(339) Baker (later Lloyd-Baker) of Waresley Park, Ramsden House, Stouts Hill and Hardwicke Court

This family was established at Boreley in Ombersley (Worcs) as yeoman farmers by the 15th century, when they are mentioned in the manorial records of the parish. The rise into the gentry seems to have begun with Thomas Baker (d. 1725) of Boreley, who educated his two surviving sons as gentlemen by sending them to Oxford. The elder, John Baker (1688-1741), who inherited his father's property at Ombersley, married the daughter and heiress of Samuel Slade, a Bewdley tanner, in 1710, and it was probably Slade money which allowed John to purchase an estate at Waresley in Hartlebury a few years later. Nothing is known about the house that came with this property, but it was rebuilt by John's heir, John Baker II (1713-87) in the mid 18th century, creating the house which survives today. John II was in turn succeeded by his only child, John Baker III (1761-1809), who had two sons and four daughters. His eldest son, John Baker IV (1786-1814), was only just of age when he inherited, and though he married in 1814, he died a few months later without issue, leaving the house to his widow. Waresley Park was then let for a number of years, but in the mid 1820s it was sold, passing out of the Baker family.

The second surviving son of John Baker I (1688-1741) was Slade Baker (1717-84), who was evidently apprenticed to a linen draper in Bristol. By 1744 he was established in that trade and taking on apprentices of his own, and over the succeeding decades he became additionally a merchant and shipowner with interests in the slave trade, and a leading figure in the Tory political establishment in Bristol. Although he himself seems to have lived in the city all his life, he married the daughter and heiress of Jeremy Innes (or Innys) of Redland Court, and in 1775 his eldest son, Jeremy Baker (1742-98) inherited that house. 

Redland Court: an early 19th century engraving of the house owned by Jeremy Baker from 1775 until his death.

Jeremy, who succeeded to his father's business interests, seems not have had the same business acumen, and when he died it was discovered that he had run up substantial debts, secured on the Redland estate, although his assets still exceeded his liabilities. In 1799, the Court of Chancery ruled with unusual swiftness that Redland Court and part of the associated land must be sold to pay off the debts, but some of the land formerly attached to the house remained in the hands of members of the family down to the 1830s. 

Jeremy Baker had three brothers, the eldest of whom was John Innes Baker (1746-1805), a merchant and banker with a large family, almost all of whom lived to maturity but died in their 20s or 30s. One of them, Slade Baker (1782-1819), inherited his father's Bristol businesses, but had no children to continue the line. Two other brothers, John Lowbridge Baker (1779-1822) and George Baker (1790-1829), became woollen merchants in Leeds but were bankrupted in 1817, and the former was still undischarged at his death. The one brother who managed to live a full lifespan was Robert Baker (1786-1860) and he was also the one who did not follow a mercantile career. He trained as a physician, although no record of his training has been found, and probably practised in the 1820s and 1830s, although by 1851 he had retired. He and his wife had bought a village house called West Hay at Wrington (Somerset) by 1828 and raised one son and six daughters there. The son was the Rev. Robert Lowbridge Baker (1831-1904), who sold West Hay after his father's death and built a handsome new vicarage at Ramsden (Oxfordshire), where he was the minister, with help from the local landowner and Queen Anne's Bounty. A few years later he built a second, rather smaller, house in the village for the use of future clergymen, and donated this to the church as the vicarage for future clergymen, allowing the original building, now known as Ramsden House, to descend in his family. It was finally sold in 1949.

The younger son of Thomas Baker (d. 1725) of Boreley was the Rev. Thomas Baker (1695-1755), who took holy orders and became vicar of Bibury (Glos), which was an unusually rich living. His first wife died young, and in 1745 he married Mary Lloyd (1710-85), the daughter of the Chancellor of Worcester Cathedral and the granddaughter of a Bishop of Worcester. Their only surviving child was the Rev. William Lloyd (1752-1830), who followed his father to Oxford and into the church, becoming vicar of Aston Ingham (Herefs) in 1776. He also emulated his father in marrying into the Lloyd family, marrying his first cousin, another Mary Lloyd (d. 1819), in 1776. In about 1783 his wife inherited from her sister the Lloyd family's property at Islington and Clerkenwell (Middx) on the edge of London, which included the Sadler's Wells theatre and Islington Spa. From the second decade of the 19th century, the Rev. William Lloyd began the development of this property as an upper middle class suburb, which became known as the Lloyd Baker estate.

