Family History Research On The Baker Family

I've been doing family history research from my mothers side of the family. Her fathers side had the family names Bird (paternal) and Hurt (maternal) and her mother's side had the family names Thawley (paternal) and Baker (maternal).

 

I researched some background to the family name:

 

The ancient surname, Baker is of Olde English pre 8th century origins deriving from the word 'boeccure'. The surname is always occupational, but not always for a maker of bread. There are a number of possible origins and these include an official with special responsibilities for the baking ovens in a monastery or castle, as well as the keeper of the 'communal kitchen' in a town or village, since most of the humbler households had no cooking facilities other than a pot over a fire. The right to be in charge of this service and to exact money or loaves in return for its use, was in many parts of Britain, a hereditary feudal privilege. Less often the surname may have been acquired by someone noted for specifically baking fine bread or as an owner of a kiln for the baking of pottery or even bricks.  -Source
 

 

Our story of the Bakers comes together when my mother's, maternal grandparents got married on a chilly December day in 1930 at St.George's Glascote. Our Baker ancestors are from Worcestershire, Warwickshire and lastly Staffordshire. The furthest back I've traced is George Baker who was born in 1750 and his wife Sarah.

 

Daisy, my mother's maternal grandmother's parents were married in 1909, just three years earlier her dad signed up for Royal Regiment of Artillery RH & RFA. At the tender age of 25, he was torn away from his young family to fight as a gunner in The Great War. Sadly, he died in 1915.

 

 

Four years later in 1919, Daisy's mother Priscilla remarried Harry, and that explains why he was written as Daisy's father on her marriage certificate. Priscilla also lost her dad, who was a barge master when she was young.

 

Some of our other earlier distant Baker descendants:

 

 

The Baker's came to the area of Fenton after the acquisition of land and a pot works. In 1765 William Baker an architect from Audlem in Staffordshire, bought the estate and manor of Fenton Culvert (which is now demolished) together with a pottery factory for his second son William Baker II. William Baker II came to Fenton and in 1767 he married Sarah Bagnall the daughter of Thomas Bagnall who was Lord of the Manor of Hanley.

 

 

Hasfield Court is a heritage building being listed by English Heritage as a Grade II building. The manor house has changed hands several times and once belonged (1847-63) to the architect Thomas Fulljames. The house a second home, sold in 1863 to William Baker, of Fenton House, Staffordshire, who owned a pottery at Fenton where he built several municipal buildings and Christ Church. Hasfield Court remains in the ownership of the Meath Baker family.

 

From a small number of business records, it is clear that the Baker family had interests from the first part of the 19th century in the manufacture of china and earthenware.

 

I will continue keep looking back, as well as deeper into the lives on the family tree to learn a lot more.