Humphrey Baker of Charterhouse

c 1549 to 1630 (estimated)

BAK000010A

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Humphrey Baker (c 1549–1610) was an Elizabethan-era figure from Warwickshire linked directly to the historic Coventry Charterhouse, a former Carthusian monastery that transitioned into a prominent private residence following the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Humphrey Baker is sometimes confused with his contemporary namesake, Humphrey Baker the London Mathematician (who flourished 1562 to 1587), who wrote the famous arithmetic textbook The Wellspring of Sciences. However, the Coventry based Humphrey Baker was defined by his regional land gentry status and his inheritance within the Baker family of Warwickshire.

c 1549

Humphrey Baker may have been born, almost certainly in Coventry, in or about 1549, and was the son of John Baker (BAK00009A). He was referred to as the nephew of John’s brother Sampson Baker (BAK00008) in Sampson’s 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.

1584

On 4 April 1584, perhaps aware that he was dying, Sampson Baker (BAK00008) settled property on trustees for his nephew, Humphrey Baker, in anticipation of Humphrey's marriage to Bridget Moore, the daughter of Gregory Moore, senior, of Borne, in Lincolnshire. Both Sampson and Humphrey were described as of the Charterhouse. (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). Baker v Burdett: Complaint of Humfrey Baker of Mythe (Leicestershire) gent that Robert has not paid for land in Great Sheepey [Sheepy Magna] (Leicestershire) Atherston [Atherstone] (Warwickshire) and Ratiffe Culey [Ratcliffe Culey] (Leicestershire) including D156/M/L/1/2/3 draft answers; copy marriage settlement of Humfrey Baker and Bridget daughter of Gregory Moore of Borne (Lincolnshire) gent, 1584; articles of agreement for lands between Baker and Burdett, 1598/9.

In his will Sampson Baker (BAK00008) asked that his relatives give consideration to his kinsman, Humffry Baker, but he had already provided for him prior to writing his will.

Humphrey Baker married Bridget Moore, the daughter of Gregory Moore, senior, of Borne, in Lincolnshire in or about 1584.

Gregory Moore (also spelled More) of Bourne (Borne), Lincolnshire, was a prominent local official who served as the Bailiff of Bourne during the Tudor period. Gregory married Joan Allen, the daughter of Henry Allen of Buckminster in Leicestershire. Through this marriage, the Moores were connected to well-established families across Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. In April 1584, an agreement was made by Sampson Baker of the Charterhouse in Coventry to settle property on his nephew, Humphrey Baker, in anticipation of Humphrey’s marriage to Gregory’s daughter, Bridget Moore. Following their marriage, the Bakers resided in Coventry for a time before descendants later returned to Baston, Lincolnshire. (Lincolnshire Pedigrees, Volume 51, page 687). Bourne is 10 kilometres north of Peterborough, about 50 kilometres northeast of Coventry.

Humphrey Baker succeeded his uncle Sampson Baker to the substantial Charterhouse property in Coventry. The Coventry Charterhouse (originally St Anne's Charterhouse, founded in 1381 by Richard II) was dissolved under Henry VIII in 1539. After passing through a few hands, most notably including Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, the property was acquired in 1575 by Humphrey's uncle, Sampson Baker. In April 1584, shortly before his death, Sampson Baker executed a formal marriage settlement specifically for Humphrey.

Humphrey would have witnessed Coventry navigate intense religious transformations, transitioning from a medieval powerhouse of monastic life into a hub for trade, local gentry, and eventually, Protestant nonconformity.

In the Catholic Records Society volumes concerning recusants, there is an entry which shows that he had a butler, called John Craddock, who later went to work for Humphrey Baker. John Cradock of Sheldon in Warwickshire, late butler to Mr Sampson Baker of Coventry, and since that, servant to Mr Humfry Baker of Shepey (Sheepy) in Leicestershire, of the age of 38 yeres or ther aboutes, examined before the said Commissioners the daye and yere aforesaid; whoe refuseth to be sworne, but saythe: First, that he hath bene in prison in the Marshallsey the 6 yeres or ther aboutes, committed by Sir Francis Walsingham for recusancy, and was indivcted in Surrey for the same cause, and hath bene examined before Mr Yonge and other Commissioners. Item, he sayeth he hath neither lands nor goods. Item, he saith he knoeth not nor hath had conference with any Jesuits or semenarie preestes, neither hath any suche resorted unto him, but refuseth to depose yt. Item, he hath not had conference with any preachers and denyeth to have any. Item, he refuseth to come to churche. Signed John Craddock. (Catholic Records Society Records Volume 60: Recusant Documents from the Ellesmere Manuscripts Published on Jan 1, 1968 Page 72).