In 1785, the Rev. William Baker moved from Aston Ingham to become vicar of Uley (Glos), and his wife's inheritance enabled him to purchase one of the several gentry houses in the parish, Stouts Hill, as his residence. Stouts Hill is a very pretty Gothick house built in the 1740s and 1750s, and the Bakers loved it, but to their son, Thomas John Lloyd Baker (1777-1841), a serious young man with a passionate interest in farming, it was unfashionably frivolous. He married Mary Sharp, the heiress of another leading ecclesiastical family, and after her premature death in 1812, he bought Hardwicke Court near Gloucester as a place to bring up his young family. This was a Tudor house which had just been remodelled and brought up to date, but to his disgust, he found that the dry rot which had necessitated its partial rebuilding had not been eradicated, and had spread into the new work. It became clear that the whole house would have to come down and be replaced. This was unexpected expenditure and the new house which he built in 1818-19 was on a very modest scale, with the simplest decoration, inside and out. For the design, he turned to the young Robert Smirke, who had just built a new Shire Hall in Gloucester for a committee under Baker's chairmanship. He liked the resulting house, and when his father died he decided to remain at Hardwicke, and to lease Stouts Hill or lend it to friends or relations.

In 1841, the two estates passed to his only son, Thomas Barwick Lloyd Baker (1807-86), another serious man, although his interests focused on crime and punishment and ornithology rather than agriculture. He evidently felt that Hardwicke was too small and too plain, and he commissioned the Gloucester architect Thomas Fulljames to make plans for enlarging it and making it more decorative. Perhaps fortunately, the resultant scheme was never carried out, although he did add a service wing at the rear of the building. In the next generation, Barwick Baker's two sons, Granville Edwin Lloyd Baker (1841-1924) and Henry Orde Lloyd Baker (1842-1909) inherited his energetic commitment to public service, coupled with a strong Christian tradition. Granville in particular devoted his life to playing a leading role in county administration, but found time to combine this with an active part in the running of the reformatory for young men which his father had established at Hardwicke in 1852. He had two sons and five daughters, all of whom were given the final Christian name Lloyd, as had become traditional in the family over several generations, in order to commemorate the transformative effect on the family's financial position of their inheritance of the Lloyd family's Middlesex estate. In 1911 he decided to formally adopt 'Lloyd-Baker' as the family surname for both himself and his descendants.

Granville Lloyd-Baker's two sons were of an age to fight in the First World War, and the elder and heir apparent, Michael Granville Lloyd-Baker (1873-1916), was killed at the Battle of Katia. Michael left no son, but two daughters, and it was his elder daughter, Olive Lloyd-Baker (1902-75), who assisted her ageing grandfather in the running of the estate and became his heir. Granville's younger son, Lt-Col. Arthur Barwick Lloyd-Baker (1883-1979), returned after the war to his teaching career as a master at Cheltenham College, apparently without disappointment, although after retirement in 1939 he did move back to Hardwicke Court, which he thereafter shared with his niece until her death. Olive Lloyd Baker never married, but she grew into her role as the owner of Gloucestershire estates and London property, and into her family tradition of public service and active Christianity. Her uncle also took his public responsibilities seriously, and was chairman of the County Education Committee for twenty years. When I first arrived in Gloucestershire in 1979, Arthur Lloyd Baker was still alive, and although I never met him, I worked with people who had known him and his niece well, and I observed at first hand the affection and respect with which these survivors from an older model of county administration were regarded. 

Not even a London estate could insulate a gentry family entirely from the slings and arrows of the 20th century, and in 1935 Olive Lloyd Baker sold Stouts Hill, which became a prep school. In 1966, she named her father's sister's grandson, Charles Granville Moray Murray-Browne (1945-2015), as her heir to her remaining Gloucestershire and London property, and he took the name Lloyd-Baker. In order to meet the death duties on the estate, he was obliged to sell about half of the London property to Islington Borough Council in 1979, but the family retains the Hardwicke Court estate and about forty properties in Islington today.

Waresley Park, Hartlebury, Worcestershire

Waresley House, Hartlebury: entrance front as altered in about 1912. 

A seven-bay, three storey house of red brick with stone dressings, built for John Baker (1713-87) in the mid 18th century. On the entrance front the central three bays (treated as two in the attic storey) are stepped slightly forward and the small ground floor and longer first floor windows light a partly two-storey entrance and staircase hall given its present form for Lord Hampton in about 1912. The rather unhappy elevation that results is probably the result of changes made at that time, and the chunky porch with its semi-circular hood is certainly of that period. 

Waresley House, Hartlebury: the mid 18th century south front.

