Baker Baker Papers

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Introduction

	Contents
	Arrangement
	Related material (internal)
	Related material elsewhere
	Bibliography

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Catalogue

• Documents relating to Alum
• Letters and Papers
• Books
• General letters and papers
• Letters and papers 1561-1739
• Letters and papers 1739-1759
• Letters and papers 1759-1772
• Letters and papers 1773-1782
• Letters and papers 1783-1799
• List of general letters and papers, 1788-1845
• Letters and papers 1800-1827
• Letters and papers 1828-1846
• Letters and papers 1846-1882
• Letters and papers 1883-1892
• Miscellanea
• Deeds
• Deeds mainly relating to Boulby Alum Works and neighbouring properties 1650-1845
• Deeds relating to the Manor of Bulbeck Northumberland 1713-1800
• Deeds mainly relating to Elemore Hall and neighbouring properties 1607-1746
• Deeds relating to the Tithes of Stanton, Northumberland 1691-1865
• Miscellaneous Deeds 1665-1863
• Properties in County Durham 1714-1835
• Properties in Northumberland 1711-1766
• Properties in Yorkshire 1740-1786
• Wills 1597-1846
• Bills and Acts of Parliament 1713-1834
• Books
• Cash books 1749-1838
• Cellar books 1778-1797
• Day books 1699-1797
• Estate account books 1764-1788
• Grain Account Books 1776-1833
• Housekeeping Account Books 1744-1830
• Inventories 1755-1816
• Rate Book 1647-1680
• Rentals 1706-1832
• Stock books 1751-1817
• Wage Account Books 1751-1837
• Miscellaneous Account Books c.1742-c.1814
• Military and Militia Books 1758-1829
• Pamphlets 1703-1841
• Animal Pedigrees, Prescriptions and Recipes 1677-20th century
• Stud Books belonging to George Baker, d.1837
• Pamphlets and other matter concerning The Countess of Strathmore and A. R. Bowes 1777-c.1793
• Miscellaneous Books c.1581-1858
• Vouchers 1665-c.1891
• Vouchers, 1665-1744
• Thomas Wardell's Vouchers
• Maps and plans
• County Durham
• Northumberland
• Yorkshire
• Correspondence, prospectuses and accounts re purchase and sales of stocks and shares, and insurance matters 1878 - 1931
• Miscellaneous Papers 1886 - 1934
• Miscellaneous printed books etc. 18th - 19th century
• Marriage Settlements, Wills etc.
• Deeds etc.
• Copies of paintings etc.
• 1999 DEPOSIT - Deeds 1814-1849
• Prints and political satires

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Contents

This rich and varied collection covers family letters and papers domestic and scholarly, papers of their antecedents, notably the Conyers family, parliamentary elections, Co. Durham public affairs, estate management, business affairs, the Boulby Alum works near Saltburn on the North Yorkshire coast, estates in Westmorland near Brough, Appleby and Kirby Stephen, an estate at Stanton, Northumberland, coal and lead mining interests, education at Eton and Cambridge, the Tyne Bank, stocks, shares, insurance, probate legal proceedings, deeds, Acts of Parliament, rentals, books of household, estate, wage, grain and employers accounts with vouchers, inventories of household, garden and farm gear and stock, maps, plans, stud books, travel accounts, military and militia matters, political and scandalous pamphlets and cartoons, animal pedigrees and prescriptions, recipe books, miscellaneous note books and printed books. The span is the sixteenth to twentieth centuries, richest in the eighteenth.

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Accession details

Most of the material in the first 120 boxes was deposited through the National Register of Archives and Brigadier H.C. Baker Baker in 1947, when the family home Elemore Hall, Pittington, Co. Durham, was about to be sold, apart from the last listed items 6/556a - 7/557B, which were found amongst material previously deposited with the University Library (via the BRA?); 7/558- 7/561, which were were purchased later, in 1968 and 1977, and 7/562, a typed transcript donated by a researcher, Mr P. Barton.
The sequence from box 121 onwards and the portfolio of prints were deposited in 1994 by Mr William Baker Baker.

Arrangement

The items in this list have been sorted into document type, and then listed in chronological order. The numbering gives the box in which the item is kept, followed by its place in the current sequence.
Box 118 contains outsize documents and books from the collection, as follows (the items are described in their sequence in the handlists).

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Related material (internal)

BRA 1118: Box 1, no. 24 - lease of leadmine at Bulbeck, 1788, to which George Baker was a party.
Christopher Johnson's Book Includes extensive copies of legal documents drawn up for George Baker.
Add.MS. 1478Account book of Mrs Baker Baker at Elemore, 1874-1886.

Related material elsewhere

Durham CRO Brancepeth D/Br/P83: 1754 map with various farms marked included amongst those leased out by the Baker family in County Durham.
North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, Neville Hall, Newcastle: T.E. Forster Collection There are some Boulby Alum Works accounts (1800) in vol. I, p.96.

Bibliography

Stephens, F.G., Hawkins, E. and George, M.D., edd., Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I. Political and personal satires 11 vols. (1870-1954)
M.W. Beresford's note “East Layton .... in 1608. Another Early Cartographic Representation of a Deserted Medieval Village Site”, Medieval Archaeology, XI (1967), 257-60
J.M. Fewster, “Some Conyers Deeds”, Transactions of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, XI (1965), 405-421
H.G. Fordham John Cory, engraver, map, chart and print-seller, and globe maker, 1754-1835 (1925), pp. 35-37.

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Catalogue

Documents relating to Alum
Among the following papers is a series of monthly accounts relating to the alum trade for the period June 1780 - December 1792 (complete except for June and July 1789 and February 1792), showing the quantity of alum on hand at the beginning of each month, the quantity produced during the month, the quantity shipped, the ports for which it was shipped, and the quantity remaining on hand at the end of the month, in respect of the following Alum Works (the period covered, when other than June 1780 - December 1792, being indicated in brackets):
Peak; Stow-Brow; Saltwick (June 1780 - December 1785); Eskdale side; Sandsend; Kettleness; Boulby; Lofthouse; Guisbrough (September 1783 - December 1792); Littlebeck (July 1786 - December 1792); Goodland-Banks (August 1787 - December 1792). Those documents will be called "alum accounts" in the following list.
Information concerning alum is also contained in some of the deeds relating to Boulby (1651-1844), which are grouped together in a separate section, with references 28 to 34.

General letters and papers
Miscellanea
Deeds
Wills 1597-1846
Bills and Acts of Parliament 1713-1834
The term "Act of Parliament" was used loosely in the 18th century and sometimes included what in fact were only Bills (e.g. Nos. 42/2a, 42/3 and 42/4a ). The printed texts of Acts of Parliament are not always free from error and where the precise text is required reference should be made to the originals in the House of Lords.
See M.F. Bond “Acts of Parliament” in Archives III No. 20 (1958)
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Books
Vouchers 1665-c.1891 Most of these vouchers are bundled (and consequently listed) by date of payment and give details of expenditure in earlier months and years.

Maps and plans
Correspondence, prospectuses and accounts re purchase and sales of stocks and shares, and insurance matters 1878 - 1931
Files contain prospectuses etc as indicated.

