Gideon Baker was the son of Thomas Baker and Thomas' wife Appolonia. He was born 1743 in Poughquag, New York and died 28 June 1825 in Mt. Tabor, Vermont. Gideon was a Loyalist at the time of the American Revolution. In 1781 he got involved in a political incident. Chief among the accused were Solomon Baker and Samuel Tid, "disaffected persons" who "did lurk secretlyin Pawlings Precinct being lately withdrawn from the enemies lines". Specifically how Gideon was involved is not known but he was a cousin of Solomon Baker and because of a petition made by him we know that he was imprisoned with the others. Solomon Baker, called "an important Loyalist" was hanged in Poughkeepsie in 1781. Gideon and others were held in jail until released for lack of evidence. Gideon petitioned the Governor for freedom saying:
To his excellency the Governor; Poughkeepsie Gaol September 13, 1781. I as a petitioner humbly beg your excellency's patience to hear my petition. I acknowledge I have not gone in the line which I ought to have done. It was not done with wish of reward or prejudice to my neighbors but out of safety to my self and family. Being ignorant concerning the laws in such matters and do therefore beg in humbleness of heart and soul your excellency's pardon for that breach of the law and will for the future be carefull to do everything that in my power lies to detect all things of that kind and that in my power lies, which resolution I do fully and freely determine to prosecute and do believe my officers are convinced of my sincerity in this matter and shall endeavor to git them to come down and declare their mind to your excellency concerning this matter. Begging your excellency will graciously pardon my offence so that I may return to my family which is in great difficulty on many accounts being large and helpless which makes me very oneasy on account of their poverty and distress so I might recommend these broken hearts of my family begging your excellency may take them into consideration.
Somehow that long final sentence sounds poignantly down the ages with the intensity of Gideon's worry, grief (and probably guilt) about the situation in which he had left his "large and helpless family.
We know that the first child of Gideon's second wife was born in 1783, only two years after the time spent in jail. Did his first wife, Mercy, die during this same period? His son, David, through whom the line descends was the fifth and final child of Mercy. David was born in 1775 in the Beekman Patent and although he may have gone to Vermont with his father, he married and lived in Peru, Clinton County, New York. I will discuss David Baker in the next post.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Ancestry of Lois Baker Smith: Part I
Lois Marie Baker Smith was born 1925 in Tampa, Florida and died 1971 in Northampton, Massachusetts. She married Marshall Kitchener Smith in 1947 and had five children; Dereka, Brian, Tamar, Sybil and Katherine Margaret. She was the daughter of Clarence and Madge (Clark) Baker and had one sibling, Charles Orville Baker (1929 - 2007).
The depth of my knowledge about the Baker line is not a match for its length. Four of the first five generations of Baker men in colonial America had wives whose maiden names are unknown and there are blanks in later generations as well.
Baker is a common name in America and there were many Baker families who came here in the early days. Our line is descended from Thomas Baker (1638 - 1710) who emigrated to Dedham but was in Newport, Rhode Island by 1653. By trade he was a tailor but he was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1655. It may safely be assumed that he left Massachusetts because his religious beliefs came in conflict with the Puritan theocracy in that state. In 1656 he and others left the First Baptist Church of Newport and formed a second congregation. In 1664 he left Newport for Kingston and formed a new church there. he was pastor of the Kingston church until his death in 1710, a period of some forty years.
The next three Baker men in the line were all named Thomas and the maiden names of their wives are not known. The third Thomas, grandson of the immigrant, moved with his family from Rhode Island to the part of present day New York known as The Beekman Patent. In 1741 he leased a farm of 218 acres in lot 9 of the Poughquag Purchase. This farm was located where the Green Haven Prison now stands, immediately adjacent to Route 84, a major highway in New York State. On my several trips past the prison I have thought of Thomas Baker and his family and how inconceivable they would find the changes. Perhaps there is some remote corner of the prison land where an old stream still runs, where the remnants of a wall may be found or where a line of hills in the horizon would be recognizable to them. Let it be so.
The fourth Thomas, son of the man who moved to New York, died in 1802 "somewhat stricken in years" and didn't leave much record but the same is not true of one of his sons, our ancestor Gideon Baker. I will leave Gideon for the next installment.
The depth of my knowledge about the Baker line is not a match for its length. Four of the first five generations of Baker men in colonial America had wives whose maiden names are unknown and there are blanks in later generations as well.
Baker is a common name in America and there were many Baker families who came here in the early days. Our line is descended from Thomas Baker (1638 - 1710) who emigrated to Dedham but was in Newport, Rhode Island by 1653. By trade he was a tailor but he was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1655. It may safely be assumed that he left Massachusetts because his religious beliefs came in conflict with the Puritan theocracy in that state. In 1656 he and others left the First Baptist Church of Newport and formed a second congregation. In 1664 he left Newport for Kingston and formed a new church there. he was pastor of the Kingston church until his death in 1710, a period of some forty years.
The next three Baker men in the line were all named Thomas and the maiden names of their wives are not known. The third Thomas, grandson of the immigrant, moved with his family from Rhode Island to the part of present day New York known as The Beekman Patent. In 1741 he leased a farm of 218 acres in lot 9 of the Poughquag Purchase. This farm was located where the Green Haven Prison now stands, immediately adjacent to Route 84, a major highway in New York State. On my several trips past the prison I have thought of Thomas Baker and his family and how inconceivable they would find the changes. Perhaps there is some remote corner of the prison land where an old stream still runs, where the remnants of a wall may be found or where a line of hills in the horizon would be recognizable to them. Let it be so.
The fourth Thomas, son of the man who moved to New York, died in 1802 "somewhat stricken in years" and didn't leave much record but the same is not true of one of his sons, our ancestor Gideon Baker. I will leave Gideon for the next installment.
Jumpstarting my moribund blog
Have spent this lovely rainy day at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast taking Cheryl Fuller's course on blogs and blogging. My own blog was created on a whim and was intended only as a personal journal-- no expectations that it would ever be read by anyone. Having read many other blogs since I started mine, I began to see that my blog could be a good tool for sharing genealogical sketches that I have written over the years. One of these, the ancestry of Mildred Graf Langhans, has been posted, but I realize that simple copy and paste doesn't work well. Standard documents don't translate well onto the web. I think I should redo my sketches in shorter versions with citations to the original item. Now, with steely determination, I pledge to work on my blog five times a week, at least!
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