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John (“Jack”) Bellyse Baker 1850 to 1932
BAK00151
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The home page of the Farndale family website of which this section is a part |
The Home page of the Baker family part of the website |
The Baker Family directory |
Notes on the Baker family history |
The Baker Family Tree, which is the best way to search the family history |
Headlines of Jack 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.
1850
John Bellyse Baker was the eldest son of William and Henrietta
Louisa (nee Bellyse) Baker (BAK00121).
He was born on 17 August 1850 and
baptised at Audlem on 17 November 1850.
1851
1851 Census – Woodhouse Lane,
Buerton, Nantwich, Cheshire
William Baker, 34, born 1817, fund holder
Henrietta Louisa Baker, 26, born 1825
Henrietta Baker, 2, born 1849
John Bellyse Baker, 0, born 1850
Margaret Green, 28, nurse
Ann Maria Austin, 19, nurse
1860
John was educated at Repton School.
1861
1861 census – 13 Midway Heath,
Buerton, Audlem, Cheshire
William Baker, 43, head, landed proprietor
Henrietta Baker, his wife 36
John B Baker, 10
Arthur Baker, 1
Elizabeth Daniels, 18, unmarried, governess
Three servants
1871 census – High Fields, Buerton,
Audlem, Cheshire
William Baker, 54, head,
land owner
Henrietta Baker, his
wife 46
Henrietta Baker, 22
John Bellyse Baker, 20
Richard D Baker, 14
Arthur Baker, 11
Charity Baker, 8
Charlotte L Baker, 4
Emily J Baker, 2
Two visitors, including
John Percy, their agent
Three servants
From the diaries of Jack’s three
younger sisters: The girls’ three
brothers, Jack (1850 to 1932), Dick (1856 to 1902) and Arthur (1858 to 1916),
were older and would have been in their 20s when the diaries were written. From
the entries it is clear that they lived outdoor lives and enjoyed the traditional
country sports. There are many references to their days spent hunting and
shooting. July visits to the races at Market Drayton, cricket in the summer and
skating in the winter, usually at Adderley and Shevington. For them, oyster
suppers seemed to have been popular.
The eldest son, John, usually stayed at home to manage the estate,
receiving regular instructions from his father by letter. Jack, as he was
always called, headhunted from an early age and rode with some success over the
sticks. He broke his collarbone for the last time in 1931 at the age of 81 when
exercising a horse over fences for his nephew. His father died in 1876.
Three children's Diaries, written by the younger daughters, Charity, 15,
and Charlotte,
12, and Emily,
10, exist. From them one can see how very different were the lives of the boys
from those of the girls. The former were usually playing cricket, skating at
Adderley and, very regularly, “Jack has been out hunting”. We also hear
“Tuesday February 18th 1879 Jack has gone to the Waterloo coursing with Mr
Boote, of Corbrook, he is coming back tomorrow night; we used to keep some
greyhounds, but they were all sold except one, and that died not long ago.”
Census 1881, Highfields, Buerton,
Nantwich, Cheshire:
John Bellyse Baker, head, single, born
1851, aged 30, gentleman
Henrietta Baker, single,
born 1849, his sister, aged 32, no occupation
Richard Dod Baker,
single, born 1857, aged 24, solicitor’s general clerk
Arthur Baker, single,
born 1860, aged 21, no occupation
Charlotte L Baker,
single , 14, scholar
Emily Jane Baker,
single, aged 12, scholar
Mary Dobson, a visitor,
aged 33
Martha A Egerton,
single, 19, servant
1884
John Bellyse Baker married Richmal Mangnall (1858-1934), the daughter of William Mangnall, architect, of
Prestwich, Lancashire, at Audlem on 23 June 1884.
They had four children.
John inherited Highfields,
Audlem from his father in 1876 but leased the house out until he sold the
estate in 1884, though he was living there in 1881.
Audlem, The History of a Cheshire Parish and
its five townships, 1997:
In the middle years of the century most of the rural villages in
the area relied almost wholly on agriculture for their livelihoods and yet
farming was becoming less profitable. The depression worsened from 1875 onwards
and reached its peak in about 1878. Several diaries that have survived give
some ideas of how families lived during these fifty years. In the south of the
county some farmers sold their land and emigrated. … From Audlem, Jack and
Arthur Baker [note I think it was just Jack], still in
their youth, tried their luck at sheep farming
… Many farms lost their entire stock.
In 1884, under the pressure of the Agricultural Depression, he sold
Highfields and emigrated to New Zealand, where he became a sheep-farmer and
grazier.
