Sir William Baker Alderman of City of London

London merchant and government contractor, 'one of the foremost merchants trading to America' before the American Revolution, and MP for Plympton Erle 1747-1768. Mortgagee of Maynard's estate on Barbados, between 1759 and his death in 1770. His executors reportedly seized the estate and sold it after his death. He was also reported in Hughes-Queree as mortgagee of Baxters, Mount Edge and The Spring, three estates belonging to the Dottin family, also on Barbados. He was a co-proprietor for a period of the Hobcaw Barony in South Carolina, which he and his partners sold off in pieces to form individual plantations.

1. Will of Sir William Baker Alderman of City of London proved 07/02/1770. Under the will he said that he had already given to two of his sons £10,000 each, and he left £10,000 to each of three other sons. He left his four younger sons £25,000, with the remainder of his estate to his eldest son William. The will is silent on West India property, mortgages and enslaved people.

2. Sir William Baker's son and main heir, also William (1743-1824) was (with intervals) MP for a series of constituencies, including Hertfordshire, between 1768 and 1807, and was one of the trustees of the slave-owner John Ravel Frye (q.v.).

http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/baker-william-1705-70; Barbados Department of Archives. Hughes-Queree Index of Plantations.

1. PROB 11/954/349

2. https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/baker-william-1743-1824