At right angles to this facade is a second and happier seven-bay elevation, with a broad three-bay centre that is broken forward under a pediment containing an oculus and has a semi-circular Doric porch with a Venetian window and Diocletian window above that. This facade shows that the house belongs to an extensive group of houses of varying degrees of sophistication in and around Worcestershire in which Venetian and Diocletian windows are used decoratively. It seems likely that a local school of builders was responsible for these, but if so they have not yet been identified. The design of Waresley bears some similarities to the work of Thomas Farnolls Pritchard (1723-77) of Shrewsbury, but there is not yet sufficient evidence to suggest that he might have been responsible for the house.

Descent: John Baker (1688-1741); to son John Baker (1713-87); to son, John Baker (1761-1809); to son, John Baker (1786-1814); to widow, Barbara (1791-1856), later the wife of John Balguy (1782-1858), who sold c.1824 to Rev. William Villiers (c.1793-1861); sold to Very Rev. Dr. John Peel DD (1798-1875), Dean of Worcester; sold c.1876 to Rev. Benjamin Gibbons (d. 1912); sold or leased to Herbert Stuart Pakington (1883-1962), 4th Baron Hampton, who sold 1945 to St. Gilbert's RC School... converted into flats.

Stouts Hill, Uley, Gloucestershire

The core of the Stouts Hill estate at Uley was acquired in 1697 by Timothy Gyde, a local clothier, for £710. In 1716 he settled the property on his son Thomas, but both father and son retained an active involvement in the cloth industry, the profits of which went to support their development of a landed estate around the house. By 1743, when Thomas died, he owned a significant proportion of the parish of Uley, and this was bequeathed, together with a prosperous clothing business, to his son, Timothy Gyde II. However, the new owner was a man of very different outlook to his father and grandfather. He had been educated as a gentleman, and he wished to live like one; so he built a new house at Stouts Hill, entertained lavishly, kept a mistress, gambled, and paid insufficient attention to his business. This rake's progress had an inevitable conclusion: the estate was mortgaged in 1755 for £3,000 and in 1778 was conveyed to Gyde's London agent, John Fryer, as security for unspecified present and future liabilities. Two years later Gyde died, and his nephew was obliged to sell the freehold to Fryer to settle his uncle's estate.

Stouts Hill: a drawing of 1887, showing the pinnacled centrepiece of the entrance front, which was partially removed after 1911.
Image: Historic England.

The Stouts Hill that Timothy Gyde bequeathed to posterity, if not to his family, is a delightfully light-­hearted Rococo Gothick extravaganza. The Rococo, even in England, is quintessentially the 18th ­century style of excess, but Stouts Hill, like so many other Gothick houses, has an air of innocent joy that is extremely endearing. The precise date of the building is not entirely clear, but it seems clear both that it incorporates an earlier house and that the Gothick work was not all built at once. The new house was evidently complete by 1755, when Thomas Gyde's old house had been converted into cottages. The main block has a service wing attached to its north‑west end which is said to incorporate some remains of an earlier building, and on this end of the house there was in 1973 a rainwater head dated 1743, which has since been misleadingly copied for new rainwater heads elsewhere on the building. In 1766 the main entrance to the house lay at the back of this building between two round towers which have since disappeared. It seems likely that a Gothicisation of an earlier building constituted the first phase of works in the 1740s, and the projecting 'King John building' on the front of this block, with its tall arched window, was probably part of this phase. A larger and more ambitious scheme may have had to wait until after 1748, when the estate records show that Gyde’s purchases of land slowed to a trickle, and his resources were perhaps being devoted largely to building the new house.

The designer of at least the second phase of the new building was almost certainly the Bristol mason‑architect William Halfpenny, who published a pattern book, entitled Chinese and Gothick Architecture Properly Ornamented, in 1752.

Frampton Court: the garden building known as the Orangery, which
is attributed to William Halfpenny and bears remarkable similarities
to Stouts Hill. Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

The mood of his published Gothick designs is precisely that of Stouts Hill, and also of the better-known 'orangery' at Frampton Court (some six miles away), which is so similar to this house as to make it clear they were designed by the same hand. The Clutterbucks of Frampton were closely related by marriage to the Gydes, and since there are independent reasons for linking them with Halfpenny, the attribution of both buildings may be regarded as fairly secure. If further evidence were wanted, the zigzag chain motif used in the wall panels of the dining room can be found in another of Halfpenny's publications, Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste, issued in 1752 and 1755.

Stouts Hill: the entrance front in 1981. Image: Historic England.

