John Proculus Baker

1741 - ????


Biography

John Proculus Baker was identified as a son and co-heir in the will of John Baker (q.v.) of St Kitts. Given the unusual name, this is highly likely to have been the same man as the John Proculus Baker who appears as a barrister in Jamaica in the 1790s and as the author of a 1775 treatise on sugar production, An Essay on the Art of Making Muscovado Sugar mentioned in Bryan Edwards' history of the West Indies. He was dead by 1796.

  1. John Proculus Baker son of John of St Martin's London matriculated Hertford College Oxford 03/11/1758 aged 17.

  2. John Proculus Baker of the parish of Kingston esq and Ann Susanna Pool of the parish of St Andrew were married in St Andrew, 21/12/1773, the bride’s father Rev. John Pool, Rector of St Andrew (until 1782), officiating. They had three children baptised in St Andrew: John Pool Baker (1774-1829, q.v.), Susanna Baker, born 14/01/1776 and baptised 26/02/1776; and Elizabeth Margaret Baker, born 06/11/1778 and baptised in 1779 (date left blank).

  3. On 21/12/1799 there were baptised in St.Elizabeth the following, “belonging to the estate of John Proculus Baker esq decd”:

    .James Romall, about 21 years, mulatto

    .Ann Baker, about 21 years, mulatto

    .Bessy Forrester, about 1 year, quadroon

    .William Lindsay, about 43 years, negro

  4. Mrs Baker, widow of John Proculus Baker Jamaica died at Exeter 03/03/1800. This woman was Ann Susanna, the daughter of Rev. John Pool of Bath whose will was proved in 1790.


Sources

1790 Jamaica Almanac, http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/1/1790al01.htm; Bryan Edwards, The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies (1793) Vol. II p. 236.

  1. Ancestry.com, Oxford University Alumni, 1500-1886 1715-1886 Vol. I [database online].

  2. Familysearch.org, Jamaican parish registers, St Andrew, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1664-1807, pp. 217, 90, 91, 96.

  3. Familysearch.org, Jamaican parish registers, St Elizabeth, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1795-1820 p. 87.

  4. David Dobson, American Vital Records from the Gentleman's Magazine, 1731-1868, p. 15.

We are grateful to Paul Hitchings for his assistance with compiling this entry.


Further Information

Absentee?
Spouse
Married but no further details
University
Oxford (Hertford) [1758 ]

Associated Estates (1)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
1796 [EA] - 1799 [LA] → Previous owner

Legacies Summary

Historical (1)

BooksAuthor?
An Essay on the Art of Making Muscovado Sugar wherein a New Process is... 1775 

Relationships (3)

Son → Father
Notes →
This relationship has been inferred from the will of John Baker, which identifies a son John Proculus...
Father → Son
Notes →
This relationship has been inferred from the marriage in 1773 of John Proculus Baker and Ann Susanna Pool of St Andrew Jamaica, but is confirmed in the will of Rev. John Pool, father of Ann Susanna...
Son-in-law → Father-in-law
Notes →
John Proculus Baker married Ann Susanna Pool in St Andrew Jamaica in 1773. The will of Rev. John Pool of Bath proved in 1790 showed his daughter as Ann Susanna Baker....