In this examination of 1593, after Sampson’s death, John Cradock, a 38-year-old Catholic recusant (someone who refused to attend Church of England services) had been imprisoned in the Marshalsea prison for about six years. His imprisonment was ordered by Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I’s spymaster, for recusancy. He was officially indicted for this in Surrey. He denied knowing or meeting with any Jesuits or seminary priests (who were banned under Elizabethan law), though he refused to swear an oath to prove it. He refused to speak with Protestant preachers, explicitly stated he would not attend the established Church, and refused to be sworn in under oath before the Commissioners.

Following the Elizabethan Religious Settlement of 1559, attendance at the local Church of England parish was mandatory by law. Those who refused to attend Anglican services were labelled recusants (from the Latin recusare, meaning to refuse). Initially, recusancy was punished by fines. However, by the 1580s, as geopolitical tensions mounted, the state began viewing Catholic recusants not just as religious dissidents, but as potential traitors loyal to a foreign power (the Pope or Catholic Spain).

Walsingham ran an extensive domestic and international espionage network. His primary mission was to uncover Catholic plots against the Queen (such as the Babington Plot). The fact that a working-class man like Cradock, a former butler and servant, drew the personal attention of Walsingham indicates how wide Walsingham’s net was cast. The state feared that servants in wealthy households could act as couriers or lookouts for underground Catholic networks.

The Commissioners specifically cross-examined Cradock about Jesuits and seminary priests. In 1585, the English Parliament passed a law making it high treason for any Catholic priest ordained abroad to enter England. Anyone who harboured or assisted them faced the death penalty. Priests were smuggled into England from continental Europe to keep the Catholic faith alive dynamically. They travelled in disguise and hid in priest holes within wealthy manor houses. As a butler and servant, Cradock would have been in a prime position to facilitate or know about these secret guests.

Cradock spent roughly six years in the Marshalsea, a notorious prison located in Southwark, Surrey (just south of London). Prisons in this era were profit-driven and brutal. Inmates had to pay the gaoler for their own bedding, food, and drink. Since Cradock claimed he had neither lands nor goods, his six-year survival in the Marshalsea suggests he likely relied on the charity box of the prison, or received covert financial support from wealthier Catholic sympathisers outside.

We might wonder about the Bakers' religious sympathies. In Elizabethan England, wealthy families were expected to ensure their domestic staff conformed to the Church of England. The fact that John Cradock was a radical, unyielding Catholic recusant who spent six years in prison suggests one of two scenarios for his masters. It seems probable that the Bakers were Church Papists, Catholics who outwardly conformed to Anglican services to save their estates from devastating fines but privately maintained traditional Catholic households. Employing a butler (the head of domestic affairs) who was a staunch Catholic suggests the Bakers actively harboured and protected co-religionists within their walls. Sampson Baker chose to buy and live in a former Catholic monastery, The Charterhouse, which may have reinforced a nostalgic or lingering attachment to the old faith.

If the examination took place around 1590–1592, Cradock’s arrest would have occurred around 1585–1586. This timing suggests that shortly after Humphrey Baker took over his uncle's estates, Walsingham's agents may have raided his household or targeted his staff. Having his chief servant arrested by the Queen's spymaster for suspected ties to underground Jesuit priests would have put Humphrey under immense political pressure, threatening his social standing and his newly inherited wealth.

Surviving Elizabethan Court of Chancery records show that Sampson and Humphrey were heavily litigious and frequently sued for debts. Following Sampson's death in 1584, Humphrey was hit with multiple lawsuits by creditors demanding repayment for his late uncle’s debts. Under this financial strain, Humphrey eventually sold off the manor of Little Packington in 1591.

1585

In a debt case, in 1585, Sampson's executor, his nephew Humphrey Baker, had to answer for Sampson, when Roland Durant, an attorney, sued for debt. Baker, Sampson, of le Charterhouse by Coventry, gent, executor of; (Baker, Humphrey, of Coventry, gent) (University of Houston Table).

The attorney, Roland Durant, had acted for Sampson Baker in a case which is reported in Edward Coke's Book of Entries (Edward Coke (1614), A Booke of Entries). This case related to land in Leicestershire, which two Coventry merchants claimed should descend to them but which Sampson, through his attorney, argued was part of a larger quantity of land belonging to the Stafford family, and which Sampson held from them.

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). At this time Humphrey was described as then residing at the Charter-house near Coventre.

1593

Humphrey Baker was living in Shepey, Leicestershire (Mr Humfry Baker of Shepey (Sheepy) in Leicestershire) when John Craddock was examined (see above).

1604

There are Letters Denunciatory in the Lincolnshire archives indicating that Humphrey's wife, Bridget, was seeking a divorce or separation in October 1604. Humphrey was described as of Myeth, in the parish of Sheepy, Leicestershire.

1630

Humphrey Baker may have lived to or about 1630.