Sheriff John Baker
of St Marys Cittie

John Baker, Innkeeper of St. Mary's City

According to historians at St. Mary's City, John Baker first immigrated to St. Mary's in 1665, quite possibly from Virginia. They go on to state that in 1673, John Baker was awarded 50 acres for his service to the Province of Maryland. He married the widow of Edward Bateman and she had one son by John Baker, John Baker Jr. John Baker purchased the ordinary at Saint Marys City from Daniel Jennifer who resettled at Gargatha on the Eastern Shore where the third generation of our line, John Baker, grandson of the first John Baker, settled.

After purchasing the ordinary, Baker established quite a bit of property near Saint Marys and on the Eastern Shore becoming quite wealthy.

We believe that John Baker descended in some manner from the family of the first John Baker of the Eastern Shore and Shirley Hundred, probably a son of Hugh Baker or William Baker of Saint Marys City. It is possible William Baker, whose will he settled, was his uncle, the same William Baker we spotted down on the James River in Virginia. We could never prove it, but there was a large number of links between the sheriff and the Bakers of Shirley Hundred, and then the most significant link was that the sheriff purchased the ordinary from Daniel Jennifer who established the community at Gargatha.

John owned BAKERS CHOICE on Mill Street in St. Mary's which was adjacent to Governor William Stone, formerly of Northampton. In fact, William Stone managed the exact property on which the first John Baker was declared a head right in 1626 by William Eppes. Eppes was a friend of Stone and asked him to manage his property on the Eastern Shore.

Sheriff John Baker patented GROVE (500 acres) by 1682, patented SHEELES in 1682 (512 acres), and BURFORDS HOPE (500 acres) in 1685. Baker received a gift from Thomas Greenfield in 1679.

John Baker of St. Mary's patented 500 acres called SHADWELL in 1685 on the Choptank River in Dorchester County, Maryland. SHADWELL had been granted by Daniel Jennifer who we later find as the original owner of BAKERS FARM in Gargatha which is located in Accomack County, Virginia and a neighbor to William Stone on the Potomac River after his retirement as Governor.

Jennifer was a witness to the will of George Parker of Accomack in 1673, and Parker sold 400 acres of the land known as BAKERS FARM to a John Baker in 1694. Jennifer was the overseer of the will of Southy Littleton in 1679 of Maggoty Bay in Northampton County (Va.) who the children of the 1st John Baker had been his guardian.

The sheriff's son, John Baker, was sheriff in 1685 and 1686, a Justice in 1699. James Cullen of St. Mary's mentioned John Baker and Captain Thomas Allen in his will of 1684.

[Major Arthur Allen (W1710) of Isle of Wight, Virginia married Katherine Baker (D/O Lawrence Baker) of Surry Virginia. Lawrence Baker is related to Mary Baker who married Robert Brooke of St. Mary's.]

The immigration records show that John Baker, wife Joan, and children John Baker, Sarah Baker, and Margaret Baker all were recorded as immigrating into Maryland in 1665. The historians at St. Marys don't explain this and perhaps are at odds with the 1968 book by Skordas, The Early Settlers of Maryland.

In 1679, John Baker Jr. of St. Mary's County (wife Mary Courtney, daughter of Thomas Courtney [W1705]) patented land on the south side of the Choptank River in Dorchester County on Hunting Creek. This John Baker had married the sister of Nicholas Courtney and inherited the land from her and assigned it to Nicholas Painter.

The sheriff's wife, Elizabeth Baker (will August 21, 1712), was indicated in 1687 as the relict of John Baker of St. Mary's with Thomas Garrison and John Lufflin in a long document mentioned Garret Van Sweringen, Major Thomas Beale, and Alexander Clocker. Elizabeth Baker of St. Mary's left son John Baker CROSS NECK and her part of BLISTON NECK. She was the widow of John Baker, Innkeeper.