The main block of Stouts Hill has a symmetrical, castellated front of two storeys with broad canted bays either side of a three‑bay centre. In the 1980s some evidence was found that the bays were additions to the block behind, but if so they must have been nearly contemporary. Old photographs and the drawing of 1887 reproduced above show that there was originally a pinnacled decorative panel rising from the parapet above the centre of the block, but this was cut down to the surviving stump after 1911. All the windows have pretty octagonal glazing bars, copied from plate 38 of Batty Langley's Gothic Architecture Improved, and ogee‑shaped heads, those on the first floor being somewhat flattened. The end elevation of two bays shows the house to be unexpectedly shallow, all the resources having been devoted to the presentation of a broad, richly decorated facade. In 1785, a prospective purchaser was warned that 'as several Additions have been made to the original Building, you cannot expect any regular Plan'. An estate plan of 1766, which only survives in the form of a copy of c.1900 and may therefore not be wholly reliable, suggests that the projecting octagonal staircase hall and the entrance porch were also additions.

Stouts Hill: the chimneypiece in the former entrance hall, with 'no pretensions to Gothic chastity', was probably carved by Thomas Paty of Bristol. Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

Inside the house, the rich and fanciful decoration continues. The hall, which occupies the central three bays, has a magnificent chimneypiece which, as James Lees‑Milne wryly noted 'has no pretensions to Gothic chastity'. It is excellently carved, and could well be the work of Thomas Paty, who is known to have worked for Halfpenny in the 1740s. Left of the hall is an enchanting octagonal drawing room with an embattled cornice and fretwork frieze in carved wood and filigree‑light Gothick plaster panels on the walls. To the right of the hall is a dining room, ostensibly Classical, but with such crowded, delicate, whimsical mouldings on the frieze, wall panels and dado rail as to overwhelm any inherent simplicity. The chimneypiece has a Gothick cornice and superbly carved swags either side of an inset central mirror. The staircase, which lies behind the hall, rises steeply round an octagonal well and has a low wooden balustrade of rather heavy Gothick pattern, done to resemble ironwork. Altogether, restraint is not a word that can easily be used in describing Stouts Hill: even the first‑floor corridor has a shallow plaster vault and a Gothick frieze, and the bedrooms have several inventive fireplaces.

Having finished the house, Gyde went on to embellish his estate. At an unknown date he built a 'dancing hall' in Lampern Wood (of which no illustration is known), which may perhaps have been inspired by Pan's Lodge at Painswick (owned by Benjamin Hyett, a friend and fellow clothier).

Stouts Hill: the eyecatcher facade of Lye Farm, c.1757.
Image: Philip Halling. Some rights reserved.

And in March 1757 he took a lease of the Lye Farm, which was visible from Stouts Hill, so that he could give it an eyecatcher façade: the lease records that 'within the said term ... it shall and may be lawful for the said Timothy Gyde ... to make any alterations in the buildings and cut down the hedges, trees etc'. By the late 1750s, Gyde's money troubles were becoming oppressive, and any grander scheme for the creation of a park and the landscaping of his grounds which he may have nurtured came to nothing.

The house and estate were bought for £11,500 in 1785 by the Rev. William Lloyd Baker, who had married an heiress cousin and was looking for a suitable country house. He and his wife were delighted by Stouts Hill, and he lived here till his death in 1830. His son, T.J.L. Baker (1777-1841) bought Hardwicke Court in 1815 as a temporary home while he was waiting to succeed his father, but was obliged to rebuild it, and the family subsequently made Hardwicke its principal seat. Stouts Hill became a dower house and second home, and perhaps for that reason escaped a Victorian remodelling which would surely have destroyed its charm. During the Victorian period it was frequently let, often to relations of the Lloyd-Bakers. In the First World War the house was used as a V.A.D. hospital, after which it stood empty until 1935, when it was bought by Robert Angus who established a preparatory school here. This closed in 1979 and the house was sold the following year to a timeshare management company which has divided it into flats and erected some further cottages in the grounds, whilst preserving and restoring the main interiors. In 2018 the whole complex is for sale for the low asking price of £2m, which suggests there may be a need for serious investment in the fabric.

Descent: Timothy Gyde; to son, Thomas Gyde (d. 1743); to son, Timothy Gyde (d. 1780); to nephew, who sold to John Fryer; sold 1785 to Rev. William Lloyd Baker (1752-1830); to son, Thomas John Lloyd Baker (1777-1841); to son, Thomas Barwick Lloyd Baker (1806-87); to son, Granville Edwin Lloyd Baker (later Lloyd-Baker) (1841-1924); to granddaughter, Olive Katherine Lloyd-Baker (1902-75), who sold 1935 to Robert Angus for use as a prep school; sold 1980 for conversion to timeshare apartments.