It was a time of Great Depression in farming. In 1884 John
Bellyse Baker decided to sell the estate in to emigrate to New Zealand with
his young wife, Richmal Mangnall. For the first time in recorded history the
land was sold, Highfields with the Home Farm was purchased by a wealthy
shipbreaker, Charles Kellock, who added the present kitchen right wing with the
bathrooms the bedrooms above. Fortunately the pictures, silver and some of the
furniture were moved to the Cedars, in Audlem, where the second son, Richard Dod
Baker, a solicitor with his uncle Joseph Bellyse, lived with his unmarried
sisters. John
became a sheep farmer in New Zealand, where his two elder children, Bellyse and Dorothy
were born. He returned to Audlem in about 1890, and died in 1932.
The Kellocks and Highfields
1886
Bellyse Baker (1886 to 1947)(BAK00165) who
later married Lilian Crosland was born in 1886.
1888
Dorothy (“Dot”) Baker (1888 to 1965)(BAK00167)
who was unmarried was born in 1888.
1890
By 1890 John Bellyse Baker had returned to England and was working
as a farm bailiff at Hindley, Lancashire.
William Mangnall Baker (1890 to 1961)(BAK00166)
who later married Annie Tattersall was born in 1890.
1891
1891 Census – Farm, Close Lane, Hindley, Wigan, Lancashire
John B Baker Head Married Male 40 1851 Farm bailiff Audlem,
Cheshire, England
Richmal Baker Wife Married Female 32 1859 - Prestwich,
Lancashire, England
Bellyse Baker Son Single Male 4 1887 - -
Dorothy Baker Daughter Single Female 2 1889 - -
William M Baker Son Single Male 0 1891 - Yorkshire,
England
1895
Richmal Charity (“Chat”) baker (1895 to 1978)(BAK00168)
who was unmarried was born in 1895.
1901
By 1901 he was a lodging house keeper at St. Anne's-on-Sea,
Lancashire.
From in Audlem, The History of
a Cheshire Parish and its five townships,
1997: “A frequent guest at shooting parties was
Dr Stain, the local medic who, although popular in the district, had a
reputation for claiming any game as his if more than one gun fired. On one
occasion Jack, Arthur Baker’s brother, quietly took a hare that had already
been shot and ‘legged’, and set it up in a realistic position on the far side
of the hill. As the guests breasted the mound the hare appeared. The doctor
fired, as did someone else who was in the know. “My hare, I think, said the
doctor as the animal dropped”. “Great Scot”, said Jack, as he retrieved the
corpse. “He’s not only shot it this time, but legged it as well.”
Census 1921 – Sandy Lane, Audlem
Henrietta Baker, head,
single, 72, home duties
Emily J Baker, 52,
single, home duties
John Bellyse Baker, 70,
visitor
Mary Edge, servant
Research by Nicholas
Kingsley:
William's eldest son, another William
Baker (1816-76), inherited Highfields from his father, and seems to have been a
conventional country gentleman, interested in field sports and farming; indeed,
he may have been primarily interested in field sports since he was Master of
the Albrighton Foxhounds in 1856. By his second wife, Henrietta Louisa, the
daughter of Dr. John Bellyse of Nantwich, surgeon, he produced nine children.
When he died he was succeeded by his
eldest son, John Bellyse Baker (1850-1932). It was the time of the great
agricultural depression, and there are signs that his father may have handed
over the estate in fairly poor condition. At all events, after a few years John
came to the conclusion that he could not continue to live and farm at
Highfields, and the estate was sold in 1884 to a Liverpool ship-broker, Charles
Walford Kellock (d. 1897), who 'restored' and modernised the house. John and
his family then emigrated to New Zealand where he became a sheep farmer and
grazier, but for reasons which are unclear this was not a success. By 1890 he
was back in England and after a few years working as a farm bailiff in
Lancashire, he had recovered sufficient capital to purchase a boarding house at
St Anne's-on-Sea, on the Lancashire coast, which he and his wife ran for many
years. Socially, it was aeons away from the life to which he had been brought
up, but it does seem to have provided a reasonable living. His sons were able
to go to Christ's Hospital School although they did not attend a University.
His elder son, Bellyse Baker (1886-1947) joined the cotton manufacturing
industry as a clerk before the First World War, and war service, worked his way
up the business to be its sales director. The fruits of this career enabled him
to repurchase Highfields when it came on the market at the end of the Second
World War, but he died shortly afterwards, and it was left to his son, John
Bellyse Baker (1915-2010) to restore and reoccupy the house. Although the
family had sold a good deal of the contents of Highfields when they went abroad
in 1884, they had retained many of the more personal family items, and it was
possible to return these to the house when they reacquired it. John Bellyse
Baker developed a deep personal interest in the house and his family, and when
Highfields was opened to the public in the 1980s, he wrote a guidebook for
visitors. The house is no longer open to the public, but remains the home of
the present John Bellyse Baker (b. 1956) and his family.
1932
John died on 15 April 1932.
1934
His widow, Richmal died 26 December 1934. Her will was proved on 17 May 1935.