Our ancestor, John Baker, came to Virginia on the “Ann” in 1623 and he was a replacement at the Virginia Company plantation at the tip of the Eastern Shore. Two others with him on the ship were also replacements, three of ten replacements to replace the ten men who had died before them, as they had suffered fifty percent mortality at the company plantation since the first men had arrived some eighteen months before. The company plantation was located on Old Plantation Creek on land that once had belonged to Governor Thomas Dale in compensation for the time and effort he had given the Virginia Company from 1611 to 1616 before he returned to England with the Indian princess, Pocahontas.
DALES GIFT was the name of the stockaded community established on the Eastern shore and the smallest of the first six settlements established in 1614 by Sir Thomas Dale, the Marshall of Virginia. The men sent here here in 1614 were primarily responsible to report any Spanish ships entering the Chesapeake Bay, but also responsible for providing fish to the colony as well as "boiled salt" from ocean water. On a trip to London in June of 1616 with Sir Thomas Dale, John Rolfe described the Eastern Shore settlement as "Dales Gift". "Dales Gift" was thought to be a gift to the wife of Sir Thomas Dale, Lady Elizabeth Throckmorton Dale (D1640), whose brother and cousins established the famous BERKELEY PLANTATION across the James River from other property that Governor Thomas Dale had been assigned by the Virginia Company. Dale's other land was on the upper James River at City Point. It is unclear if Lady Dale ever visited her property on the Eastern Shore. Her estate was settled in England in 1641 at Westminster, Middlesex by William Shrimpton and Eastern Shore resident Richard Hamby. Hamby had sailed to Virginia in 1635 aboard the ASSURANCE with Hangate Baker.
John Baker was an indentured servant contracted to work for the Virginia Company and listed in the 1624 Eastern Shore muster of Captain William Eppes, the military commander of the Eastern Shore. Baker was one of only seventy colonial settlers in that census, and the 1625 census would record only about fifty settlers, twenty less than the previous year, many having been victims of the "Virginia disease". Even though the death rate was high on the Eastern Shore, near Jamestown, the death rate was much higher and the differential was one reason there were discussions to relocate the capitol of the colony to the Eastern Shore.
In May of 1619, the Virginia Company, a public stock company, agreed to find and send a contingent of ninety strong and healthy men to Virginia. At the same time, the decision was made to put a detachment of company men at the tip of the Eastern Shore and their mission was to provide an early warning detection against a Spanish invasion, while providing fish and salt to the colony by "boiling" salt from sea water.
After some administrative delays, at the age of nineteen, Baker sailed to Virginia on the "Ann". Sailing with Baker and joining him in the Eppes muster were Thomas Warden (B1599) and Edward Rogers (B1597). These two, plus fellow muster mate, William Mumms, would appear together on the upper James River with John Baker a decade later.
Commander William Eppes was from Ashford in Kent, England, the same town where the father of Sir Thomas Smythe retired. Smythe was the Treasurer and in effect, the chief executive officer of the Virginia Company.
In the census of 1624, John Baker was listed indentured to Captain William Eppes, along with twelve others, in this case they were indentured employees of the Virginia Company, and they lived near the tip of the Eastern Shore at what was known as DALES GIFT. In the 1624 muster, there were registered only 19 buildings in the entire "Eastern Shore" colony, and Eppes was at the palisades fort on Old Plantation Creek with two dwelling houses, 3 store houses, 2 shallops, and one boat with oars listed for his own muster of 25 people. Eppes' wife Margaret had sailed to Virginia in 1621 aboard the GEORGE. In the census of 1624, Margaret Eppes and brother Peter Eppes were both living with Captain Eppes.
Captain William Eppes and the rest of his crew, including John Baker and William Mumms, were registered again in the census of 1625, but the total population had declined from 70 to roughly 51 people in that twelve months. Can you imagine the isolation in those first years? The average settler only had two sets of clothing; there were no stores to buy food or merchandise, no emergency facilities!
