Baker, Thomas (1656-09-14 - 1740-07-02)

Thomas Baker was born at Crook Hall, Lanchester, County Durham on 14 September 1656. Baker was admitted pensioner, aged seventeen, at St John's College, Cambridge on 13 June 1674. He graduated B.A. in 1677. He was elected Ashton Fellow of the College in 1680, and proceeded M.A. a year later. Thomas Baker was ordained as deacon on 20 December 1685, and as priest on 9 December 1686. From 1687 until 1690, he was rector of Longnewton, County Durham; it was during this period that he was awarded the degree of B.D. From the eighteenth century onwards, as his career in the church had come to an end, Baker began to establish his reputation as an antiquarian. He was ejected from his Fellowship on 21 January 1717, owing to his refusal to take the oath of abjuration. Thomas Baker died on 2 July 1740, and was buried in the chapel of St John's College, where he had resided for the majority of his life.