Hardwicke Court, Gloucestershire

A manor house and deer park existed at Hardwicke at least as early as 1188, and medieval records refer to the manor buildings being demolished about 1310, although they were evidently rebuilt again shortly afterwards. In 1397 the estate passed to the Trye family, who retained it until 1726. The medieval house apparently lay within a rectangular moat, which survived when the house was again rebuilt in the 16th century.  Both moat and house are shown on a plan of 1699 and in Kip's engraving of c.1710.

Hardwicke Court: the Tudor house within its moated site, from the engraving of c.1710 by John Kip.

The 16th-century house had a generous U-shaped plan, with the main entrance on the north-west and wings running out from the central block on the south-east.  A gatehouse guarded the bridge over the moat to the north.  The house itself, which was of stone, had two storeys to the west of the central porch and three lower ones to the east, the higher rooms on the west being those used by the family.  All the windows in the house had hoodmoulds, and this suggests that Hardwicke was one of the earlier U-plan houses in the county, and was perhaps built by John Trye (d. 1579), who inherited in 1526, or his son of the same name, who died in 1591.  It is worth noting that Hardwicke was unusual among U-shaped houses in placing the main entrance on the non-courtyard side of the house; others, such as Kings Weston, Siston and Over Court were all entered from the courtyard.  In the late 17th century, the house had 14 hearths.

Hardwicke Court: the formal canal created by William Trye in the early 18th century. Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

By the time Kip's engraving was made c.1710, Hardwicke had already undergone one phase of modernisation, for which William Trye (d. 1726), was probably responsible. His work included giving the house a new roof with dormer windows, laying out the gardens with formal parterres and a canal (which still exists), and probably making internal alterations as well.  Following William Trye's death, his son Thomas obtained an Act of Parliament to break the entail and sell the estate of some 1,100 acres to settle his father's debts.  The purchaser was Philip Yorke, later Lord Chancellor and 1st Earl of Hardwicke, who took his title from this estate but chose to build his principal seat at Wimpole in Cambridgeshire, which was more convenient for London.  During the 18th century, Hardwicke became increasingly peripheral to the Yorkes' interests, and was eventually let to Richard Martin, a local farmer; by 1808, when the estate was again sold by Act of Parliament, the old house was not only unfashionable and unimproved, but also riddled with dry rot.  Unfortunately, the purchaser, William Parker, who bought the house with 350 acres for £36,000 and carried out a partial rebuilding, failed to eradicate the rot, and the reuse of infected old materials apparently carried the rot into his new work.  Exactly what Parker's alterations consisted of is unclear, but by 1813, when the house was again up for sale, it had a new regularly fenestrated front.  The accommodation was then said to consist of an entrance hall, drawing room, dining room, library, breakfast room and capacious bed chambers; the dimensions of the reception rooms are given, and there is no trace of the great hall which must originally have lain at the centre of the Tudor house.

In 1815 the estate was bought by T.J. Lloyd Baker of Stouts Hill, Uley, as a house to live in until he inherited his family's main seat at Stouts Hill, Uley.  He soon realised, however, that the dry rot was becoming rampant again, and determined upon a radical solution. The whole of the old building was demolished, retaining only the cellars, and a new house was built to the designs of Robert Smirke in 1818‑9.  Smirke was presumably chosen as architect because he had recently built the new Shire Hall in Gloucester for a committee under Lloyd Baker's chairmanship. His design for the new house was very modest by comparison with the rambling mansion it replaced, no doubt reflecting Lloyd Baker's intention that it should only be a temporary home and a secondary seat for the family, as well as the fact that his rebuilding was unplanned.  The service accommodation was at once perceived as too limited, and appears to have been extended within a few years of the family moving in at the end of 1819. In the event, Lloyd Baker never moved into Stouts Hill which being in the Gothick style had become very unfashionable by the time he inherited in 1830, and Hardwicke has remained the principal seat of the Lloyd Bakers ever since.

Hardwicke Court: entrance front in 2011. Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

Smirke’s new house has five bays and three storeys, the central bay breaking forward slightly and being framed by chimneystacks. Lower, two‑storey wings with tripartite windows flank the centre block and project slightly. The applied decoration is reduced to a minimum inside and out, leaving the elegant proportions, craftsmanship and contents to speak for themselves.  The house contains four main rooms (study, drawing room, library and dining room) with marble fireplaces and simple cornices, all on the ground floor and facing east, towards the Cotswolds. The entrance hall is little more than a passage, leading through to a transverse corridor and the attractive top‑lit staircase with wrought‑iron balusters. The drawing room, to the left of the entrance, was until c.1980 lined with a Chinese wallpaper, imported about 1830, but now alas removed and in store. The library, on the right of the entrance, is the most impressive room in the house, and its mellow wood and leather colours and solid furnishings give an enduring impression of masculine comfort.