The following year, on February 3, 1626, Captain William Eppes made claim to Sir George Yeardley for 450 acres on the "Easterne Shoare of the Bay of Chesepeiacke, nere unto the plantation of Accomacke on the mouth of Kings Creek" for the transport of nine men: including John Baker (Barker), Edward Rogers, and Thomas Warden who all arrived on the "Ann" in 1623 and served under Eppes in the colonial muster on Old Plantation Creek. This was for Eppes' own plantation, which sat on King's Creek and backed onto Old Plantation Creek. In this land patent request, "John Baker" would be referred to as "John Barker" beginning a three-generation period where the Bakers were alternatively referred to as Barker.
Captain William Eppe's assignment to the Eastern Shore came after he was appointed commander of Smythe's Hundred Plantation near Jamestown but the hotheaded Eppes was reassigned after he had killed one of his own men. Eppes was sailing down the James River to Smythe's Hundred in a storm when his man grounded their ship, and Eppes belted the man over the head with his sword still in the scabbard, cleaving open his skull. In 1628, Eppes had again created some more problems when he sent Lieutenant Thomas Savage head over heels in a fist fight. Savage was well liked and respected as he was the first white man to live on the shore and had been sent earlier in his career by Sir Thomas Dale to live among the Indians and learn their language and customs. Visit the Eppes page
Captain Eppes was replaced as commander in 1628 by Captain Thomas Graves, who had replaced him once before at Smythe's Hundred. Eppes was reassigned to Saint Christopher's Island, where in 1630 he sat upon the governing council. Rum and sugar plantations were beginning to ship product back to England and becoming successful, and buccaneers were attracted to the Caribbean.
He returned in 1630 to Ashford in Kent. On July 18, 1633, Captain William Eppes wrote to "Lovinge friend William Stone now by ... bound in the goos ship "Loyalte" of London to the Eastern Shor of Chisapond Bay to seize and re-enter all my said land". Captain William Eppes was involved in another legal problem in England in 1639 and was planning to leave England but died by 1640.
Captain Thomas Graves was born in England in 1617 and raised his children in Old Abingdon Parish. His daughter Verlinda married Eppes's friend Captain William Stone and they lived on "Old Mans Neck" on nearby Hungars Creek for almost twenty years. The other daughter, Ann, married Reverend William Cotton who patented 350 acres and lived across the creek from brother-in-law William Stone. Graves other daughter, Katherine, married William Roper whose first wife we believe was the sister of Captain William Eppes.
William Stone patented 1,800 acres in Northampton on June 4, 1635 between Hungars Creek and Mattamone, west on the bayside, with his brother Andrew Stone and 34 persons including Matthew Scarborough and Thomas Smith. William Stone was from Northamptonshire, England and came to the Eastern Shore in 1628 where he was the first sheriff of Northampton in 1632. In 1633 Stone rented one of Eppes properties for £300 of tobacco. Stone managed Eppes land for over ten years and lived in Northampton County. An interesting note is that Captain William Eppes's wife Margaret Eppes sailed to Virginia in 1621 on the GEORGE with John Stone, Governor William Stone's father. In 1648, Stone was selected by Oliver Cromwell to become the third Governor of Maryland and owned 5,250 acres.
It appeared to us that the three muster mates; Baker, and Warden all had similiar roots and ties to the Eppes family in Ashford and New Romney, Kent. Mumms was also a name we found in the New Romney region of Kent. A John Baker of Brookland married Joanne Eppes (D1580). In 1580, William Eppes, uncle of Captain William Eppes mentioned names of tenants on his property and they were John Baker of BROOKLAND, John Stringer, John Robyns of Lydd, as well as John Wilcock and Edward Fowle... all family names appearing in Northampton, Virginia!
Then in the 1630s, to add fuel to that idea, John Baker reappeared near City Point on the James River as a headright of Francis Eppes, younger brother of William Eppes. Thomas Warden was also listed in the 1633 land patent of Colonel Francis Eppes, and by 1636 Edward Rodgers/Rogers was also living on land that had once belonged to Thomas Jordan near City Point at present day Hopewell. Later Col. Gerrard Fowke of Lynnhaven assigned Edward Rogers 600 acres on October 14, 1665 on the south side of the Potomac, and Fowke claimed a headright for Elizabeth Baker in 1664 on this Potomac property. John Barker and John Fowke were listed as business partners in 1627 with Matthew Craddock.