Miscellaneous Papers 1886 - 1934
Contents This 1994 deposit of documents, mainly deeds, has been described in the bundle order and shelf mark sequence marked on it as it was received. This is not always the order in which they would have been listed if received loose or as a gift. As order inside the parcels and bundles was random, the contents have been arranged chronologically. As regards endorsements upon these documents, only very minor items have no written clue at all to the contents appearing on the outside of the folded document. In this list endorsements are mentioned only if they appear of more than formal significance.
A summary of the contents follows.
BB 124/1-6, 1773-5 relate to the settlement on the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter of George and Judith Baker of Elemore to Christopher Tower in 1773 and George's death in 1774.
BB 124/7-44, 1782-1924 inter-relating bundles marked C-H and M2-7 comprising wills and papers about inheritance. These concern Henry John Baker Baker (grandson of the Towers couple above), his parents, his marriage in 1849 to Isabella Allgood, his death in 1871, Isabella's death in 1896, their eldest son Henry George who died in 1905, their son George Conyers, an army officer who died in 1892 in Mandalay, other siblings including William Henry, sometime a naval officer who married Harriet Constance Middleton in 1910 and their son Henry Conyers of the Regiment of the Black Watch, first depositor of the Baker Baker papers. There are reference to other family members.
BB 126/45-128/106, 1692-1860 but mainly eighteenth century, bundles marked I-K and M 8-10 are mainly deeds, scheduled in BB 126/45, of property in the hands of Henry John Baker Baker in 1860 at Hesleyburn (Rothbury), Carham, Beanley (Eglingham) and Edderstone in Northumberland, Greenlaw (Whickham), Barnard Castle and the Raby Estates, Co. Durham plus miscellanea including Barwick in Yorkshire, Eslington (Whittingham), Elsdon and Bedlington in Northumberland and a few business papers of Mary Conyers of South Biddick, Co. Durham 1692-96. There follows a group entitled Wingate, Kelloe and Crook (Lanchester) Co. Durham which concern also Sockburn, Sadberge and Nether Dinsdale in Co. Durham and Over Dinsdale in Yorkshire and the sale of Dinsdale. This group includes a very detailed coal mine lease of 1703 (BB 126/81) and a lease to a land agent, Francis Baker of all the Raby Estates in 1711 (BB 126/82).
BB 128/107-128/120, 1934-73 are business and estate papers of the late Lieutenant Colonel Henry Conyers Baker Baker of Elemore, Co. Durham and later of Sedbury, Yorkshire, who served in Egypt and was also in Burma and the U.S.A. Besides Elemore and Sedbury, he had property at Cleatlam, Co. Durham and at Boulby, Yorkshire where the family's alum works had operated at its height in the eighteenth century.
BB 128/121 copies of photographs of paintings etc. depicting:- George Baker d.1774, George Baker d.1837, horses and hounds, Elemore Hall, Henry John Baker Baker d.1871, Henry Baker (?d.1905), Marsden and Summerbell (butler and keeper at Elemore), hunting scenes and a Georgian candlestick. This deposit mentions many family members whose relationships over the generations can be seen in the printed pedigrees to the Baker family in R. Surtees History of Durham vol.I 121 and vol.II 358, to which pedigrees these papers can contribute additions. Names of persons and places vary in these documents, for instance George Storey, gentleman, sometimes signed Storey, sometimes Story, and Elemore appears as Ellemore and Ellimore. These deeds illustrate the complications of the investment market in the eighteenth century when right to land revenues rather than shares in manufactures and services, were the assets trafficked. Two particularly interesting items are the Whickham coal lease of 1703 with its detailed conditions and provision for inspection at all stages of production and the 1711 lease of the Raby estates of Lord Barnard on detailed administrative conditions, amounting to the appointment of an estate agent. Matters concerned in the first Baker Baker deposit are documented more fully in this one.
The Baker Baker 1994 deposit This collection of some 120 deeds and papers, 1692-1973, belonging to Mr. William Baker Baker of Sedbury near Richmond, North Yorkshire was deposited in February 1994 following a visit to inspect the first Baker Baker deposit by Mr. Oswald Frank Baker Baker (d. 1997) and his wife, Anne, parents of William Baker Baker. Mr. Oswald Frank Baker Baker was brother of the late Lieutenant Colonel Henry Conyers Baker Baker upon whose removal from Elemore Hall, Co. Durham, where the majority of the papers had been kept, to Sedbury in 1947, the first deposit was made. This second deposit had arrived at Sedbury from Dickinson, Miller and Turnbull solicitors in Newcastle upon Tyne. Like most of the first deposit, this one comprised deeds, estate material, settlements, wills and documents concerning inheritance, not family correspondence. With these deeds were deposited some photographs, since returned to their owner, details of copies of which are included at the end of this list. A portfolio of prints was also deposited and listed separately.
Arrangement These deeds and photographs form four groups:
(a) A "Slimpick" wallet of marriage settlements and arrangements 1773-5 (ref. BB 124/1-6)
(b) Parcels of deeds and papers, 1692-1924, with markings "Bundle C" to "Bundle K" (no Bundle A or B) and "M 1" to "M 10" (ref. BB 124/7-128/106).
(c) A series of small modern manilla envelopes, 1934-73, bearing shelf markings E971 and E971/1-4 (5 items) and F442/1-5 and F442/8-10 (8 items) (ref. BB 128/107-120).
(d) An envelope of photographs lent by Mr. William Baker Baker and since returned to him. Further photographs and xerox copies of these were made in Durham University. These photographs are of paintings etc. relevant to the Baker Baker papers in general (ref. BB 128/121, 14 items plus negatives).

Miscellaneous printed books etc. 18th - 19th century
Marriage Settlements, Wills etc.
Deeds etc.
Copies of paintings etc.
Baker Baker photographs & xerox copies of photographs deposited briefly in 1994 128/121 An envelope of copies of photographs lent by and returned to Mr. William Baker Baker of Sedbury in 1994. The negatives (2 strips) also are in this envelope.

1999 DEPOSIT - Deeds 1814-1849 This parcel of six items now numbered BB 130/1-5 was brought to Archives and Special Collections on 4 May 1999 by Mr. William Baker Baker when he came to see a selection of the earlier Baker Baker deposits. His solicitor had recently come across the deeds and handed them back to him. There are three dated 1816, two 1828 (copied 1842) and one 1849. They comprise, or relate to, the marriage settlement in 1816 of Henry Tower to Isabella Judith Baker the heiress of Elemore Hall, County Durham. The deeds have been deposited on the same terms as the 1994 Baker Baker deposit of deeds, papers and photographs.