Key Notes:

Regarding Elizabeth and others, here are a series of interesting notes:

• Elizabeth Baker (B1632) was mentioned in a case in Northumberland witnessed by Thomas Ballard in Northumberland in 1653. Charles Ballard of both Somerset and St. Mary's left a large estate of £494 18:08, and his widow Sarah Ballard married Stephen Luffin of Somerset County. The witness was John Goldsmith. Goldsmith's son, William Goldsmith, was appointed guardian of the children of Dr. George Hack. The Hack children received a gift of a calf each from Edward Baker (D1664) who left two orphans, Edward and Elizabeth Baker. [Edward Baker was the son of John Baker (1604-1654.] On March 3 1707, Thomas Beale of St. Mary's, William Goldsmith and his wife Elizabeth, executor of Robert Ridgeley of St. Mary's, assigned to George Hutchins of Somerset the land tract BELLAINE on east side of the Choptank River and the Wicomico River near Koons Bank. In another Somerset land record, "Elizabeth relict of John Baker of St. Mary was bond with Thomas Harrison and John Lufflin" and this mentioned Garret Van Swearingem. Jonathan Beale of St. Marys in 1677 was married to a Rebecca Baker.
• In 1665, an Elizabeth Baker came into Somerset County with Capt. Charles Ballard who claimed 50 acres of land as a head right. Traveling with her party were William Johnson, Robert Dix, Purnell Jones, Joseph Harrison, and Diana Gidley. Harrison had been a 1653 head right of Richard Smythe, neighbor of George Hack. It's possible that Elizabeth Baker was the daughter of Edward Baker of Accomack.
• Thomas Baker's son, Thomas Baker was married to Martha Britt, the daughter of George Britt (W1704) on September 5, 1684 in St. Marys City. She remarried John Harrison (D1687). John Baker appraised the estate for Thomas Baker.
• Elizabeth Baker, widow of Hugh Baker (D1664) of St. Marys County married Robert Davis and resettled sometime after in Gargatha, Virginia. John Baker, grandson of John Baker (circa 1604- circa 1656 purchased GARGATHA in 1696. Robert Davis's grandson was a Warden at St. Martens Church in Worcester County, the same church and time that Solomon Baker was sextant. Both were even involved in the development of Prince George's Chapel in Sussex County. Solomon Baker was the great grandson of Hugh Baker (D1664) of Northampton!
• Daniel Jennifer sat on the council in St. Mary's in 1656 with a John Baker. In 1673, Jennifer administered the will of Devoreau Brown, whose widow remarried Col. John Custis of Arlington Plantation in Northampton and then Col. Edward Hill of Charles City County who was the Chief Executive of St. Marys County in 1648. Custis lived adjacent to the grandson of John Baker (circa 1604- circa 1656; and Hill lived adjacent to property owned by John Baker (circa 1604- circa 1656. Brown had claimed head rights for Daniel Baker, son of John Baker (circa 1604- circa 1656 and Griffin Savage. Jennifer was the overseer of the will of Southy Littleton in 1679 of Maggoty Bay and whose father also was a friend of the Bakers. Griffin Savage was a neighbor to Robert Davis and George Parker, and witnessed Parker's will in 1673. Daniel St. Thomas Jennifer we later will find as the original owner of BAKERS FARM in Gargatha and a neighbor to William Stone on the Potomac River.
• George Parker appeared in Accomack in 1649 and was an Accomack neighbor of Robert Davis , who claimed headrights on the Rappahanock River in 1665 for fifty two people which included a Jonathan Baker. Robert Davis married Elizabeth Baker, the widow of Hugh Baker (D1664) of St. Marys County.
• George Parker and Jonathan Barnes patented GARGATHY INLETT in 1682. Barnes remained in Gargathy, lived next to Daniel Jennifer, and his descendants married into the Baker descendants. John Barnes is important because his name also appeared in St. Marys County in various wills with the Bakers such as Caleb Baker, and Mary Baker (B1682). (9) George Evelyn and Henry Fleet both had major properties adjacent to Sheriff Baker's BAKERS CHOICE. Both had been associated with the Bakers on the upper James River and both were associated with the Kent Island affair, and Richard, Thomas, Andrew, and Alexander Baker.

  Indentured servants to Clobery and Co.: Jonathan Ayscue, Edward Deering, Andrew Baker, Thomas Baker, William Williamson, John Hatch, Philip West, John Dandy, and John Hobson, all taken to Maryland to the Manor of Evelington. The Miss Sara and Elizabeth had brought most of these people in February of 1637.
  
  Cosmographer Alexander Baker also was at Kent Island, but he came via a different avenue. He was the assistant to Lieutenant Robert Evelyn, George Evelyn's brother, when Thomas Young sent them to explore the Delaware Bay in 1634. Young and Evelyn left most of his men in an empty Dutch fort and the Dutch returned and took them as captives back to Manhattan and later they were returned to Governor Harvey in Virginia.