William Baker
1800-1865
30 July 1861

Volume 4, page 294, sitting number 5247.

[The Silvy daybooks identify the sitter as 'Wm. Baker, Esq.' and an inked inscription recto on the print identifies him as 'W. Baker.' A further inscription verso in the same hand reads 'Fenton.']

Born in or about 1800 at Fenton in Staffordshire, William Baker was the second son of William Baker (died 1833), an architect from Audlem in Cheshire who bought the estate and manor of Fenton Culvert in Staffordshire, together with a pottery factory. 

On the death of his father in 1833, William took over the running of the pottery. He was ‘one of its most active promoters, and continued up to his death, as a director, to take the liveliest interest in its welfare’ (Birmingham Journal, 19 May 1866). 

William Baker never married. He appears on the 1861 census living with his unmarried sister Charlotte and five servants in Fenton at 14 High Street. He described himself as an ‘Eware [earthenware?] manufacturer employing 650 persons & Farmer of 42 acres employing 3 men.’

He died at his residence in Fenton on 8 August 1865, leaving an estate valued at £120,00.