Leonard Turner’s wife Lorrie Esther Baker, my maternal great-grandmother, was born in North Marston, Bucks, on 27 January 1887, but by the time she was ten her family had moved to the tiny, neighboring village of Hoggeston, which is where she lived until the age of twenty-two when she married Leonard and settled in Winslow.[1] You can read more about Lorrie and Leonard here and here.
Lorrie was the second of nine children born to Henry Thomas Baker, a butcher from North Marston, and his wife Annie Imogen Emily Meadows, who were married in Winslow on 10 September 1883.[2] Of their nine children, the first eight were daughters.[3] I received this in a letter from Aunty Jean dated 28 October 1990 [4]:
‘…because there were eight Baker girls, I understand the Bells
were rung at Hoggeston on the birth of their only son Henry George Baker…’
And so it must have been quite a day in Hoggeston when Annie Baker finally gave birth to a long-awaited son on 18 September 1904. Baby George was baptized a few weeks later at Holy Cross Church in Hoggeston on the 6th of November.[5]
Photo courtesy of Mrs. Jean (Turner) Barker: The Baker Family circa 1907
Standing: Lorrie, Amy, Maggie, Dolly, Esther, Elsie, Nellie
Seated: Grandma Meadows, Henry Thomas Baker (holding George), Annie Baker, Rose
Judging from the apparent age of young George, I would guess this family photo was taken shortly before Lorrie married Leonard, so none of the girls was married at that point. According to parish records, she and several of her sisters worked as domestics before they were married and Lorrie might have already been employed.[6]
The older woman seated next to Henry is his mother-in-law Esther Meadows (nee Sellars) who was in her mid to late 60s when this picture was taken.[7] She was by then widowed and lived alone in Winslow, next door to the Bull Inn on Horn Street where she ran a small dress shop. [8] Perhaps she made all the girls’ clothes for the photo.
According to the census, the family was living on Church Street in North Marston in 1891 and Elsie, Lorrie, and Maggie were the couple’s only children, although Annie must have been pregnant the night the census was taken as daughter Dorothy was born just a few months later in September.[9] Neighbors on Church Street included Prices, Tattams, and Wards – large,well established North Marston families, most of whom were in some way related to our Bakers through marriage. Curiously, the North Marston parish register is filled with Baker christenings and burials, but Henry and Annie chose to baptize their first four daughters at St Lawrence Church, which was about three miles away in Winslow.[10] Annie’s widowed mother lived in Winslow and St Lawrence likely have held special meaning for Annie, as it had been her childhood parish.
For a long time I thought Henry and Annie had moved directly to Hoggeston when they left North Marston, but the 1911 UK Census records show us that daughter Esther Ann was born in Swanbourne in late 1893.[11] Notes from Aunty Jean’s research in the early 1990s, based on a vicar’s recollection, had the older daughters born in Swanbourne as well, but the census records suggest the family was still living in North Marston when they were born. Interestingly, the Baker’s 1911 census return also points to the existence of a 10th child who’d been born alive but died sometime before 1911. Concerns over a falling national birthrate combined with significant increases in emmigration, and the general conditions of poor health across the country had prompted the government to add special “fertility of marriage” questions to the census that year, thereby providing us with new insight into Henry and Annie’s family. This couple seems to have followed the pattern of a new baby every twenty-four months over a twenty year span, except for a gap of four years from 1893-1897, which would suggest the lost child might have been born around 1895. However I’ve had no luck locating either a birth or death record.
Lorrie was the first of her sisters to marry. All of Henry and Annie’s children would eventually marry although they didn’t all have children and none had as large a family as they’d grown up with.
The next article in this series will reveal more about Lorrie’s siblings.
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[1] For birth, Turner Family Papers. For residence, Census UK 1911, Hoggeston, Findmypast.co.uk, Original Data: The National Archives of the UK (TNA); TNA Microfilm RG14 RG14PN7963 RG78PN400 RD147 SD1 ED11 SN27A For marriage, Vital Record: England, Marriage Certificate for Frederick Leonard Turner & Lorrie Baker, Winslow, Buckinghamshire (6 September 1909); Given at GRO. Copy held by: author. Original Data: London, England: General Register Office: Frederick L Turner & Lorrie Baker, 1909 Jul-Aug-Sep, Winslow, Volume: 3a Pg: 1975.
[2] Vital Record: England, Marriage Certificate for Henry T. Baker & Annie I.E. Meadows, Winslow, Buckinghamshire (10 September 1883); Given at GRO. Copy held by: author. Original Data: London, England: General Register Office: Henry T Baker & Annie IE Meadows, 1883 Jul-Aug-Sep, Winslow, Volume: 3a Pg: 913.
[3] Jean Turner Barker, Author’s aunt, visited with the Vicar at Hoggeston, who copied out the baptisms of Henry T. Baker’s children, based on original register entries. Those in turn were sent in a letter to the author, saved among the Turner Family Papers. Author confirmed birth and marriage data directly with the current vicar: David Meakin, Hoggeston Bucks Curate, [e-mail for private use], to Claire Butler, answer to inquiry, 29 April 2010, “Church Records after 1901,” The Baker Family in Hoggeston.doc; privately held by Butler, [e-mail & address for private use].
[4] Turner Family Papers;”The Baker Family in Hoggeston”
[5] Turner Family Papers;”The Baker Family in Hoggeston”
[6] ”The Baker Family in Hoggeston”
[7] Census UK 1861, Winslow, Ancestry, Original Data: The National Archives of the UK (TNA); TNA Microfilm RG9 Piece: 869; Folio: 34; Page: 21; GSU roll: 542714. For Esther’s birth, Vital Record: England, Birth Certificate for Esther Sellar, Winslow, Bucks (October 1841); Given at GRO. Copy held by: author. Original Data: London, England: General Register Office: Esther Sellar, 1942 Jan-Feb-Mar, Winslow, Volume: 6 Pg: 409.
[8] Census UK 1891, Winslow, Winslow Cum Shipton, Ancestry, Original Data: The National Archives of the UK (TNA); TNA Microfilm RG11 Piece: 1148; Folio 30; Page 17; GSU roll: 6096258.
[9] Census UK 1891, Winslow, North Marston, Ancestry, Original Data: The National Archives of the UK (TNA); TNA Microfilm RG11 Piece: 1148; Folio 216; Page 9; GSU roll: 6096258.
[10] Bucks Family History Society, transcriber, North Marston St Mary: Part 2 (of 4) Baptisms (BFHS Aylesbury, Bucks: Buckinghamshire Family History Society, 2005). For baptisms at St. Lawrence Church, Buckinghamshire Family History Society, Private Research, Bucks Parish Registers: transcript copies received by author, (Search Date: 2010).
[11] Census UK 1911, Hoggeston, Findmypast.co.uk, Original Data: The National Archives of the UK (TNA); TNA Microfilm RG14 RG14PN7963 RG78PN400 RD147 SD1 ED11 SN27A
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