant notes that Swavesey and Fen Drayton were late of the Carthusian priory near Coventry. Historically, the Carthusian monks of Coventry held the rectories and lands of Swavesey and Fen Drayton as part of their monastic endowments. When Henry VIII dissolved the Coventry Charterhouse in 1539, these far-flung properties escheated to the Crown, which then leased or granted them out during Elizabeth I's reign. The Baker family of Coventry were actively involved in speculating and managing former monastic estates. Sampson Baker’s will (proved 1591) details an extensive portfolio of leasehold farms, lands, and rectories scattered across multiple counties. Sampson Baker died in 1584 without an absolute direct heir of his own and left the bulk of his major estates, including his lands and the manor of Little Packington, to his brother, John Baker.

Because sixteenth-century gentry families routinely operated as a unit to acquire Crown leases of dissolved monastic lands, the tenant John Baker in the Patent Rolls fits well into the timeline of the Coventry Baker brothers positioning themselves to eventually buy the Coventry Charterhouse itself in 1575.

There were also property transactions in Worcester which might possibly have related to this John Baker (Patent Rolls of the reign of Elizabeth I, Volume 2, 1560 to 1563, pages 393, 615).

1563

On 14 May 1568 a pardon was granted (retrospectively sanctioning) for William Sheldon to alienate lands in Woodhouse Ende in Graftonflyforde, Co. Worcester, to John Baker. For 8s 11d (Patent Rolls of the reign of Elizabeth I, Volume 4, 1566 to 1569, Folios 1663). This could have been property dealings of this John Baker.

1584

In his will Sampson Baker (BAK00008) left John the manor of Packington (also known as Packington Pigott or Packington Parva) in Warwickshire, including all associated lands, rents, and services previously purchased from the Earl of Lincoln. This inheritance was conditional on John (or his heirs) providing Edward Baker (Nephew, John's son) with an annual rent charge of 5 marks from the Packington estate once Edward turns 18, lasting for the rest of his life.

Sampson Baker had purchased Little Packington from Edward Clinton in 1573. The manor of Packington (historically spelled Pakington) was located at what is today Great Packington in North Warwickshire, about 10 kilometres northwest of Coventry, towards Birmingham, and 2 kilometres northwest of the village of Meriden. At that time in the sixteenth century, the manor centred around a medieval manor house that originally belonged to Kenilworth Priory. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it was purchased by the Fisher family.

c 1590

According to Dugdale, John and Humphrey Baker sold Little Packington to Robert Brudnell, of Duddington, Huntingdonshire, in January 1590 or 1591. (Dugdale, William, Sir, (1607-1677), The antiquities of Warwickshire illustrated : from records, leiger-books, manuscripts, charters, evidences, tombes, and armes : beautified with maps, prospects, and portraictures", Hollar, Wenceslaus, Page 716).

1595

John Baker may have died in or about 1595.