Hardwicke Court: unexecuted proposals for the remodelling of the house by Thomas Fulljames, 1841. Image: Gloucestershire Archives, D3549.

In 1841, Thomas Barwick Lloyd Baker inherited Hardwicke, and almost at once Thomas Fulljames was called in to provide plans for enlarging the house. He intended to extend the wings and dress the house overall with dramatic Classical façades.  Inside, there would have been a splendid new Ionic entrance hall, a much enlarged study and a museum room.  The cost of the work was estimated at over £4,700 and although none of it was ever carried out, the intention was no doubt to reflect the family's recognition that Hardwicke had become their principal seat.  Instead of the grand additions to the family rooms that Fulljames proposed, the service wing at the rear of the house was modestly extended to provide extra nurseries and space for a larger domestic staff.  A few years later the gardens were altered: the arboretum was planted in 1848 and in 1855 the terrace in front of the house was made by Alexander Roos. The house has been little altered since, and remains the property of the family for whom it was built.

Descent: John Trye (fl. 1450); to son, William Trye (d. 1497); to son, William Trye (d. 1524); to son, Edward Trye (d. 1526); to son, John Trye (d. 1579); to son, John Trye (d. 1591); to son, William Trye (d. 1610); to son, William Trye (d. 1681); to grandson, William Trye (d. 1717); to son, Thomas Trye, who sold 1726 to Philip Yorke (1690-1764), 1st Earl of Hardwicke; to son, Philip Yorke (1720-90), 2nd Earl of Hardwicke; to son, Philip Yorke (1757-1834), 3rd Earl of Hardwicke, who sold 1808 to William Parker, who sold 1815 to Thomas John Lloyd Baker (1777-1841); to son, Thomas Barwick Lloyd Baker (1807-86); to son, Granville Edward Lloyd Baker (later Lloyd-Baker) (1841-1924); to granddaughter, Olive Lloyd Baker (1902-75); to first cousin once removed, Charles Granville Moray Murray-Browne (later Lloyd-Baker) (1945-2015)...

Ramsden House, Oxfordshire

Ramsden House: photograph of the house in 1876 (Image: Michael Butler)

Ramsden House, from an early 20th century postcard.

A large but informal and irregular gabled house, built as the rectory in 1861-62 to the designs of William Wilkinson of Oxford for the Rev. Robert Lowbridge Baker (1831-1904). Ewan Christian, as architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, recommended some alterations to the design, but most of these were not insisted upon. The first photograph above shows the house as first built; the second, showing it in about 1910, indicates that there were minor alterations and extensions after 1876. The house has steeply-pitched gables above sash windows set under four-centred arches, and a square bay window rising through two storeys. There is an extensive service range at the north-east corner which was damaged by a fire in 1910 but repaired afterwards. 

Descent: built for Rev. Robert Lowbridge Baker (1831-1904); to widow, Hon. Henrietta Maria Baker (d. 1932); given c.1922 to daughter Lettice Edith (1877-1952), wife of Capt. Arnold Hugh Butler (1858-1935); sold 1937... sold 1948 to Mrs. Daphne Wall (later wife of Maj. Dermot Ralph Daly); sold c.1949 to Christ Church College, Oxford, which let it to its bursar, Francis Anthony Gray (1917-92); sold 1973 to The Hon. Mrs Agnes Sheffield (murdered 1976); to daughters, Laura Diana Sheffield (b. 1949), wife of George William Pilkington and later of Paul Sednaoui, and Davina Mary Sheffield (b. 1951), later wife of Jonathan Derek Morley; sold after 2003...