William Mumms (1600-1657) came to Virginia on the SAMPSON in 1619 with three more men who served with him in the Eastern Shore muster; Henry Wilson, Nicholas Sumerfield (B1610), and James Blackborne (B1604). Mumms' daughter would marry John Baker's son and establish the union from which this writer descends. In 1639, a land patent by Richard Johnson at the "Neck of Land" adjacent to City Point for 350 acres included head rights for William Mumms. John Baker's land was also near "Neck of Land" on the upper James River. The Mumms name did not appear on the Eastern Shore again until 1643, which means that this was probably the approximate date William Mumms returned to Northampton County. During the 1630s, at least four of the men from the Eastern Shore muster of William Eppes were neighbors of his younger brother, Francis Eppes, commander of the upper James River.
John Baker reappeared on the upper James River, which at that time was another Virginia Company outpost commanded by the younger brother of Captain William Eppes, Francis Eppes. There was an attempt beginning after 1626 to claim the upper James given up after the 1624 massacre, and this became a serious effort early in the 1630s. Land records of the upper James River in 1626 reveal some interesting developments: William Craddock, the 1614 military commander of the Eastern Shore, was now living on the upper James River near City Point as was Henry Bagwell who later became a key official in the development of Northampton County. John Baker would marry the daughter of resident and Burgess Captain Thomas Palmer, and later the daughter of another resident and Burgess, Sergeant John Harris.
Above City Point but below the falls on the James River were other Eppes muster residents Richard Bolton and John Blower who both became Northampton landowners. It would seem that some of the men assigned to the "Secretary's Land" on the Eastern Shore were reassigned to the upper James sometime in the 1630s.
We found John Baker near the confluence of the Appomattox and James Rivers in present day Hopewell, City Point.
In 1633, the younger brother of William Eppes, Colonel Francis Eppes, was the commander of the upper James River and in 1635 he patented 1,700 acres of land on the south side of the Appomattox River in "Charles Citte" in Shirley Hundred listing "Jon Baker" as a headright of Francis Eppes. Eppes received this land as head rights for his three sons and thirty servants he claimed to transport to Virginia. This land was adjacent to land owned by Lady Dale, widow of Sir Thomas Dale.
Captain Francis Eppes, 1700 acres in the county of Charles on August 26, 1635, east upon (Thomas) Bayly his creek, south into the maine land, west upon Cason his creek, up Appamattuck River, north upon the maine river. Fifty acres for his personal adventure and 1650 acres for transport of three sons; and thirty servants: The 1700 acres was granted on August 26, 1635 by Captain John West for Francis Eppes, his three sons Jonathan, Francis, and Thomas Eppes, and thirty servants; Jonathan Long, Jonathan Baker, Thomas Warden, Jonathan Joyce, Thomas Jones, Thomas Cropp, Richard Stayle, Richard Huett, George Addams, Sarah Hickmore, Thomas Pattison, Anthony Box, Jonathan Ellison, Barthomolew Swinborne, Silvester Atkins, Robert Fosset, James Rowland, Ann Turner, George Archer, Hugh James, Jonathan Nowells, Richard Litchfield, Edward Ames, Susan Mills, James Long Bashaw, Juliana, Andrea, Maydelina, Cessent. Of these John Baker and George Archer became major landowners.
Francis Eppes patented land adjoined Nathaniel Tatum in 1635 next to "land owned by John Baker on the Appomattox River" at the confluence of the Appomattox and James Rivers. This implies Baker was well established by 1635, and the head right of Francis Eppes may have implied a return trip to England to return with his wife. This was the same muster as that of John and Dorothy Harris, parents of John Baker's third wife.
