Rev Ralph Bourne Baker of Fenton and Hasfield Court

31 October 1802 (baptised) to 25 May 1875

BAK00302

The Bakers Home Page Return to the Home Page of the Bakers Family part of the website

The Bakers of Highfields Story The Story of the Dods and Bakers and of Highfields, Fenton House and Hasfield Court. A journey through the history of Cheshire and Staffordshire, an Anglo-Saxon nobleman who retained his lands after the Conquest, pottery at Stoke on Trent, an encounter with Elgar, and the history of an Elizabethan manor house at Audlem

The Bakers of Highfields The family tree of the Bakers of Highfields

The Dod Family The Family Tree of the Dods, predecessors to the Bakers of Highfields

The Bakers of Fenton House and Hasfield Court The Family Tree of the pottery Bakers of Stoke on Trent

The Bellyse Family The Family Tree of the Bellyse Family

The Farndale Story The main part of this website tells the story of the Farndale family from Yorkshire Descendants of Arthur Baker, the story of the Farndale ancestry is told through the main part of this website You can also return to the Farndale website home page

The Hall Family The genealogy of the family of James Hall, linked to the Baker family through marriage to Arthur Baker

Headlines of Ralph Bourne Baker’s life are in brown.

Dates are in red.

Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.

References and citations are in turquoise.

Context and local history are in purple.

1802

Ralph Baker was the son of William and Mary (nee Bourne) Baker (BAK00106). Ralph was born in 1802. He was baptised at St Peter Ad Vincula, Stoke on Trent on 31 October 1802 (St Peter Ad Vincula, Stoke on Trent Parish Records).

Although William Baker IV was the elder brother, he didn’t marry, and it was Ralph Bourne Baker who appears to have been taken up by the Bournes.

1808

(Land Tax Records, 1808)

1810

Ralph was educated at Rugby and at Trinity College, Cambridge. William (IV) was educated at Manchester Grammar School, but his brother Ralph Bourne Baker was said by the present family to have been taken up by the Bournes and he was educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge and then entered the church (Dodd, F (1987), The Baker Family and Fenton, Presidential Address in Transactions 1986 to 1987, The North Staffordshire Field Club page 13).

1830

He then entered the church. He was Rector of Hilderstone from 1830 and became rural dean of Stone in 1852 and later examining chaplain to the Bishop of Meath from 1852 to 1872.

He was also a JP for Staffordshire and Gloucestershire.

1839

It will be seen by our advertising columns that the consecration of the New Church, in this town, will take place on Thursday next. We trust that a liberal collection will be made on the occasion, as we understand there will be additional expenses of communion plate, and other fittings up with the church, which will amount to nearly £200. The church at Fenton, erected and endowed by the legacy of the late Ralph Bourne, Esquire, and of which Lord Viscount Sandon and the Rev Ralph Bourne Baker, are trustees, will also be consecrated on Friday the 11th instant, by the Lord Bishop of Hereford. It is intended, the weather permitting, to move in procession to the church from the house of William Baker Esquire, at half past ten o’clock precisely. The advertisement in our first page states that there will be a collection on the occasion. That is mistake; there will not be any collection. We did not receive the letter requesting us to correct that error until a late hour yesterday. (Staffordshire Advertiser, 5 January 1839).

Unlike his rather taciturn unmarried brother William Baker IV, Ralph held forth at length and on one occasion William had to stop him by saying I think you have talked enough.

Ralph Bourne Baker (Rev), of Hasfield Court, Haw Manor, and Tirley, Gloucestershire, of Fenton House, Staffordshire, and Deveridge Woodhouse, Derbyshire, Lord of the Manors of Hasfield and Haw, Patron of the Living of Ch Ch Fenton, JP for Gloucestershire and Staffordshire, Rector of Hilderstone 1830 to 1860, Rural Dean of Stone 1841, Examining Chaplain to Bishop of Meath 1852 to 1872, Vicar of Brompton Chapel, W, 1860 to 1863, educated at Rugby and Trinity College Cambridge, (BA 1826, MA 1829), married 1845, Frances Crofton (died 18 October 1881), eldest daughter of Most Rev and Right Honourable Joseph Henderson Singer, PC, DD, Bishop of Meath and Primate of Ireland, and died 25 May 1875, having had issue (including an only son William, ancestor of the Meath Bakers of Hasfield and Fenton. (Burke, John and Burke, Sir Bernard (1836)(Eighteenth Edition, 1972), Bellyse Baker of Highfields in Burke’s Landed Gentry, Volume 3, pages 35 to 38).

1845

Rev Ralph Baker married Frances Crofton Singer, Dr. Joseph Henderson Singer and Mary (nee Crofton) Singer on 28 March 1845 (Dublin Marriage Licences).

On the 28^th ult, the Rev R B Baker MA, Incumbent of Hilderstone, and Rural Dean of Stone, Staffordshire, to Frances Crofton, eldest daughter of the Rev Dr Singer, of Mount Anville Park, in the county of Durham (Coventry Herald and Free Press, 11 April 1845).

On the 28^th ult in Taney Church, by the Lord Bishop of Cashel and Waterford, Frances Crofton, eldest daughter of the Rev Dr Singer, SFTCD, to the Rev R Bourne Baker, of Hilderstone, in the county of Stafford (The Belfast Newsletter, 1 April 1845).

Joseph Henderson Singer (1786 to 1866)

Dr. Joseph Henderson Singer was a prominent academic and evangelical preacher at Trinity College Dublin. Joseph graduated from Trinity College Dublin as a gold medallist in 1806 and became a Fellow in 1810. He served as a leading evangelical voice and chaplain to the Magdalen Asylum on Leeson Street in Dublin and worked extensively within the academic structure of Trinity College, later becoming a professor and senior lecturer. He was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity at Dublin in 1850 and consecrated as the Church of Ireland’s Bishop of Meath in 1852 where he served until his death on 16 July 1866.

