Nicholas Baker Research Information

Assembled by R. W.  Baker

 

This list of documents and researcher's comments has been prepared for the singular purpose of indicating to other Nicholas Baker genealogy researchers my reasons for concluding that the Nicholas Baker who was the son of Maurice Baker of Baltimore Co., MD is not the same Nicholas Baker who married Martha Wood and who's family records are found in the St. George's Parish Records in Baltimore/Harford Co., MD. (Harford Co. was formed from Baltimore Co. and founded 1773. It was the eastern portion of Baltimore Co.)

 

1.   From the “Heirs and Legatees of Harford County, MD” by Henry C. Peden Jr. Nicholas Baker, Estate File 12, May 6, 1774 Adm: Nicholas Baker. Nearest of kin: John Wood and Isaac Wood

 

2.   In the same year an estate record of Harford Co. for one Maurice Baker indicates as executor Charles Baker. If these families were related why would the nearest of kin for Nicholas Baker be two of his wife's kin.

 

3.   Nicholas Baker Jr., son of the above named Nicholas, died intestate in 1780. His estate record reflects the fact that he had not finished with all of the disbursements of his father's estate and that his wife's name was Agnes and not Mary Stevens.

 

4.   From “The Bakers of Aberdeen” by Jon Harlan Livezey as printed in the Spring 1983 addition of the Harford Historical Bulletin. (He later affirms this in a letter written in 1996) “Harford County and colonial Baltimore County records contain the names of numerous individuals bearing the surname Baker, most of whom lived in the Little Gunpowder Falls area. No proof of relationship of the Nicholas Baker family with other Bakers outside of the Carsins Run-Aberdeen area has yet been unearthed.”

      He goes on to give an excellent genealogy of the Nicholas Baker family that resided in Harford Co. down to recent times. He begins with this: “NICHOLAS [1] in 1737 was apparently living in the part of Spesutia Upper Hundred which became Susquehanna Hundred … He died sometime before May 1774, when his estate was opened. His first wife, Martha Wood (b. 1724) …”

 

5.   From “Baltimore County Families 1659-1759” by Robert W. Barnes and published in 1989: “The Baker Family has been researched by Mrs. Richard Turley …” “Nicholas Baker s. of Maurice and Sarah, d. in Baltimore Co in 1799; may have m. Mary Stevens on 18 Jan. 1749/50 …”

 

6.   Notice that this is the Nicholas Baker who is said to have died in 1799, not the Nicholas Baker of Harford County. Mrs. Hurley describes the family of Harford Co. Nicholas (husband of Martha Wood) as unrelated to the Maurice Baker family.

 

7.   From the Harford Co., Maryland Colonial Census of 1776:

      Nicolis (Nicholas) Baker is found in the Susquehanna Hundred, age 28, with his wife Agnes, age 23, Josaway (Joshua), age 14 and other minors not named Baker. This is Nicholas Jr. and his wife Agnes and youngest brother Joshua. There are no other Bakers listed as head of household in the county.

 

8.   There is evidence that Nicholas Baker, son of Maurice Baker and mentioned in his will, remained on the land that he inherited named Tanyard.
A land survey in 1766 describes Tanyard this way: "The following certificate and resurvey are for a tract called
"Tanyard" that was originally patented in 1702 by Nathaniel Stinchcomb and lay south-west of Catonsville along the Old Frederick Pike."
This land description places Tanyard to the west of Baltimore and not near Harford Co.

           

 

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