By 1635, we know that John Baker was established on the Appomattox River on property that was periodically used as a reference point to describe neighboring property. The majority of Baker's land (550 acres) was rewarded on January 2, 1633 for transporting eight people to Virginia, and this included a Hugh Baker. By 1637, he had have made formal claim for land totaling almost 950 acres. He made claim on January 2, 1633 for 550 acres and again in November 20, 1637 in Charles City County for and additional 150 acres: 50 acres for right of wife Priscilla Palmer, 50 acres gift from his mother in law Joan Palmer, 50 acres for his own adventure, 50 acres for the personal adventure of late wife Alyce Baker, 50 acres for now wife Dorothy (Harris) and 400 acres for 8 persons; Katherine Henborne, Michael Tibbs, Robert Squire, Jonathan Clason, Anthony Lee, Jervis Dick, Alice Drewrye, Hugh Baker.
We could find little information on the people that John Baker subsequently claimed as head rights: Jervis Dick we found in a Charles County deposition in 1653, a Richard Squyre was the great uncle of a John Baker, Anthony Lee was born 1614 and came on the ASSURANCE in 1635 along with John Baker (B1613), Hangate Baker (B1613), Margerie Baker (B1596), Lawrence Baker (B1609), and Elizabeth Baker (B1615). Hangate Baker continued to reappear near descendants of John Baker.
In 1639, we also found a land patent in Henrico at the "Neck of Land" near John Baker by Richard Johnson for 350 acres including head rights for William Mumms. This is important because Mumms had been assigned to the same muster on the Eastern Shore and his daughter Mary Mumms married John Baker's son Hugh Baker.
John Baker had claimed 50 acres as a head right for John Baldwin in 1636 at Varinae, about five miles up the James River from his property at City Point. A John Baldwin we later found in Northampton County on the old company land where John Baker had served. Baldwin married Mary Wilkins, daughter of John Wilkins who we later find with the Baker descendants. John Baker then patented 250 acres in 1637 in Varinae upon Two Mile Creek. He claimed head rights for John Clarke, Morgan Watkins, John Mills, and Elizabeth Wright. Apparently John Baker was in partnership with William Dawkes son of Ancient Planter John Dawkes.
John Baker was a neighbor to Seth Ward, Richard Ward, Henry Miller, Joseph Bourne, Robert Craddock, Luke Boyes, Nathaniel Tatum, Captain John Davis, William Farrar, and Thomas Parker. Farrar had patented his land in the gleabe of Varinae on June 11, 1637 and claimed head rights for 40 persons including Jonathan Baker and William Baker. John Baker sold in 1636, 150 acres of land to William Pierce and Francis Pierce in Henrico County bounding a creek known as "Roundabout". The Roundabout is on Turkey Island Creek near Baker's property in Varinae. Captain William Pierce had been the commander of Jamestown and lived at Bakers Point on Mulberry Island where a William Baker was indentured to him in 1624. William Perry claimed head rights for both Jonathan and William Baker on Turkey Island in this exact period which leads us to speculate that both William Baker and John Baker, both indentured, were brothers who both came to Virginia in 1621 and both were assigned to military commanders. [Read about the close relationship with the Bakers of Maryland beginning here at Turkey Island.]
Note that John Baker was established at City Point in 1633, yet Francis Eppes declared a headright for John Baker in 1635 as did Thomas Causey claim headrights for ten people on July 14, 1637 including the headright for a Jonathan Barker. Was this the same person? With a population in the entire area of 40-60 people, is it possible that five of them could be a Jonathan or John Baker or Barker?
We believe that John Baker may have become a mariner like his sons. Certainly it would account for his multiple declarations for head rights. We do know that a John Baker of London was the master of the ELIZABETH in 1631, and the ABRAHAM in 1635.
Baker's land was near the Bermuda Hundred outpost settled by Dale in 1613. His land sat back from the confluence of the James and Appomattox Rivers probably near where the present day bridge spans the Appomattox, an area where his father-in-law Thomas Palmer had been commander.
Lady Elizabeth Dale (Widow of Sir Thomas Dale) also owned land in Charles City County adjoining Francis Eppes and John Baker just as she had owned land on the Eastern Shore where the Muster of the Eastern Shore was located. It is interesting that John Baker is always very near a Thomas Dale land holding!
