Samuel Baker

Who is Samuel Baker?

Samuel Baker, D.D., was a Church of England clergyman and divine notable for rapid promotion; an apparent softness to the Church of Rome, and, later in life, for imprisonment arising out of his apparent Catholic leanings.

Baker was matriculated as a pensioner of Christ's College, Cambridge, 11 July 1612, became B.A. in 1615-6, M.A. in 1619, and was elected a fellow of his college. On 7 May 1623 he was incorporated M.A. at Oxford, and he proceeded B.D. at Cambridge in 1627. The corporation of London presented him to the rectory of St. Margaret Pattens in that city, where he at one time enjoyed great popularity as a puritanical preacher. He was, however, 'taken off from those courses,' and made domestic chaplain to William Juxon, bishop of London. On 29 October 1636 he became prebendary of Totenhall in the church of St. Paul. Having in 1637 resigned the rectory of St. Margaret Pattens, he was, on 5 July in the same year, instituted to that of St. Mary-at-Hill. On 28 August 1638 the king conferred on him the position of canon of the First Stall at St George's Chapel, Windsor.