George Baker (1779-1842) & Maria Hosier (1780-1832)
George Baker was a music teacher from Poole in Dorset. He was born on 25 November 1779 and baptised at the Independent Skinner Street Chapel on 14 December 1779. He was the son of John Baker (1749-1815) a shoemaker and clarinet player and Elizabeth Emberley (1746-1826). In 1798, the Militia List for Poole (of all males aged between 18 and 45 living in the town parish) recorded that he was a musician and 5 feet 8 inches tall.
Maria Hosier was the daughter of William Hosier (1720-1779) and Maria Stanworth (1733-1786) of Poole; she was baptised on 27 August 1775 at Poole, Dorset.
George Baker and Maria Hosier were married at Poole on 19 November 1799.
Their daughter Maria Elizabeth was born on 12 October 1800 and baptised on 9 November.
In 1803 a notice in the Salisbury and Winchester Journal announced: “George Baker, music master, respectfully begs to inform the ladies of Poole and its vicinity that he is just returned from London, where he has purchased some elegant pianofortes. An assortment of the best approved modern songs, sonatas, &c. Several second-hand pianofortes to be sold cheap.”
Their daughter, Jane Farwell Baker, was baptised on 10 February 1808. The family were living in the parish of St Giles in the Field when their sons were baptised – Robert Hosier Baker on 17 June 1810 and George Alfred on 6 April 1817. The family was listed as living at 4 Euston Crescent, with George’s occupation given as “music master”.
They were still living at Euston Crescent when their daughter Maria Elizabeth married Alfred Lermit of the East India Company’s military service at St Pancras’s in 1821.
In October 1828 George Baker “of 4 Euston-crescent, Somers Town, late of Regent’s Park, both of Middlesex, teacher of music and organist” was an insolvent debtor in prison, applying to be discharged (Perry’s Bankrupts).
In 1830, their daughter Maria Elizabeth Lermit, now a widow, returned to London and married James Vaughan at St George’s, Hanover Square. In her care were the three illegitimate children of Gerald Wellesley (of the Bengal Civil Service and the Resident of the Indore Princely State)who were baptised in 1830, their address given as 29 Carburton Street.
On 29 August 1832, Maria Baker of Carburton Street died and was buried at the Chapel of Ease in the parish of St Pancras. The announcements of the death read “Died on Wednesday last, in Carburton Street, London, aged 55, the wife of George Baker, formerly of Poole, Dorset” (Salisbury & Winchester Journal).
George Baker died in 1842; his burial record (17 September 1842), also at the St Pancras Parish Chapel, gave his address as Chapel Street and his age as 62. “Died Sept. 14, at Brompton, after a tedious illness, borne with patient resignation, Mr George Baker, professor of music, aged 63, formerly of Poole, Dorset.” (The Salisbury and Winchester Journal September 1842)
Both Maria and George were buried in the churchyard of St Pancras Old Church, which being much dilapidated had become a “chapel of ease” after the building of the (current) New St Pancras Church (consecrated in 1822).
The churchyard had two significant periods when it was disturbed. Firstly with the building of the Midland Railway in the 1860s, when around 8,000 bodies (most likely including the Baker’s grave) were exhumed and relocated to the new cemetery in Finchley.
The 2002-03 construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link into St Pancras also required further intrusion. As part of this activity a full inventory was made of the graves and tombstones removed from the site, including that of Maria and George Baker and this inscription was recorded: Sacred to the memory of …ary Baker …daughter of …Maria Baker …ted this life …aged …year …she was in life belov… and in death lamente… Also of Maria Baker mother of the above who departed this life August 19th 1832 aged 57 ye… Also of the above name… Mr George Baker Formerly of Poole, Dorset, who departed this life 11th September 1842 in the 63rd year of his age
The 893 pieces of graves and tomb were not directly associated with any of the in situ burials and had previously been removed from their original locations; some lay beneath the 19th century railway embankment and some had been incorporated into a dry stone wall within St Pancras Gardens.
George and Maria’s children:
Robert Hosier Baker was listed a professional member of the Royal College of Musicians in 1833, married Frances Sophia Crake at Holy Trinity Chelsea on 10 April 1833. Their family moved to Aberdeen where he worked as a music teacher and was listed as the organist at St John’s Episcopal Church from 1832. He died 19 August 1866 and was buried at Nellfield Cemetery, Aberdeen.
Jane Farwell Baker accompanied her sister, Maria Elizabeth, for much of her life until Maria Elizabeth’s death in Dedham, Essex, in 1864. She continued living in Dedham and in the 1861 census return was described as aged 53 “formerly governess” living at High Street Dedham. She died in 1886 aged 78 and buried at Camberwell.