Baker's probable first wife was Alice who he mentioned Alice in his land patent but she would have been dead by 1637 when he formally made claim to the land patent. The fact that he claimed 50 acres of land for her would imply that he paid for her passage. We believe Baker might have returned to England, married, and brought Alice with him when he returned.
His second wife was Priscilla Palmer, ten years his junior. Priscilla's father Thomas Palmer was a member of the Burgess. Thomas and Joanne Palmer were listed in Hotten's muster census of 1624 near the confluence of the "Appomattox and James Rivers". Thomas Palmer is thought to have been Sir Thomas Palmer (D1625) who was the father of sons Thomas Palmer and Roger Palmer. Son Roger had been the cupbearer to Prince Henry, a friend of Sir Thomas Dale. The young Prince had personally requested Thomas Dale to come to Virginia. His brother Thomas Palmer married the daughter of Sir John Shirley of Isfield in Sussex, niece of Cecelia Shirley and Thomas West, Lord de la Warr.
Finally, on November 20, 1637, the same day he made claim to his land patents, John Baker married Dorothy Harris (B1620), the daughter of Virginia resident Sergeant John Harris who possibly had participated in the Roanoke Voyages. We believe that Baker married her in England and transported her to Virginia. Dorothy was the first cousin of Sir Thomas Smythe, the first Treasurer of the Virginia Company, and also named overseer of the will of Governor Dale. A Dorothy Baker was transported in 1635 to Virginia on the AMERICA, commanded by Captain William Barker, with several others, however this predates the marriage date listed in William Thompson Baker's book.
On October 14, 1638, "John Baker and Dorothy his wife, daughter of the late deceased Sergeant John Harris have surrendered as of August 27, 1638 unto land of Captain Francis Derrick all the right and title which they claim was the right of the late George Cawcott" and witnessed by Lawrence Hulett and John Owell. Francis Derrick deeded 30 acres of land to Richard Johnson and mentioned that Dorothy Baker was given this land by Mr. George Calwott of James City County. Johnson is important because he, Jonathan Baker and William Baker were head rights of William Farrar in Varinae on the James, and Richard Johnson later made claim for a head right for William Mumms whose daughter married Hugh Baker, son of John Baker.
It mentioned that John Baker and his wife Dorothy, daughter of the late Sergeant John Harris, have by court order surrender land deeded to Dorothy by the will of George Cawcott of James City County. Perhaps Cawott had been Dorothy's first husband but she was only seventeen when she married Baker. Sergeant Harris attended the same church in England as William Claiborne who attempted to develop and claim Kent Island in the upper Chesapeake Bay as a Virginia colony rather than a Maryland colony. Claiborne recruited a Richard Baker and Hangate Baker and other men from Northampton County to assist him in that endeavor, and Claiborne's daughter married Dorothy Harris's cousin! His number two was Lt. George Evelin with his own ties to the Bakers.
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On March 10, 1655, Daniel Lewellin of Essex in Charles City County sold 60 acres of land to Col. Edward Hill "Lately purchased of Dorothy Baker on which I lately lived ... provided always and it is agreed upon me and said Col. Hill that the said Hill shall keepe the housing free for the entertainment of one Mr. Thomas Noathway for and during the term and time of seven years. ..." Note that this date is less than two weeks after the Battle of the Severn! Lewellin's daughter had married the son of Reverand Richard Jones, the cleryman who helped William Claiborne establish Kent Island in Maryland, and Lewellin married John Baker's daughter Ann.
