Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Thomas Baker

c1833 –18/02/1912

Cambridgeshire farmer who moved to Berkhamsted and became brewers' agent

Relatives

Jane Baker (661) — wife

• Melanie Hilton

Plot 661 Thomas Baker (c.1833-1912)

Thomas was born in about 1833 in the parish of Great St Mary, Cambridge, to William Baker and his wife Mary.

On the 2^nd November 1854 in the parish church of St Marylebone, London, he married Jane Todd, the daughter of James Todd, a master cheesemaker. As Thomas was a farmer in Stapleford, Cambridgeshire at the time it is tempting to think he might have met Jane when he was supplying milk to her father.

Thomas’s father William was also a farmer, at the Manor Farm in Little Shelford in Cambridgeshire. He farmed 400 acres and employed twenty four men and two live-in domestic servants.

Thomas and Jane had their first child, Amy Mary, in 1856 in Stapleford. She was joined in 1860 by Lucy Ellen, and the Bakers had probably moved by then to Church Farm, Barton, Cambridgeshire, where they were living in 1861 and where Thomas farmed 330 acres and employed fourteen men and eleven boys. The rest of their six children were born at Barton.

Thomas was still farming there at the time of the 1871 census, however in April 1881 the census records him at Whitwell Farm, Barton, but states: “No occupation. Formerly farmer of University Farm, 330 acres. Farm to let.”

Thomas had clearly decided to give up farming because the 1891 Census records him living at Cowper Road, Berkhamsted with Jane and their son Cecil and his occupation is given as “Brewer’s agent”. Also present on census night were Gertrude, now married, with her daughter, and son Thomas, a sailor.

All the children had left home by March 1901 and Jane and Thomas were living at “St Ives”, Charles Street with a resident general servant. Thomas recorded his occupation as “Brewer’s manager.”

In May 1903 Jane died aged 69 and at some point Thomas moved to Newbury, Berkshire, where in April 1911 he was living “on his own means” in two rooms in the centre of town.

Thomas died in Newbury in February 1912 and was brought back to Berkhamsted to be laid to rest here with Jane.

Jane Baker (661)

1834 –25/05/1903

Wife of Thomas Baker

Relatives

Thomas Baker — husband

• Melanie Hilton

Jane (nêe Todd) Baker (c.1834-1912)

Jane was born in about 1834 in Kensington, London, to James and Hannah Todd. James, originally from Barnard Castle, Co. Durham, was a master cheesemonger and clearly running a substantial business as by 1851 he was employing his two sons and four other men in the business and could afford a resident housekeeper.

Jane married Thomas Baker, a Cambridgeshire farmer, at Marylebone parish church, the second of November 1854.

At first Jane and Thomas lived at his farm in Stapleford, Cambridgeshire, first and their daughter Amy Mary was born there in 1856. Shortly after that they moved to a farm in Barton, Cambridgeshire where the rest of their children were born: Thomas Todd, Minnie Jane, William Errington, Gertrude Annie, Lizzie Grace and Harold Cecil (or Henry Cecil).

By 1881 Thomas had decided to give up farming and the census for that year records him as having “No occupation. Formerly farmer of University Farm, 330 acres. Farm to let.”

They moved to Berkhamsted and in 1891Thomas was working as a brewer’s agent. They lived in Cowper Road with Cecil who was still at school.

By 1901 they had moved to “St Ives”, Charles Street, where they employed a live-in servants, perhaps because Jane’s health was failing. She died in May 1905.

After Jane’s death Thomas moved to Newbury in Berkshire, dying there in 1912. He was laid to rest here with her.