Prints and political satires
Contents This collection of some 200 items spans events between 1729 and 1874 and the items were all published between 1748 and 1889, the vast majority between 1760 and 1822. Most of the prints are arranged, glued or pasted very firmly to pages in a large tattered scrap book or portfolio measuring about 80cms. x 60cms., with marbled boards and leather trimmings. This has helped to protect the edges of the prints from damage. Many pages are no longer joined to others. Some prints overlap, some have been cut out of the pages where they had been mounted and were perhaps once framed and later replaced loose in the portfolio. Others show no signs of ever having been mounted. Some, with printed words on the back, have been cut from other works but most are blank-backed and were published as individual prints by the popular print sellers of the day. Most are in fairly good condition although often a little foxed or discoloured by paste or age. Sadly one page containing three of the best known prints in this collection, The Confederated Coalition no.145, the Base Villain no.140 and the King of Brobdingnag no.138, 1803-4 has been spattered with whitewash. Many are brilliantly coloured. A few are annotated. Many are incomplete in some way, with either the title, the artists, printer, seller or publication date cut away, leaving only the picture remaining. Not all had titles or frames in the first place. In a few, the figures have been cut from their backgrounds and mounted alone. Many of these deficiencies have been supplied in this list by comparison with the basic print collection in the British Library. Some are round or oval, most rectangular.
In this list the prints have been described in chronological order by date of publication and cross-referenced if the dates of the event and of the publication were significantly apart, as occasionally, when popular prints were reissued. Those bearing no publication date have been supplied with an approximate one from internal, topical and other evidence. Details supplied from British Museum (now British Library) catalogues or elsewhere appear in square brackets. The information, in a separate square bracket following the title of the print, gives the subject of the print because this is not always obvious from its title. Information in double square brackets appears in this list in single square brackets in the Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum vols. II to IV, 1689-1770, printed 1873-1883 (unindexed) and the Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires vols. V-XI 1771-1832 printed 1935-54 (indexed). The British Museum (BM) number where found, appears after the number given to each print in this list. These British Museum catalogues employ one continuous numbering system.
The collection This is a remarkable collection of 200 prints, caricatures and personal and political satires concerning life and events 1729-1874. They form a recently rediscovered part of the letters and papers of the Baker, later Baker Baker, family of Elemore Hall, Pittington, Co. Durham, a family well known in local social, sporting and agricultural circles as well as in political and public affairs in the north east in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and earlier. These prints illustrate and throw further light on many matters concerned in the Baker Baker papers already deposited at University of Durham, Archives and Special Collections, 5 The College, Durham City.
By publication dates these prints fall into three distinct collections. The main collection of some 189 items (some are cut up) covers 1747-1810 with two smaller groups round 1820 and 1870. This main span of years covers the life of Mrs. Judith Baker, from her life with her three younger sisters and her parents Cuthbert Routh and Judith (née Milbanke) in Dinsdale, Co. Durham and Snape, Yorkshire, throughout her marriage in 1749 with George Baker of Elemore Hall (son of the M.P. of the same name) and her early widowhood in 1774, until her death in 1810. After George died in May 1774, aged only 51, Judith continued as mistress at Elemore Hall taking a large part in running the family businesses including lead, alum, coal and the landed estate for another thirteen years, as her handwriting throughout the papers testifies. On her son George's marriage she moved to Tynemouth in 1787, dying there over twenty years later. The family papers show Judith as an energetic, businesslike woman of character and ability, who throughout her long life enjoyed life fully and involved herself in financial, legal and political matters. The papers show she enjoyed elections, entertainments, jaunts to London, food, shopping, the races, fashions and scandal. Her accounts in, her own hand, stop only a few days before her death aged 84. Almost certainly she was the main collector of these prints with her son George helping her with her hobby while she lived.
After the year of Judith's death nothing was added to the collection for eight years, then in 1818-22 seven more prints appear, perhaps collected by Judith's son George and his wife Isabella née Dalton. This George much resembled his mother in character and interests, adding to them cockfighting, fox hunting, shooting, cattle and horse breeding and possibly boxing. He was a well known gentleman rider, riding in and winning his last race aged 68 and continuing riding until his death, a recent widower, aged over 80 in 1837.
Thereafter the collection was untouched till 1868-1874 when six posters concerning Parliamentary elections in Co. Durham were added. Sporting George's heir was his grandson Henry John Baker Tower, or Baker, who died in 1871 between these elections. The collection ends with two prints, copied in the style of a century earlier, supplements to the Graphic magazine of 1 June 1889.
The Baker prints provide new light on the family by illustrating interests which are not prominent in the papers, besides the many that are, such as politics and fashion. During their pursuit of pleasure in London, at many race-courses and in their newspapers, the Bakers took an interest in events beyond their native north. For instance, from the evidence in the papers the Napoleonic wars would appear to have interested them little, but the prints tell another tale. This portfolio of prints, existing alongside detailed papers, accounts, vouchers, pamphlets and books (but not family correspondence) forms a rare and valuable source to enrich knowledge of a most energetic and full-blooded, high-living local family in the Georgian and Regency periods.
The earliest print, for which the Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum supplies the date 17 January 1747, presumably new style, is entitled "The Modern Duel". It is, a scene from the play "A Miss in her Teens" at Covent Garden Theatre, London. The heroine's gown is so carefully drawn it could well have provided an adequate model for a dressmaker to copy and may have been acquired for that purpose. This is the only print in the collection which predates Judith's marriage in 1749.
Only 17 prints bear publication dates during the 25 years of Judith's married life and none of these survive from the first half of that period, whereas some 171 were collected in the 36 years of her widowhood. These first prints from the 1760's and early 1770's reflect her and George's interest in national and local politics, fashion, scandal, horse racing and the military, documented in the earlier deposits of their family papers and adds the national lottery and clerical abuses. A group of seven (numbers 2-8) 1762-3 concern the ministry of the Scottish John Stuart 3rd Earl of Bute, his associates, his excise and other taxes and his alleged relationship with the Princess of Wales. This group of prints concerning national politics was probably the result of the Baker involvement in the Durham City election of March-April 1761 when extra "mushroom" freemen were created to influence the vote, resulting in a petition and proceedings in the House of Commons. Eventually Major General Lambton (not Major Ralph Gowland) was declared the member. Judith had campaigned actively for him and was showered with congratulations. Perhaps he sent these prints after he took his seat. Though no letter at this period from him survives with the Baker papers the covers of letters sent to him at Elemore appear as voucher wrappers and attest a close association. Among the songs, ballads, broadsheets and other papers in Judith's hand concerning this election and aftermath, (Baker Baker Box 11), is a ballad entitled "The London Voters Ditty Humbly inscribed to Mrs. B-a-k-r" and starting "To you Fair Queen of Elm-r Hall we Londoners indite" etc.(BB/11/78/8). Bute's cider tax (no.3) was held by some to be an anti-English, therefore pro-Scottish, pro-Jacobite tax, as it was put on an English, not a Scottish, national drink.
Although Sir Thomas Clavering, whom the Bakers supported, was unsuccessful in the 1761 Durham County election, Clavering received from Lord Bute in 1762 a promise to appoint his nominee as the next tide surveyor (an officer of customs and excise) at North Shields. This written promise Clavering must have passed to the Bakers among whose papers it survives, without any obvious evidence that they used it. BB print no.5 shows Bute offering bites at his cherries! Clavering became MP for Co. Durham in 1768. In 1766 Bute's eldest son John married Charlotte Jane, (daughter of Alice Clavering who had married Viscount Windsor) a kinswoman of Clavering the M.P.. Mounted beside the cherry print is (BB print no.2) "Three Roads to John Bull's farm" 1762, an anti-Scottish print alluding to border reivers, Lord Bute and the 1745 Jacobite rising which Judith and her husband would remember four years before their marriage. The print shows the Pretender's banner with the legendary three crowns over a coffin. George Baker, the MP, who died in 1723 was suspected of Jacobitism (Heesom 49). The acquisition of this print suggests Judith's husband George remembered, if he did not share, his long dead father's sympathies. That he did actually share them can be argued from a cryptic entry inside the front cover of one of his notebooks, (BB 73/263), a green one with a brass clasp, recording that on March the 6th 1745/6 he drank his Majesty King George's ‘health in Ale and wish'd him as well as if in Burgundy’! - Burgundy being out of Britain and roughly on the road back to Hanover, as well as a fine wine. To record drinking the king's health in a notebook for noting fox hunting matters, would have been out of place enough, without the significant ambiguity. Unlike his father and son, this George Baker did not stand for Parliament, though he was mayor of Hartlepool in 1767.