We found this intriguing entry in the Maryland records that in 1679, Sheriff John Baker acquired a 25-year lease for house and one acre from Governor Thomas Notley (governor 1674-1675) which was for the location of the ordinary in Saint Marys City. Was this why the Baker records suddenly went blank, Dorothy Baker moved, the children were not recipients of large estate of John Baker? The will of the very wealthy Robert Ridgeley (W 1682) of Saint Marys City mentioned that debtors (along with many others) were Hugh Baker, Henry Baker, John Baker, and John Lewellin. John Lewellin had been at TURKEY ISLAND as had Thomas Beale, the man hired by to manage the ordinary owned by sheriff John Baker. What is important about Ridgeley is that Thomas Beale, John Baker, Thomas Baker, and Elizabeth Baker who had married Robert Ridgeley Junior and, along with William Goldsmith had jointly settled an estate inherited by Ridgeley Junior from his father. That estate, settled in 1707, was called BELLAINE, and was clustered on the Nanticoke River near Issac Baker of Sunsetting and granted to George Hutchins. Located very near was SHADWELL granted by Daniel Jennifer of St Marys City to sheriff John Baker and eventually taken over by Charles Hutchins. Again, it appears that Hugh Baker and sheriff John Baker were related, and of course, Daniel Jennifer is the person who married Anne Toft and developed Gargatha! |
Colonel Edward Hill is important in the story because he eventually married Tabitha Brown Custis who was from Arlington House Plantation, which was at the location of the original Eastern Shore muster. Hill's first land patent was in Charles City County in 1638, with additional land patents along the Rappahannock by 1655, and a neighbor of Mrs. Aston on Turkey Island in 1660. There were two Edward Hills, father and son, and both served as Speaker of the House of Burgesses.
Sergeant Harris's brother, Thomas Harris, was an "antient planter" and neighbor to Richard Pace and Richard Baker in Charles City County at "Neck of Land" prior to the census of 1624. Richard Baker is apparently related to John Baker. Later, Thomas Harris was a neighbor to John Harris across the James River near Shirley. Dorothy had a brother named Thomas Harris. In 1658, a Thomas Harris claimed John Hardy as a headright in Isle of Wight, and in 1666, Hardy claimed Joanne Baker, Henry Baker, and Charles Baker as head rights in Isle of Wight. Robert Harris, son of Thomas Harris, married Mary Claiborne, daughter of Colonel William Claiborne.
| John BUTLER | ||
| | Thomas Butler | |Elizabeth Butler = William Claiborne | Thomas Harros |
| | Elizabeth Butler = John BAKER | | Mary Claiborne = Robert Harris |
John Baker was thought to have been a tobacco inspector in 1653. However, there can be little doubt that Baker would have been involved in the harvesting of tobacco at the Eppes plantation on the Eastern Shore, and then along the upper James. After all, John Rolfe developed America tobacco right there on the upper James at Henricus, which was just above and in sight of John Baker’s land. Rolfe sent his first crop to England in 1615 and by 1619, Virginia tobacco had surpassed the tobacco supplied to England by Spain. Baker could not have avoided the excitement of this new source of income.
John Baker died in or before 1655 because Dorothy was mentioned again as his relict on March 10, 1655. Dorothy Baker may have remarried after John Baker's death. In his book about the Bakers, William Thompson Baker was of the opinion that Dorothy Baker, her children, and new husband, Major John Bond, resettled in Isle of Wight County on Ward's Creek.
William Thompson Baker said in his book there was so much to write about Baker that he could not put it in this book, writing, " John Baker...was a large landholder and an important man in the early history of Virginia". This is an interesting fifteen-year transition for John Baker, from indentured servant under Captain William Eppes, to major James River landholder. This book by William Thompson Baker, The Bakers of Virginia and the South, is at the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, Virginia.
William Thompson Baker was of the opinion that Dorothy Baker, her children, and new husband, Major John Bond, resettled in Isle of Wight County on Ward's Creek. Since Isle of Wight is just downriver from Hopewell, and the Appomattox River runs down to Blackwater Swamp, this concept doesn't seem unreasonable. We did find evidence of a John Barker Jr., son of Captain William Barker of Flourdieu Plantation, patenting 600 acres of land in Isle of Wight on October 15, 1657, towards the end of the hostilities between the Maryland Catholics and the Puritans. Something strange happened as none of John Baker's children inherited any of the land he patented.