Baker family of Waresley House

Baker, Thomas (d. 1725). Parentage unknown. Gentleman farmer. He married, 6 September 1682 at Broom (Worcs), Elizabeth Aston (d. 1726) and had issue:
(1) Anne Baker (1685-1749), baptised at Ombersley, 1 June 1685; married Nicholas Bennett (d. 1764) of The Breach, Belbroughton (Worcs), and had issue three daughters; buried at Belbroughton, 31 October 1749;
(2) John Baker (1688-1741) (q.v.);
(3) Elizabeth Baker (1691-1747), baptised at Ombersley, 10 July 1691; died unmarried and was buried at Bibury (Glos), 26 June 1747; will proved 27 July 1747;
(4) Thomas Baker (1693-94), baptised at Ombersley, 21 December 1693; died in infancy and was buried at Ombersley, 1694;
(5) Thomas Baker (1695-1755) [for whom see below, Baker of Stouts Hill and Hardwicke Court]
(6) Mary Baker (b. & d. 1699), baptised at Ombersley, 21 November 1699; died in infancy and was buried at Ombersley, 9 December 1699.
He lived at Boreley in Ombersley (Worcs).
He was buried at Ombersley, 16 October 1725; his will was proved in the PCC, 19 February 1725/6. His widow was buried at Ombersley, 24 March 1725/6.

Baker, John (1688-1741). Elder son of Thomas Baker (d. 1725) of Borley in Ombersley (Worcs) and his wife Elizabeth Aston, baptised at Ombersley, 9 July 1688. Educated at University College, Oxford (matriculated 1703/4). High Sheriff of Worcestershire, 1728. He married, 12 February 1710, Joanna, daughter and co-heiress of Samuel Slade of Bewdley (Worcs), and had issue:
(1) Thomas Baker (b. 1710), baptised at Ribbesford, 21 May 1710; probably died young;
(2) Samuel Baker (b. 1712), born 22 April and baptised at Ribbesford (Worcs), 4 May 1712; educated at University College, Oxford (matriculated 1729; BA 1733); shot by his father's gamekeeper;
(3) John Baker (1713-87) (q.v.);
(4) Elizabeth Baker (b. 1715), baptised at Hartlebury, 3 May 1715; probably died young;
(5) Slade Baker (1717-84) (q.v.);
(6) Anne Baker (b. 1718), baptised at Hartlebury, 20 March 1718; probably died young;
(7) Rev. George Baker (1720-67?), baptised at Hartlebury, 20 January 1720; educated at Worcester College, Oxford (matriculated 1739); vicar of Quenington (Glos), 1749-67; married and had issue one son; died about 1767;
(8) Catherine Baker (1722-1807), baptised at Hartlebury, 30 September 1722; married William Pyndar of London, second son of Reginald Pyndar of Kempley Court (Glos) and Madresfield Court (Worcs), and had issue; died January 1807.
He purchased Waresley House, Hartlebury (Worcs) in about 1713.
He died in about May 1741; his will was proved 18 June 1741. His widow died in 1758; her will was proved 23 June 1758.

Baker, John (1713-87). Eldest surviving son of John Baker (1688-1741) and his wife Joanna, daughter and co-heiress of Samuel Slade of Bewdley (Worcs), born 20 June and baptised at Hartlebury, 14 July 1713. JP for Worcestershire. He married, 12 February 1760 at St Philip, Birmingham, Anne Southall (d. 1767/9) and had issue:
(1) John Baker (1761-1809) (q.v.);

(2) Thomas Slade Baker (1762-91), baptised at Hartlebury, 21 May 1762; lived at Brook House, Himbleton (Worcs) and later at Powick (Worcs); died unmarried and was buried at Hartlebury, 8 June 1791; will proved 17 October 1792.
He inherited Waresley House, Hartlebury from his father and rebuilt the house.
He was buried at Hartlebury, 15 January 1787. His wife was buried at Hartlebury, 27 February 1767 or 8 December 1769.

Baker, John (1761-1809). Elder son of John Baker (1713-87) and his wife Anne Southall, baptised at Hartlebury, 18 March 1761. Educated at Worcester College, Oxford (matriculated 1779). High Sheriff of Worcestershire, 1788. He married, 10 May 1785 at Oldswinford (Worcs), Mary (1765-1806), only child and heiress of William Waldron of Hagley (Worcs) and Stourbridge (Worcs), and had issue:
(1) John Baker (1786-1814) (q.v.);
(2) Thomas William Waldron Baker (1787-1809), baptised at Claines (Worcs), 18 January 1787; an officer in the 4th Dragoons (Cornet, 1803; Lt.); died unmarried on active service at the Battle of Talavera (Portugal), 9 September 1809;
(3) Harriet Baker (1787-1837), baptised at Claines, 2 January 1788; lived at Frampton-on-Severn (Glos); died at Cheltenham and was buried at Whitminster, 23 August 1837; will proved in the PCC, 4 October 1837;
(4) Margaret Anne Baker (1789-1872), baptised at Hartlebury, 5 March 1789; married, 24 February 1812 at Hartlebury, as his second wife, Charles Bernard (d. c.1826) of Frampton Lodge (Glos) and Oldcastle (Carmarthens.), part-owner of the Eden plantation (Jamaica), and had issue one son and two daughters daughters; lived latterly at Over Ross near Ross-on-Wye (Herefs); died at Hereford, 24 January 1872; will proved 18 June 1872 (effects under £3,000);
(5) Emma Catherine Baker (1792-1872), baptised at Hartlebury, 28 October 1792; lived at Over Ross near Ross-on-Wye (Herefs); died unmarried 4 May 1872; will proved 9 September 1872 (effects under £5,000);
(6) Caroline Sarah Baker (1794-1883), baptised at Hartlebury, 3 March 1794; lived at Over Ross near Ross-on-Wye (Herefs); died unmarried, aged 88, 3 February 1883; will proved 7 March 1883 (effects £31,667).
He inherited Waresley House, Hartlebury from his father in 1787.
He was buried at Hartlebury, 6 March 1809. His wife was buried at Hartlebury, 29 March 1805, where she is commemorated by a tomb in the churchyard.