Their print of the lottery winner (no.9) could be a wry reference to the Bakers' finances. When George died in 1774, leaving his daughter's marriage portion not completely paid and his son just under-age, he was at least £6,000 in debt (BB 14/65-67) and Judith had to try to borrow (BB 14/89a). The £20,000 won in 1768 by a man from Abingdon would have solved their problems. That year the Bakers took a house in New Bond Street from March to May, one of several visits they made to London, Judith had her diamonds reset by Webb the jeweller and shopped at length for herself and her children. George bought a carpet costing £12 and books. His extensive library, much of which he had inherited from his great uncle, the Reverend Thomas Baker of St. Johns College, Cambridge, B.D., included books in English, French and Latin on divinity, history, law, the classics, literature, geography and travel, practical books on surgery, gardening etc. and novels and magazines (BB 58/131) He had been educated at Eton and St. John's College Cambridge. He had many of his fashionable suits made for him in London and at some time had his portrait painted by Joshua Reynolds. In 1772 16 guineas were paid for a diamond bracelet for their daughter Elizabeth, possibly a betrothal or twenty-first birthday present. In October 1772 her parents were in Durham attending an Assembly, when they bought her a print there for 6d., which one is not specified. (BB 44/22).
A print in the collection dated May 1772, the Fat Pluralist, (no.17) a satire on greedy clergy, could reflect thoughts on diversification of incomes as much as anticlericalism. Among her friends Judith Baker included Dorothy Cowper, née Townsend, (wife of the Dean of Durham, Spencer Cowper) whose letters to Judith showed her political support of Lambton (BB boxes 11/100 and 11/109). The Bakers sometimes dined at the Durham Deanery. The Bakers were conventionally religious. In the absence of correspondence one cannot say more. The vouchers show their tithes, moduses and church cesses duly paid. Very rarely, such as in Bath, does one notice them giving any other money to church. Their daughter Elizabeth was married in Pittington church in 1773 and the family burial place is there. On two occasions Judith bought Books of Common Prayer but no other obviously religious books have been noticed among the few lists of books either purchased or yet surviving with the papers. Most of the books on divinity in the library had come from the Rev. Thomas Baker. Throughout the collection of prints, one does not find many the whole thrust of which is to satirize the clergy adversely. The vicar and Moses 1782 (no.50) a tipsy vicar and his clerk, was, according to the British Museum's catalogue, unfortunately "popular among the vulgar", but the Baker copy has the unedifying verses cut away. Print no.97, a clergyman and pig is probably a reference to greed over tithes, but has been kept for the picture, the title etc. being cut away. The print of Shute Barrington, Bishop of Durham, in 1798 no.120 concerns a speech he made in Parliament in favour of improving, not condoning, poor public morals and the evidence of his diocesan papers records his efforts to improve standards of public and private behaviour. Judith lived to see the ordination of her grandson Charles Tower who was born in 1782. It is likely that Barrington was an acquaintance of the Bakers, Elemore standing only about 7 miles east of Durham City. The Reverend R. Wright dedicated to his honoured friend George Baker a sermon he preached (BB 10/168) in Pittington Church on 17 February 1758, a fast day requested by King George II, in which he stressed the need for national moral repentance and reform from degeneracy, specifying French fashions and French effeminacy in which the buyers of these prints took an obvious interest.
Judith's interest in fashion is evident in the papers and in her legion of dressmaker's bills and is reflected in prints of the early 1770's, the french hairdresser, the dressy french cook, the satires on tall wigs and other extremes. Her interest has produced a valuable series illustrating female and male fashion over about 60 years. The print of the cook is a reminder that Judith was herself a cook. She collected recipes from her friends ("take twenty good lobsters …"!) and noted her own variations (BB 68/225).
Judith and George enjoyed a busy social life. Tickets for plays and concerts, which Judith sometimes attended without George and for Assemblies were bought and they dined with and visited friends. There was a theatre then in Durham City. George enjoyed smoking and shooting and they attended the races at Newcastle and elsewhere, which were then very much part of the polite social season. Judith's husband did not range to such distant racecourses as her son did, nor did he ride in races himself or breed horses for racing. Judith shared the interest in horses and many of the farriers' and smiths' bills in the papers were sent directly to her. George was made deputy Lieutenant for County Durham in 1754, 1758 and 1761 by the Earls of Darlington (Lord Barnard) (BB 39, 11/3, 8-10) which further involved the couple in local public life.
Prints of George's interest in politics, military matters, horses and taxation appear also. A title-less print, apparently of a yeoman farmer with large buttons (no.11) could be George III, "Farmer George" who liked to make buttons as one of his hobbies. Acts of Parliament relating to the militia and instructions on military manoeuvres figure in George Baker's papers so the print of the Half Pay Officer (no.15) is appropriate. The Eclipse Macarony, "Count" Dennis O' Kelly 1773 on his famous race horse Eclipse (no.19) shows George's, or his young son's, interest in horse breeding and racing which young George inherited in fuller measure.
The last print in the collection dated before George's death in May 1774 is of two male riders one behind the other and its title is fitting, "George's Delight or Neck or Nothing", (no.21), but the picture belies the title, it is not of a close race with risks taken. The leading rider bestrides awkwardly a horse too small for him. The more competent rider remains behind because he is a servant. The leading rider could be identified with George as seen in his portrait by Reynolds, slim, with a long straight nose and a rather severe straight mouth. Perhaps the print was bought, or presented, to poke gentle fun at a George whose aspirations to horsemanship were not matched by his performance. The print was published in London where the Bakers had made long visits. Reynold's perceptive looking portrait of George portrays him as a pale, rather withdrawn looking, quietly elegant gentleman on a pillared portico, against the background of a dignified canopy and a cloudy northern sky. (He had had Elemore expensively transformed 1749-53 into a "Palladian retience" Trans. Arch & Arch. Soc. of Durham and Northumberland 6 1982, pp.31-5). He is neither thin nor fat. He holds a fairly small document with the crisp folds of a mediaeval parchment title deed, referring to his family's long standing among the northern landed and coal-owning gentry. The quill pen and account book on the richly-draped table behind, suggest a continuity and success in that role, not always borne out by his business papers.
George's early death cannot have been unexpected as they had visited Bath with its medicinal waters after London in 1768 and again in 1771 (BB 65/175-179 and 78/6) and he had been ill in the winter of 1773-4 (BB 14/42 & 14/53a). Judith, to whom business correspondence had already been directed, was executor, legatee and trustee and continued her involvement in business long after young George's return from Cambridge University and his majority in October 1775. In the months after George's death only one print dated October 1774 (no.20) was added to the collection. It concerned ominous developments in Britain's colonies in America with the assault on a customs officer in Boston.
The year 1776 is a milestone in the print collection. Judith's years of caring for children and an ailing husband were over. Her daughter Elizabeth had been married by licence at Pittington Church on 2 September 1773, just months before her father's death, to Christopher Tower of Huntsmore, Iver, Bucks. and her son had come of age. Judith needed light relief and from March to May she was away in the London area enjoying her freedom and relative affluence and adding to the print collection then and over the next two years, a series of satires on various fashionable frivolities - a new fashioned phaeton, high wigs, curls, feathers, wide skirts (nos.22-29 etc.) and on other female activities, female jockeys, female tipplers and card sharps and the lady volunteers at Warley military camp (nos.32, 33, 35 and 40). One of her own hairdresser's bills, for three sessions in London, records the cost of a cushion with hair 7s, a pad with curls 6s, a bow 6s, two curls 4s, three dressings 6s.
The country's increasing preoccupation with the American war and subsequent war-weariness, is mirrored in prints from 1777-80 of the trained bands, the French captain, recruits, military recruits and camps, the peace commissioners, Admiral Keppel and John Bull triumphant, (nos. 30, 31, 34, 36, 39 and 42) found mixed with prints on more social subjects. In London again in June 1778, Judith bought prints on three occasions, costing 6s 6d in all. Probably they cost 6d each (BB 81/44-5). Her kinsman Edward Milbanke was a soldier as was his son Edward, giving her, over the years, a more than general interest in military matters (BB 66/189 and 66/192). To keep in touch, Judith and her son George had the Whitehall Evening Post sent to them at Elemore from London and also took the Morning Post (BB 81/45 Oct. 1778). No prints have been found included in these London newsagents' bills. In 1780-81 there are four prints all drawn by H. Bunbury and published by Dickinson in Bond Street London. Perhaps these were sent to Judith by her sisters Elizabeth Bland and Dorothy Chapeau who were together in London in January 1782 and intending to write her a "scandalous" letter when sending on a newspaper (BB 15/101). The prints are social sketches of billiard playing, family portrait painting, and interiors of a chop house and coffee house (nos.46-9). These two prints of portrait painting, this one of 1781 (no.47) and Lady Penweanle, undated (no.16) are too late to provide clues as to when it was that George senior, who died in 1774, had had his (still surviving) portrait painted by Joshua Reynolds, as had several of his wife's relatives the Milbankes. Reynolds was a great friend of Admiral Augustus Keppel, whose caricature is included in the collection (no.39). By 1764 Reynolds charged 70 guineas for a half-length portrait such as George Baker's. ( DNB .16.946). Reynolds possibly also painted Judith, as a "large picture of Mrs. Baker" but valued at only 3 gns. hung in her dressing room at Elemore in 1774 and she had pictures of herself and George in her drawing room at Tynemouth (BB 58/125, 133-4).
