The Story Of James and Ann Baker nee Brookes

Yesterday, I wrote about William and Emma Coombes nee Evans. They had a daughter named Priscilla and she married John. Today I'm telling the story of John parents, James and Ann Baker nee Brookes.

 

 

James Frederick Baker is my 3rd great grandfather (maternal) born in Halford, Warwickshire around 1849. He was baptized on May 30th.

 

 

He remained in Halford during his childhood with his parents John and Esther.

 

1851 census.

 

 

1861 census shows thirteen year old James as a plough boy.

 

 

On November 2nd, 1870 at the tender age of twenty-one he married his sweetheart Ann Maria Brookes.

 

 

They were married at the Alderton Parish in Gloucestershire. Presumably because Ann Maria was born in Alderton around 1851.

 

Married for over forty-four years, James and Ann Maria had thirteen children. Four of which predeceased them.

 

1871 census shows them living in Aston, Warwickshire where James was a gun finisher and Ann Maria was a lacquerer.

 

 

1881 census shows James and Ann Maria living in Fazeley, Staffordshire. He supported his family as an agriculture laborer and together, they lived at 64 Lichfield Street.

 

 

1891 census shows them still living at Fazeley, at 159 Mill Lane. At this time James was a coal miner.

 

 

1901 census shows them living at 48 Mill lane and retired.
 

1911 census shows James and Ann Marie still at 48 Mill Lane.

 

 

Both James and Ann Marie died within months of each other in 1914. They both lived to be sixty-five and sixty-three respectively. From reading records of Victorian life, the Bakers lived an unusually long life, and had a long marriage. Unfortunately for their sons, they were born in time to serve in WWI, and their son John, my direct ancestor died serving his country a year after his parents passed away.

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