(Dictionary of National Biography)

1851

1851 Census - Parsonage, Hilderstone, Stone, Staffordshire

Ralph Bourne Baker, Head, Married, Male, 47, 1804, Perpetual curate of hilderstem rural dean of stone magistrate of county of Stafford, Fenton, Staffordshire, England

Frances Crofton Baker, Wife, Married, Female, 28, 1823, Clergyman’s wife, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Mary Frances Baker, Daughter, Female, 2, 1849, Clergyman's daughter, Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Sarah Adelaide Baker, Daughter, Female, 0, 1851, Clergyman's daughter, Staffordshire, England

Jane Fisher, Servant, Unmarried, Female, 35, 1816, Cook, Staffordshire, England

Hannah Hervey, Servant, Unmarried, Female, 31, 1820, Housemaid, Staffordshire, England

Mary Tomlinson, Servant, Unmarried , Female, 25, 1826, Nurse, Derbyshire, England

Mary A Hasketh, Servant, Unmarried, Female, 15, 1836, Under nurse, Staffordshire, England

1861

1861 Census - 22, Porchester Square, Paddington

Ralph B Baker, Head , Married, Male, 58, 1803, Clergyman church England without cure of souls, Kenton, Staffordshire, England

Frances C Baker, Wife, Married, Female, 38 , 1823, Ireland

Mary F Baker, Daughter, Female, 12, 1849, Scholar, Ireland

Letitia J D Baker, Daughter, Female, 9, 1852, Scholar, Ireland

William K Baker, Son, Male, 3, 1858, Hilderstone, Staffordshire, England

Jessie Goward, Servant, Unmarried, Female, 25, 1836, Housemaid, Scotland

Sarah Death, Servant, Unmarried, Female, 22, 1839, Cook, Kentish Town, Middlesex, England

Sarah Addison, Servant, Unmarried, Female, 22, 1839, Nurse, Staffordshire, England

Ralph Bourne Baker Frances Crofton Baker both taken by Camile Silvy, 1 August 1861

(National Portrait Galler, NPG Ax55265 and NPG Ax55264)

Camille-Léon-Louis Silvy (18 March 1834 – 2 February 1910) was a French photographer, primarily active in London.

1865

William Baker IV died on 16 August 1865 and at his death his property of Fenton, Hasfield, and Doveridge Woodhouse passed to Rev. Ralph Bourne Baker. His brother, the Rev. Ralph Bourne Baker inherited his estates at Hasfield, Gloucestershire and Doveridge Woodhouse as well as the pottery business although he had little direct connection with its operation. He had been the Rector of Hilderstone from 1830 becoming Rural Dean of Stone in 1852 and also examining chaplain to the Bishop of Meath from 1852 to 1872. In addition he was a Justice of the Peace for Staffordshire and Gloucestershire. He married the Bishop of Meath's daughter, Frances Crofton Singer, and they lived at Hilderstone Hall where their son William Meath Baker (WMB) was born on the 1st. November 1857. There were three daughters Mary Frances, Sarah Adelaide who died in infancy, and Letitia Jane. He was the first Baker to live at Hasfield and is buried there. (Dodd, F (1987), The Baker Family and Fenton, Presidential Address in Transactions 1986 to 1987, The North Staffordshire Field Club, page 15).

1871

1871 Census – Hasfield Court, Hasfield, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire

Ralph Bourne Baker, Head, Male, 68, 1803, Staffordshire, England

Frances Crofton Baker, Wife, Female, 48, 1823, Ireland

Mary Frances Baker, Daughter, Female, 22, 1849, Ireland

Letitia Jane Dowthen Baker, Daughter, Female, 19, 1852, Ireland

Sarah Hitchman, Sister, Female, 60, 1811 Staffordshire, England

John Belmore, Servant, Male, 56, 1815, Devon, England

John George, Westlake, Servant, Male, 16, 1855, Somerset, England

Louisa Field, Servant, Female, 34, 1837, Somerset, England

Jane Welch, Servant, Female, 36, 1835, Somerset, England

Mary Heywood, Servant, Female, 33 , 1838, Devon, England

Elizabeth Ann Redding, Servant, Female, 18, 1853, Gloucestershire, England

Ralph was the first Baker to live at Hasfield and was buried there.

1875

Ralph Bourne Baker died on 25 May 1875 and was buried at Hasfield on 1 June 1875. There is a monumental inscription at Christ Church, Fenton. Baker, The Reverend Ralph Bourne. Effects under £140,000. 30 June. The Will with three Codicils of the Reverend Ralph Bourne Baker late of Hasfield Court in the Parish of Hasfield and of Royal York Crescent Clifton both in the County of Gloucester Clerk who died 25 May 1875 was proved at Gloucester by Frances Croften Baker of Hasfield Court Widow the Relict Joseph Gimson of Fenton in the Parish of Stole on Tret in the County of Stafford Manufacturer and Sarah Hitchman of Fenton Widow the Sister the Executors. (Probate Records).

1881

Frances Baker died at Hasfield on 18 October 1881.

Baker – October 18, at Hasfield Court, near Gloucester, Francis (sic?) Crofton, widow of the late Rev R Bpourne Baker MA, of Hasfield Court, and Fenton House, Staffordshire, and daughter of the late Right Hon and most Reverend Joseph Henderson Singer, DD, aged 58 years (The Citizen, 20 October 1881).