From 1782 onwards survive many prints relating to Parliamentary and national political matters which reflect the family's Parliamentary interest. George Baker, Judith's father-in-law, of Crook Hall and Elemore was MP for Durham City 1713-22. He married Elizabeth daughter of Thomas Conyers of Elemore who was MP for Durham City in eight parliaments between 1698 and 1727. He was a Tory. Their son George married Judith Routh and they both took a deep interest as their papers show, in Durham parliamentary elections and political disputes. Judith's mother Judith was a daughter of Sir Mark Milbanke the 2nd baronet and her first cousin Sir Ralph Milbanke the 4th baronet, married Elizabeth daughter of John Hedworth of Chester-le-Street MP and their son Ralph became MP for Co. Durham in 1790. He married Judith Noel and their daughter, Anne Isabella Milbanke, famous for her brief marriage to Lord Byron, was born at Elemore in 1792 ( Noels and Milbankes by M. Elwin 426). Mark Milbanke was an unsuccessful parliamentary candidate in 1774 (BB 14/82 and 85a) John Milbanke was involved in the Durham City election of 1780 (15/74 & 83). George Baker, Judith's son considered standing himself for the county in 1786 when Sir Thomas Clavering was in poor health ( Noels and Milbankes 279-80) and was to stand unsuccessfully for Durham City in 1800 and 1813 (Heesom 42). Handbills addressed to George and press-cuttings show the family's interest in the 1784 election (BB 15/77/16/25-7 & 29). All these and other parliamentary connections served to add, by purchase or gift, numerous prints to the collection. Judith and her son followed the fortunes of the Tory Lord North and his soap tax, the Whigs Charles James Fox and Edmund Burke and the coalition government's East India stock affair and then William Pitt's ministry with his taxes on shops and maidservants (nos. 53-64). There is also a print of 1784 of Lord Rodney (no.59) whose exploits at St. Eustatius in 1781 (no.49) and whose victory at St. Lucia, Barbados in 1782 were so well known. Judith must have seen or met some of these famous folk in London where she attended entertainments at Vauxhall and Ranelegh and elsewhere. Another whom she may have met was Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire, born 1757, whose high plumed headdresses (featured in these prints) were the talk of the town in 1777 ( Face without Frown by I.L. Gower 36). Georgiana, a great friend of Fox, was out canvassing in person in the 1784 election and a print of this was added to the collection (no.58). The print "Rural Masquerade dedicated to the Regatta'ites" of 1776 satirising the high headdresses, (no.25), is probably another reference to Georgiana who loved regattas ( ibid . 42). Both Judith and Georgiana shared a love of politics and London life, of high fashion and rural pursuits. The sometime MP for Co. Durham, Sir John Eden, was criticised in a handbills of 1774 and 1784 (BB 14/70 & 16/26) and the prints contain one of 1785. "The Loss of Eden and Eden Lost" (no.71) concerning Sir John's brother William Eden (Lord Auckland from 1789) who had been one of the commissioners to America in 1788 but who joined Pitt to negotiate a commercial treaty with France.
After these political and parliamentary prints is a group of late 1785, of social comment, street dangers, a cheating purveyor, a ranting preacher, card players and also the medical and legal professions with whom Judith and her husband had business during his ill health and prolonged Chancery case over Harraton colliery, (nos.65-70 & 72).
In October 1785 Judith's sister Elizabeth Bland, writing from London, recommended to her the Herald newspaper as having "all the scandale and Chit Chat in it" (BB 86/52). Scandal was obviously a great interest of Judith's. In 1777 she copied into a notebook various verses concerning Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore and Andrew Robinson Stoney, the adventurer whom she married in 1777 as her second husband and who ill-treated her. Mary Eleanor's tragedy would have added poignancy to Judith who would have known her personally, as John Bowes, Earl of Strathmore, her first husband whom she married in 1767 was one of the executors of Judith's husband George's will in 1774, until March 1776, when she lost his help upon his death on a voyage to Lisbon. In 1757 George and Judith had held a supper dance, or "hop" as George put it, at Elemore for the young Lord Strathmore (BB 10/163). Over the years to 1793, Judith collected a range of pamphlets songs, verses and press-cuttings about this saga of Mary Eleanor's hasty second marriage (BB box 71). The print collection includes one of "Stoney Bowes" in the Court of King's Bench in 1786 appearing to answer articles exhibited by the Countess (no.88). On the theme of wife-exploitation Judith had another print (no.52) of 1782 "Sir Richard Worse than Sly, Exposing his wife's bottom - O fye". Worsley, governor of the Isle of Wight apparently helped a friend to spy on his wife bathing. This is a rare print. According to the BM catalogue the plate was suppressed.
For over a decade following 1784 prints concerning royalty, scandal, fashion and society actually outnumber those on politics. There are prints of George III and Queen Charlotte Sophia as farmers, one of the King out riding and later, one in 1800, on the attempt by James Hadfield on the King's life, (nos.77, 93 and 127). The Prince of Wales features often, his relationship with Mrs. Maria Ann Fitzherbert, their secret marriage, his extravagance and retrenchment and his political marriage to Princess Charlotte of Brunswick (nos.78, 80, 82-3, 87 95, 99 and 113). The mistress of one of his brothers the Duke of Clarence, Mrs. Jordan née Bland is shown in two prints, (nos.73 and 99) in one acting in a play The Romp. (Did Judith speculate on any relationship to her sister's husband James Bland?).
Other items showing Judith's love of the stage are one of aristocratic private theatricals at Richmond, (no.91), and one of Bishop Barrington of Durham inspecting the high kicks of an opera dancer, (no.120). There is also a print of 1794 of the obese actor Stephen Kemble (no.112), famous for playing Falstaff without padding and who was buried in Durham Cathedral. Besides playing in London and Edinburgh, he was sometime manager of theatres in Newcastle, Sunderland and in Sadler Street Durham. His home in Durham City was "the Grove" near Durham School, where he died in 1822. Judith must have seen his performances. On this print, someone, probably Judith from the handwriting, has written "Oh! that this too too solid flesh would melt" [Hamlet]. The print shows the fat Kemble playing Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, wearing appropriately, the Danish Order of the Elephant! By 1794, the date of the print, Judith was resident in Tynemouth, within easy reach of Newcastle Theatre Royal.
Prints on fashion satirize large muffs and wide brimmed hats, wired fichus, bustles, cork padded rumps and tight-lacing for both sexes, hairdressing, tall feathers, low necklines and slit-sided skirts (nos. 74, 79, 84, 89-90, 104-5, 108 and 116). Some of these prints could be portraits of the then current fashionable world. In the two prints Bosom Friends and The Go-between (nos.79 and 89) two of the wonderfully-bosomed ladies are the same people, perhaps known to Judith. Although published by different publishers, the unnamed artist is obviously the same. Unsatirised elegance can be seen on prints satirising other matters. Judith's dressmakers', milliners', shoemakers' etc. bills show her lifelong devotion to tasteful dressing often in the styles of the prints she collected.
Other current affairs illustrated were the impeachment of Warren Hastings for peculation in India, a long investigation which entertained the public from 1788-95, (nos.81 and 98), the George Gordon libel case, (no.94), assaults made with a knife on various ladies by Renwick Williams in 1790, (nos.102-3) and a Duke of York, Lord Strathmore and Lady Tyrconnel scandal.
Judith moved to Tynemouth in 1787 when at length George married and she was consequently nearer to Newcastle upon Tyne and the various delights of city life she had enjoyed on London visits. There was also in Tynemouth a print seller with whom she dealt.
The fashionable pastimes which Judith enjoyed are depicted in prints of minuet dancers, socialites, card players, female gamblers pilloried, a country concert and a college rout, (nos.92, 100, 101, 109, 118 and 123). This last was printed in Cambridge where her husband's great uncle Thomas Baker had been a don of St. John's College, Cambridge, her son George had studied, and where the Baker family had endowed scholarships (BB 21/169). Several of her Towers grandsons studied there. This print is rare as being produced outside London and illustrates women present at social functions in a college where none could study. There are also four which suggest Judith's awareness of the passing years, old ladies disagreeing over cards, old "tabbies" at a pet cat's funeral, taking physick and the triumph of sentiment which portrays a rich old woman's young bridegroom, (nos.35, 107, 124 and 129). Perhaps prints were given to her by some of her 11 grandchildren - 10 of whom were her daughter Elizabeth Tower's.