Major John Bond was a neighbor of Dr. George Clarke along the Wicomico in 1658, patented 3,000 acres in Isle of Wight with John Clarke, and patented land with Jonathan Bird along the Rappahannock. John Baker's son, Edward Baker, named George Clarke as a friend in his will of 1664. Bond was a landholder in Isle of Wight, and upon the Rappahannock and Wicomico Rivers in Northumberland where we had some brief mentions of mariner Edward Baker. Then John Bond appeared again as a headright of Col. Robert Pitts in 1664 in Isle of Wight County. Pitts was commander of the ship MARY on which Edward Baker, son of John Baker, had written his will in 1664. Pitts later settled on the Maryland/Virginia line on the Eastern Shore near Thomas Baker, nephew of Edward Baker. In 1656, Dorothy Bond sold land of her deceased husband, Major John Bond to Joseph Bridger who was the brother-in-law of Robert Pitts. Bridger's daughter Judith Bridger married Richard Baker, son of Lt. Col. Henry Baker. In the 1678 will of Major John Bond, it mentions that the land was purchased of Robert Pitts. Since Major John Bond died by 1656, a son, Major John Bond and a grandson who died in Somerset County, Maryland ollowed him.
We believe the Richard Baker of Baker's Plantation on the upper James River is Richard Baker, Mariner, and probably a brother or cousin. We also believe both George Baker and William Baker reported in land grants on Turkey Island are immediate relatives. Mariner Edward Baker reported in Turkey Island grants we believe to be Baker's son Edward.
Possibly, John Baker was the same person as John Barker, son of Captain William Barker of Merchant's Hope. This would explain why Baker felt that he was so well reported, and this writer has had so much trouble finding information. The 1st John Baker was reported both as John Baker and John Barker in various documents. In fact, current reference documents show John Baker and John Barker as the same person for the William Eppes muster. Although Baker mentioned at the beginning of his book about how Barker and Baker names get intermingled, it would seem that Baker would have mentioned that our John Baker is better known as John Barker.
Earlier work completed by Lewis on the Eastern Shore has shown John Baker to be the father of Hugh Baker, Susanna Baker, Daniel Baker, John Baker Jr., and Edward Baker. In that work, there was an absence of information from the 1625 census to the death of Hugh Baker in 1664.
Father John Baker claimed a headright for transporting Hugh Baker, one of eight, to the Virginia colonies. This would mean that father John Baker most likely fathered Hugh Baker in England probably just before coming to Virginia, which is in keeping with my theory that John Baker accompanied Captain William Eppes to St. Christopher's Island and then returned to England with Eppes at the conclusion of his indenture, or perhaps John Baker sailed back to St. Christopher's Island and caught a ship to England. The Caribbean then had an English population larger than all of Virginia. Click here to go to Hugh Baker
The will of William Mumms was written on Feb. 26, 1657 and registered in Northampton County on May 10, 1658. Mumms made reference to his daughter Mary Mumms and her husband Hugh Baker, and mentioned their minor children Thomas Baker, William Baker, John Baker, and Jone Baker. (Indicating that Mary Baker must have been born after that 1657 date.) It also mentioned his two cows, one of which was in possession of Hugh Baker. The page is missing but it appeared he may have a sister named Jone, and a daughter-in-law who was named Hester Berry. A Robert Berry was in the area at that time.
Her father, William Mumms (1600-1657), came to Virginia on the SAMPSON in 1619 with Henry Wilson, Nicholas Sumerfield (B1610), and James Blackborne (B1604) who were listed as indentured servants with Mumms and John Baker at the Eastern Shore plantation muster in 1624. In 1639, a land patent in Henrico at the "neck of Land" by Richard Johnson for 350 acres included head rights for William Mumms. It is interesting that Richard Johnson was in the 1624 muster of William Farrar at Turkey Island who claimed head rights for Jonathon and William Baker in 1637. The Mumms name did not appear on the Eastern Shore again until 1643, which could mean that this was the same William Mumms who had gone up the James River with Baker, and then later returned to Northampton County.
Mumms (Mumm/Munn) is an unusual name but we found this name in Kent England in the same period, and in the general area as the Bakers of Brookland and not too distance from Eppes at Ashford. A William Mumms was born at CRANBROOK on September 28, 1589 which is within sight of John "Bloody Baker's Sissinghurst Castle.