George Baker had considered standing for Parliament for Co. Durham in the 1787 by-election but had not stood in the general election of 1790, instead, becoming mayor of Hartlepool in 1792. Perhaps the death of John Tempest MP for Co. Durham in 1794 and Henry Vane-Tempest's election occasioned the purchase of a short run of political prints, the first for nearly 10 years, perhaps collected by or for George. One of 1794, of Billy Pitt consulting the devil about the war, is the first reference in the print collection to the French Revolution and its aftermath (no.111). Skits on politicians, royal and republican soldiers follow, (nos.114, 117, 119 and 121-2). George and his wife Isabella, daughter of John Dalton of Sleningford, Yorks. probably knew the Revd. Christopher Wyvill of nearby Constable Burton, North Yorkshire, advocate of Parliamentary Reform who sent to them several of his publications, including his correspondence with Pitt. Isabella (Dalton) Baker owned some printed letters of Edmund Burke (BB 67, pamphlets). A print concerning Burke (no.56) published in 1784 joined the collection probably before her marriage to George Baker in 1787. George Baker's love of dogs and horses is evident in this print collection and led him to have portraits of several of them painted. Besides his hounds he kept various other dogs (BB128/121). Pitt's dog tax of 1796, (no.117), would have affected him. Prints on horsemanship include in 1786 "How to be run away with" and "How to ride a Horse upon three legs", (nos.85 and 86). In 1791 George Baker and John Mangles, horse trainer, of Malton had contrived to outrun and defeat the Prince of Wales' horse, Traveller, at a York race meeting, with their horses Cavendish and Toby Tickle. (T. Tickle is given as the publisher of "Mrs. Clarke's Breeches" in 1809). George had a painting made of this horse Cavendish (BB 128/21). There is an elegant print of a restive horse from a picture by Wouverman in 1794, (no.110), and in 1800 "How to Ride with Elegance" is a print (no.126) of the Earl of Landaff's son, whom Baker may well have known. He and his two brothers who all looked alike, also figure in 1803 in a print (no.141). Mr. "Goose" Davis, another noted sportsman appears in 1807 in "A view of Newmarket Heath", where doubtless George had met him, (no.171). George never missed a York race meeting in 55 years unless indisposed and he last attended the Derby at distant Epsom in 1835 when he was 80, in which year he had a portrait painted of himself mounted on his favourite mare, aged 30 (BB 128/21). The print entitled the Dandy, of a smart rider on a well bred horse, may well be another of the acquaintances of whom George collected their prints, (no.183). In 1800 George became guardian to the heir of Sir Frank Standish, a fellow lover of horses pictured in "A Standing Dish at Boodles" (no.128). The heir, Frank Hall Standish, eventually a noted dandy and connoisseur, was caricatured in 1819 (no.188). Cattle and horse breeding were interests shared by George with the fifth Duke of Bedford, who appears with stock in 1802 (no.132) and with the sixth Duke, shown at the races in 1803 (no.143) and elsewhere among other politicians, to whom George sent meat from his "extraordinary" heifer in 1813 (BB 19/129). A fine drawing of a prize haunch of mutton from a Leicestershire wether was collected in 1804, (no.147). An undated print of the boxers Crib and Molineux, (no.182), their names added, probably in George's hand, must date from 1809 or 1810 after the match was proposed, but before it took place. George's known love of cock-fighting which he shared with his friend Sir Henry Liddell, does not feature among the prints. ( “Cockfighting in Northumberland and Durham during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries”, George Jobey, Archaeologia Aeliana Fifth Series vol.xx pp.1-2).
In 1800 in the print collection there appears an anomalous bound portfolio of drawings, (no.125), etched by Richard Cosway and his wife Maria Hadfield. The Cosways were close to the Prince of Wales but were miniature and oil painters not political satirists. It could be that these elegant, pastoral prints were added to the collection as a gift from Judith to Isabella, her daughter-in-law, as they are not to Judith's usual taste. They were published by R. Ackerman, who also published the 1801 fashion print, Light Summer Hat, in the collection (no.130).
Judith reached 75 years of age in 1800 and her interest in current fashion, though not in her own dresses, was flagging. The extreme simplicity of fashionable thin muslin was in sharp contrast to the elaborate toilettes of her youth. Almost the last print of her many on fashion, (no.130), which was published in July 1801 "A light summer hat", ridicules male fashions. However, her enjoyment of the stage continued. A bundle of her Tynemouth vouchers 1809 is wrapped in a play bill (BB95/103). Theatrical prints 1801-7 comprise one of Elizabeth Billington, singer, also "Miss Bailey" a song from "Love Laughs at Locksmiths" and "The Wig and Cane" and "Ricardo's Fate", comic songs, (nos. 131, 144, 146 and 164). More local songs, some of which concern people and situations found in the Baker prints and probably as ephemeral, were being collected by John Bell, landsurveyor and bookseller in the early years of the nineteenth century ( Songs from the Manuscript Collection of John Bell ed. D.I. Harker, Surtees Society 196, 1985).
From 1802 to 1807 there is a magnificent and brightly coloured series of over two dozen prints, perhaps collected by George, on the Napoleonic wars and other politics, in which John Bull is prominent, (nos. 133-174). These include references to Bantry Bay mutineers, Goree off Senegal which was briefly British, a statue of Pitt, military camps, armies, the British capture of Malta, the Brest Blockade, the base villain [Napoleon], French volunteers, British political turmoil, the "broad bottomites", scandal over Pitt's friend Dundas and the navy revenue and other place and profit hunters, Napoleonic imperialism, attitudes of European leaders to Napoleon, elections, the Danish fleet and other current affairs. Those by Gillray are particularly full of innuendo and significant detail. The prints relating to the navy are perhaps particularly significant, as Judith had two grandsons and George two nephews serving there. One was John Tower, born in 1778 who rose to the rank of Admiral. The other was his younger brother Edward, who was drowned in H.M.S. Blenheim in 1807, ( Burkes Landed Gentry 1894 vol.2 2026).
From 1806 royal scandal again features. One print concerns the Prince of Wales, (no.157) and Frances Ann Taylor, wife of Michael Angelo Taylor, whom George Baker proposed as a candidate in a Durham City election much later in 1830 (BB 21/77). Eight prints concern his brother the Duke York whose mistress Mary Ann Clark arranged military and other promotions for cash, (nos.169 & 175-81). This so-typical group was the last which Judith collected. The collection comes to an abrupt gap in the year of her death. It is this gap which convinces one that the print collection to date had been almost entirely Judith's with some contributions from her son who annotated two or three and possibly a few from her sisters, husband and daughter-in-law. Judith died 30 April 1810 (Durham Probate Records 1810), admonishing tradesmen, eating and dressing well and supervising her household minutely to the end, doubtless saddened to know her only daughter Elizabeth had been widowed on 10 March. Her life, 1725-1810, had spanned the rule of George I, II and III. Her son George was the heir and her prints (and other effects) were to return to Elemore where many remained till 1947 when the family sold their home of over 300 years and took away with them some architectural features, fireplaces etc. perhaps purchased by George and Judith early in their marriage, when Elemore was transformed. These were moved to Sedbury near Richmond, Yorkshire, in which Henry Tower (Judith's son-in-law) had had an interest in 1820 and where the family now lives. Judith's father Cuthbert Routh, had lived in Richmond in early life (BB 128/100).
What do we know of Judith Baker's character? After a birthday greeting in 1782, Judith's next younger sister Elizabeth, writing for herself and sister Dorothy, had continued to Judith "I cannot wish a better [greeting] to your son who I hope will long know the good of such a mother" (BB 15/109) and in 1781 Sophia Curzon née Noel of Kirby Malling, Yorkshire wrote to her aunt Mary Noel "I am of your mind about Mrs. Baker, I think she is one of the best I saw in the North" ( Noels and Milbankes 182). Her surviving and outstanding paperwork is an appropriate memorial, a shining contrast to that of her father, husband and son. Her meticulous care in balanced book-keeping, supported by vouchers kept as she labelled them, month by month, year by year, attest to her care of her family's and her tenants' security and position, while her prints, dressing bills, grocery lists and race-going show what fun she was and what fun she had.
After she left Elemore in 1787, the accounting there dropped in standard. George was a sportsman, a local politician and stockbreeder, not much interested in fashion, books or book keeping and sometimes lived beyond his means. When the Dinsdale estate of Judith's late father Cuthbert Routh was sold in order to sort out his tangled affairs, Judith was pressed to hand to the purchaser her marriage settlement, which provided for her children and only one of the terms of which concerned Dinsdale. She declined to part with the original, writing in her own hand, not through a lawyer, to William Lambton the purchaser in December 1771 "we must take care for the safety of those that come after us, in this you will not blame us or believe we w'd injure yrs" (BB 128/106 h).
Her death reminded George that his will was unmade, a situation he soon remedied (BB 41/20 25.4.1811). In the autumn following her death, there was issued a print of another remarkable woman, which probably George added to the collection. It is of Sartjee a Hottentot woman brought to Europe and put on show. Her broad bottom was lampooned in association with the "broad bottomed" coalition ministry already mocked in the print collection. George had another reason to buy this print and one other similar (nos. 184-5), as Sartjee is shown smoking her pipe. Years before, George Baker had bet Sir Harry Liddell 100 guineas that Harry's negro servant Sambo could not smoke one pound of tobacco in an hour. A stage was erected in Durham market place on market day and there, surrounded by a merry crowd, Sambo successfully smoked away George's money, a prank they must long have smiled over ( Sporting Magazine August 1837).
After the year of Judith's death no-one for eight years added anything surviving to the print collection. Not even Napoleon's Russian defeat, nor the Waterloo campaign nor George Baker's performance in the by-election for Durham City in 1813, when George Allan polled 440 to his 360, or other elections in which he was interested, contributed anything to the collection. At last, from 1818-c.1822 appears the small second part of the Baker print collection, seven more were added. Of these, four are social comment, a crowded drawing room, a soldier dallying with field pieces, the dandy Frank Hall Standish (who was George Baker's ward) and a children's dancing lesson, (nos. 186-8 and 192). The other three are of Alderman Matthew Wood who defended Queen Caroline, of George IV's fear of her return and of his political vulnerability, (nos. 189-91). Isabella Baker, who lived at Elemore close on fifty years, had not taken up her mother-in-law's hobby.
The last section of the print collection is a group on Durham and Northumberland elections 1868-c.1874, (nos. 193-98). Isabella and George Baker both died in their 80's and were succeeded in 1837 by their only child Isabella, who died in 1842, and had married in 1816 her first cousin Henry Tower, fifth son of Judith's daughter Elizabeth, who had married Christopher Tower in 1773. Their eldest son Henry John Baker Tower changed his surname to Baker in 1844, which is how the surname Baker became Baker Baker. In Henry John's time one poster or large print concerning the Durham City election of 1868 when liberals were elected, in which he was not standing, was added. Henry John died in January 1871. The last political items in the collection are a group from the 1874 election for North Durham, (now part of Northumberland) an election disputed on account of irregularities.
The print collection ends in 1889 with two facsimiles of prints of the century earlier where the collection began. Thoughts on a single life and on matrimony, presented with the Graphic Magazine June 1889, (nos. 199 and 200).
The original acquisition of these prints was an interesting process. A black edged envelope inside the portfolio has printed on the back of it a small black lion rampant, a black dragon and the monogram IBBI, the last two letters being printed mirror-fashion. This envelope could mark the death in 1896 of Isabella Baker Baker, wife since 1849 of Henry John. On it is written "Eva Baker always called this "old Geordie Baker's scrap-book" he is the one on the horse with his dog - born 1754 died 1835" etc.. Eva, Isabella's daughter, died in 1931. George Baker certainly owned the portfolio and its disbinding and excisions point to frequent handling of it by family members over the years. Its contents probably were not collected systematically. The prints appear to have been bought as opportunity arose, an event of interest took place, or else received as gifts. Some subjects and some events are favoured over others. Groups of prints from the same publisher and close in date attest a visit to a joint printer or publisher, while prints of mixed publishers and close dates suggest a selection from a print shop stocking products of various publishers. No particular artist or publisher seems to have been collected consistently. This collection may seem large, but it is only a small proportion of what was published. The six main decades of the collection, 1760-1820, are represented by 8, 31, 60, 24, 57 and 7 items per decade respectively, the years best represented being 1785 with 14, of which 5 were political, 1784 with 15, of which 1 was political, 1789 with 9, (none political) and 1807 with 17 (most political). Between 1770 and 1810, in only 4 years do none survive (1775, 1789, 1792 and 1808). The 1780's were in any case peak years in the fluctuating publication of political prints in England. According to the British Museum Catalogues of Political and Personal Satires, 325 political prints were published in 1784, but this was most unusual and by 1786-7 the numbers had fallen to 83 altogether, of which 69 were political. So many more were published than collected here, but some 32 here have not been identified in the British Museum Catalogues used. Another thing which become apparent, when comparing with the British Museum collection, is that crude and libellous though many of these prints are by later standards, there were many even cruder ones published. Judith Baker's taste was refined for her day. At some periods she collected briskly, especially when on holiday in London, at others little was added. Price, usually 6d per print, was apparently not a problem, but availability would be, London being where most were published, whence distributed to the provinces, where the selection would be more limited and outlets further apart.
A search for evidence for the process of acquisition of the prints was made. The Baker Baker papers are rich concerning the family's financial matters. Besides a series of cash books segregating receipts and disbursements at the family's estates and business ventures, the grain purchased, housekeeping, rentals, rates, wages etc., there is a rare series of vouchers to match these account books, comprising the tradesmen's bills and details of the sums which appear in round figures in account books. These vouchers run with gaps 1665-1891 and fill 37 standard boxes. For the second half of the eighteenth century there is usually a parcel for each year and within it a bundle for each month, up to about 5cms thick, of folded vouchers, which await detailed listing. The meticulousness of this accounting and the detail available seems almost overwhelming, but it still leaves some areas of casual spending undocumented in detail and it is precisely from this category of pocket money one would expect purchases of prints to be made. Like decorative posters today, prints would be bought and paid for in person by a buyer to whose taste they appealed when they were seen. They were small and irregular purchases, the sort of thing which would rarely be ordered in advance, or sent to the house with a bill unless included with other items. Thus when the cash book records "sundries", "expended in Durham" or "cash to Miss Baker" one could be seeing the purchase of prints. Time precludes the examination of all possible vouchers, but in sampling them and consulting other parts of the Baker Baker papers, direct evidence has emerged, mainly in lists of sometimes specified "sundries", to show that Judith Baker bought many prints and circumstantial evidence shows the association of other members of the family with other particular prints. As Judith kept the accounts in her day, of course any purchases of prints appear in her handwriting, but when Judith's own purchases can be isolated, such as during her trips to London in her widowhood and her lone residence at Tynemouth, then there is no doubt of her purchasing them herself. Such purchases were completely in character. She loved to see and hear of what people were doing, through almanacs, magazines and gossipy newspapers (she had her newspapers bound), assemblies, dinners, race meetings, operas, plays, trips to market days and to Bath and London and the pleasure gardens of Vauxhall and Ranelegh. Besides by purchase, prints could well have been presented as gifts by those who knew her tastes, thereby leaving no evidence in the accounts. One searches in vain for letters sent with gifts, but there is very little family correspondence in the Baker Baker papers, despite their copious spending on post and paper. Judith's sister Dorothy Chapeau lived and died in London and her sister Elizabeth Bland, wife and later widow of James Bland of Hurworth, Co. Durham, was obviously there too for lengthy periods. Judith had boxes of groceries sent from London quite often. Her sister Mrs. Bland, to whom Judith sent money, paid London bills for her and sent her other parcels, sometimes by sea, sometimes by land, payment due on delivery, which are very likely to have included prints.
After late 1787 and Judith's departure from Elemore to Tynemouth, the only reference to a print found in sampling George and Isabella's cash books and vouchers for Elemore, is George Baker's purchase in March 1822, of a proof impression for £5 2s 8d, of a print of the Lambton Hunt (vouchers 97/118). Judith's only known dealing with this type of more elaborate print, designed for keeping not as amusing ephemera, was in January 1788 when Lady Liddell sent her 15s to Tynemouth for a print (BB 46/33).
1807 was a peak year for the print collection. Seventeen survive for that year but no explicit mention of prints can be found in either account books or vouchers at Tynemouth or Elemore, although Ann Clifton (and daughter), bookseller and stationer in Durham, from whom prints were bought in December 1785 (vouchers 86/52) and in October 1787 (cash book 46/31) just before Judith's removal to Tynemouth, continued to supply to Elemore wares, "paper etc.", till 1807 and beyond. The "etc." could be significant. Judith certainly sent papers and magazines to George at Elemore from Tynemouth, so it is not unlikely that he sent her, either at her request or as gifts, some of the prints he knew she liked. In Tynemouth too, Judith could buy prints at S. Roddam & Son, booksellers, stationers, printsellers, bookbinders, dealers in mathematical instruments, sea charts etc., a little above the ferry boat landing in North Shields, with whom she still dealt the month she died (BB 49/52a xvii 2 May 1810). These two print sellers, Cliftons and Roddam's, could have obtained their stock from different sources and provide different choice. There are no duplicates in the collection. The prints added to the collection 1818-22 are not mentioned explicitly in the account book or in the unevenly surviving vouchers for those years. No possibly relevant vouchers or cash books can be located for 1868 and 1874 which might possibly have mentioned the election posters of those dates.
Prints, although obviously so popular in their time, were ephemera and not often preserved with family papers or in family libraries. Another of the few known collectors in this area was Robert Farimond of Bishopwearmouth, Co. Durham, a rich man whose movables were valued at under £5,000 when his will was proved in 1794. He bequeathed "my four (favourite) Prints of Hogarths', described and known by the Title and names of Morning, Noon, Evening and Night, and also a painted view …". (Durham Probate Records 1794). At Rokeby Park, on the Tees near Greta Bridge now in County Durham, there is a room, wall-papered with prints.
The prints were bought in London, Durham and Stockton for certain and probably in Bath, Cambridge and Tynemouth also, however almost all were published in London, the exceptions being A College Rout published in 1799 by J. Baldrey in Cambridge, the Lady Volunteers published anonymously in 1778 at 27 Great Castle Street, Oxford Market and Love and Beauty by Christopher Crupper in 1810 at Rumford [Essex]. Some prints (e.g. no.62 ) refer to their sale at "print shops in the country".
The printers, sellers and publishers, not always given, include in chronological order J. Williams, E. Sumpter, W. Darling, M. Darly, J. Smith, Carington Bowles, R. Sayer, J. Bennett, J. Lockington, a Non Subscriber, W. Humphrey(s), Watson and Dickinson, James Dareny, R. Owen, W. Dent, Thos. Cornell, J. Stockdale, E. Hedges, Wells, J. Wallis, S. Hooper, J. Nunn, J. Woodman, H. Mutlow, W. Hinton, J. Corn, (S).W. Fores, R.R. [?Rushworth], J. Burke, J. Carter, T. Bradshaw, E. Jackson, Js. Bretherton, H. Humphries, W. Dickie, Will. Holland, D. Sayer, W. Bond, F. Jukes, J. Aitken, W. Holland, J. Baldrey, R. Ackerman, Roberts, Laurie and Wittle, C. Knig[ht], Walker, Thos. Tegg, T. Tickle, John Fairbairn, Christopher Crupper, G. Humphrey(s) and [William] Benbow.
The publishers S.W. Fores of Piccadilly and H. Humphrey(s) of various addresses, are those best represented in the collection by about 30 from each, but this may be because they published over many years (1785-1820 and 1782-1810 in this collection), while many publishers were ephemeral. The various locations of the publishers and print shops in relation to where the Bakers stayed in London, is probably not significant. In 1768 they took a house in New Bond Street, but the first prints identifiable as published in that street, by Watson and Dickinson, are in 1779 and 1780, the Camp and Recruits (nos. 40-1). Judith's accounts of her visits to London in her widowhood contain reference to accommodation en route, but not in London, where, most probably, she stayed with her sister Dorothy Chapeau, who lived in or near the parish of St. Augustine Watling Street, Farrington, near King's Cross, in which parish church her husband Francis was buried in 1789. Nor need print shops have been near her lodgings. Travel about London on foot or in a hired chair, which her accounts mention, would present no fears to a woman who would readily take her post chaise from Co. Durham to London in company of only one groom and her maid.
Prices are occasionally mentioned on the prints e.g. 6d for the Game of Bob Cherry in 1763 and still the same price for Coming the York over her in 1809, over 40 years later. The five-page collection of Cosway etchings cost 7s 6d in 1800.
The artists, those who drew, engraved or etched the prints are not always marked thereon and where given, may be intended as part of the satire. They comprise in chronological order, C. Mosley, W. Darling, S.H. Grimm, Caldwell, R. St. Geo. Mansergh, [P. Dawell], [Richard Sneer], Sukey spightfull, [E. Topham], [P.S.], M.M., M.D., H.J., W.H. Bunbury, Watson and Dickinson, James Gillray, R. Dighton, W. Dickinson, [T. Colley], George Viscount Townsend, K. B[urnet], W.D., Long heads, Broadb[ottom], J.S.F. [Sayers], W. Dent, T. Rowlandson, T. Alken, J. Barlow, Fritz and Herbert, [?Kingsbury], J.J. [?Jas Hook], [Miss C.M. Fanshawe], [?Bearblock], L.G.G. [Lord Geo. Gordon], [?F.G. Byron], G. and I. Cruikshank(s), C. Goodnight, [Miss Aynscombe], Wouverman, Charles Loraine Smith, [H. Marke], F. Jukes, R. Newton, B. North, Maria and Richard Cosway, [George Moutard] Woodward, [Williams], Ed. Swinburne, T. Medland, R.F. [?R. Frankland], Marks, John Raphael Smith and William Ward. Sometimes the same person might appear in both capacities.
Names such as Cosway, Grimm and Wouverman are associated with less ephemeral works than most of those in this collection, which includes some 29 by Gillray, spanning 1780-1810. These begin with John Bull Triumphant over France, Spain and America and continues through politics, politicians, taxes, fashion, gossip and scandal with Lady Worsley, Lady Strathmore, Warren Hastings, the Prince and Princess of Wales, Pitt, Dundas, Fox, Sheridan, Addington, Grenville, Sidmouth etc., the Landaffs, Standish, Burdett, Elizabeth Billington, the Dukes of Bedford, George III and Napoleon Bonaparte. Some would consider this set well representative of the long working life of Britain's best known caricaturist, to be the crown of this fine collection.
Accession details The collection of British political, social and personal prints and satires, spanning approximately 1729-1889, was accumulated by the Baker, later Baker Baker, family of Elemore Hall, parish of Pittington, Co. Durham, where they were a long-established mineral and land-owning family. This collection was deposited temporarily with Archives and Special Collections at 5 The College, Durham City on 22 February 1994 by Mr. William Baker Baker of Sedbury Hall near Richmond, North Yorkshire, nephew of Colonel H. Conyers Baker Baker of Elemore and Sedbury and Mrs. Baker Baker who, together with the National Register of Archives, arranged the deposit of the bulk of the family papers at Durham University in 1947.
Arrangement The collection is kept in a large, partly disbound scrap book, with marbled boards and a tooled leather guard. The large size of the paper used, 32" x 23¼" (81 x 59 cms.), suggests it was made to order. The paper bears the Watmans watermark with no date, suggesting it was made before 1794 when exemption from tax of paper for export was introduced and dates in watermarks became more general. Most of the prints were acquired as separate items, some were published as part of sets, others were cut from other works, some mounted for framing, others trimmed of titles and other detail or more extensively cut about. Many are brightly coloured. Some would be bought coloured, but others could have been tinted at home later. Though the pages of the scrap book are grubby and torn and scuffed at the edges, most prints are in fairly good condition. The earliest prints have been mounted first and are most soiled, but later, pasting-in was done periodically and the chronological order was modified to form pleasing arrangements on the sheet. The mounting was most likely to have been started and continued by Judith in her widowhood, but the last mounted prints of the 1818-22 group were put in after her death, perhaps by sporting George's wife Isabella Dalton of Sleningford Yorkshire, a sociable, well-liked woman who, although she did not share her mother-in-law's involvement in business, duly checked the housekeeping accounts each week. Many of the pages in the portfolio of prints have been cut from it leaving odd-shaped pages and the collection is probably not as full as once it was. For instance, in London in May 1790 on a trip from Tynemouth Judith bought "prints" twice, that is at least four, but in the collection only two survive for early 1790 and none for 1789. Judith had last been in London May-June 1787. It is possible that in June 1790 she bought ten of the eleven in the collection published since her last visit. "Prints 10d" and "varnish and prints 7s" could include 10 prints (she had bought one in the north in April). However, most prints were not reprinted, so might not remain available on sale long.
The prints have been listed in chronological order of publication, the date of which had to appear on them following Hogarth's Act of 1735, 8 Geo II cap.13. Deficiencies in details of the Baker Baker copies of the prints have been supplied from the catalogue of the print collection in the British Library. Some thirty-one prints in this Baker Baker collection have not been identified as appearing in the BL catalogues or microfilms of the BL collection.
The measurements given have the vertical measurements first, horizontal second. The measurements are approximate because the quality of paper used was not good. When wetted by pasting it dried distorted, or was printed so, or cropped unevenly. One, Scotch Harry in 1805 no.150, has been fixed into the scrap book with adhesive circles not paste. The measurements are of the pictures, not the decorative frames or titles which add a few centimetres above or below, except where specified and that is usually when music, verses, dialogue or other commentary of significant length is included. In most cases the prints have been glued on the pages the same way up but occasionally some are at right angles to those sharing their page, so placed to fit into the same page. They were apparently glued in the scrap book in batches, at intervals of years.
There is a general index at the end of the list together with a list correlating BM numbers with those in this list. Copies, actual size, have been made of this collection for retention, consultation and re-copying after the originals are returned to their owner. These copies will be easier to look at than the originals because items glued on the pages of the scrap book are harder to locate, not being marked with numbers or mounted in the chronological order of the list. For ease of access, the loose prints which had been cut out singly or in pairs, or never mounted, have been placed together in chronological order in a folder separate from the large pages of the scrap book. These loose prints are marked with an asterisk in the list, as being the easiest to locate among the originals. The only coloured prints before 1780 are The Eclipse Macarony, 1773 no.19, followed by A Hint to the Ladies, 1776 no.24. After 1780, coloured prints increase in frequency and ten years later most are coloured. Coloured and uncoloured versions of prints were sold and some in this collection could have been coloured at home after purchase. The prints vary greatly in size, some requiring several xerox sheets to copy them.
Baker Baker Box 129 contains a reserve set of xerox copies of these prints. A ring binder in the search room contains a duplicate set of xerox copies of these prints.
Baker Baker prints also in British museum catalogues
Correlation of numbers in this Baker Baker list to the British Museum numbers