Baker, John (1786-1814). Elder son of John Baker (fl. 1788) and his wife Mary, only child and heiress of William Waldron of Hagley (Worcs) and Stourbridge (Worcs), baptised at Claines, 18 February 1786. Educated at Magdalen College, Oxford (matriculated 1803). High Sheriff of Worcestershire, 1812. He married, 29 March 1814 at St Michael, Bedwardine, Worcester, Barbara (1791-1856), daughter of Rev. John Francis Seymour Fleming St. John MP, prebendary of Worcester Cathedral, but had no issue.
He inherited Waresley House, Hartlebury from his father in 1809; it was leased after his death to Harriet Orange, widow, and then sold.
He died 19 November and was buried at Hartlebury, 26 November 1814. His widow married 2nd, 1 May 1819 at Spondon (Derbys), John Balguy QC DL JP (1782-1858) of Duffield (Derbys), Recorder of Derby, and had issue four sons and two daughters; she was buried at Duffield, 5 July 1856.

Baker of Bristol, Redland Court, West Hay, and Ramsden House

Baker, Slade (1717-84). Second but eldest surviving son of John Baker (1688-1741) and his wife Joanna, daughter and co-heiress of Samuel Slade of Bewdley (Worcs), baptised at Hartlebury, 16 July 1717. He was established as a linen draper at Bristol by 1744, when he took an apprentice, and later became a merchant and shipowner as well; he is known to have been involved in the slave trade, although he apparently never became a plantation owner himself. Governor of the Bristol Incorporation of the Poor and of St Peter's Hospital, Bristol. He was a Tory in politics, and a member of the city's elite Steadfast Society, which raised funds for the Tory cause in parliamentary elections. He married, 18 February 1739/40 at Clifton near Bristol (Glos), Elizabeth, only daughter and heiress of Jeremy Innes of Redland Court (Glos), and had issue:
(1) Jeremy Baker (1742-98) (q.v.);
(2) Martha Baker (1745-87), born about 1745; married, 21 August 1766 at Bristol, George Daubeny (1742-1806) of Redland and Cote, MP for Bristol, 1781-84 and mayor, 1786-87, son of George Daubeny of Bristol, merchant, and had issue two sons and four daughters; died 9 December 1787;
(3) John Innes Baker (1746-1805) (q.v.);
(4) Rev. William Baker (1753-1826), born 7 August 1753; educated at Oriel College, Oxford (matriculated 1771; LLB 1778); ordained deacon, 1776 and priest, 1777; rector of Dowdeswell (Glos), 1778-1826 and Stonehouse (Glos), 1803-26 and one of the chaplains in ordinary to the Prince Regent; married [forename unknown] Cave and had issue (including Augusta, flower painter to Queen Adelaide); died in London and was buried at Upper Heyford (Oxon), 21 August 1826;
(5) Rev. Slade Baker (1755-1829), born 15 February and baptised at St Nicholas, Bristol, 26 February 1755; educated at Queen's and New Colleges, Oxford (matriculated 1773; LLB 1782); ordained deacon, 1778 and priest, 1779; vicar of High Littleton (Somerset), 1782-85; vicar of Stoke Gifford (Glos), 1785-95 and rector of Buscot (Berks), 1791-1829; he bought a house on the Redland Court estate when it was sold in 1799; died unmarried, 19 November and was buried at Buscot, 26 November 1829, where he is commemorated by a monument.
He lived in Bristol.
He was buried at St. Nicholas, Bristol, 1 November 1784. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Baker, Jeremy (1742-98). Eldest son of Slade Baker (1717-84) and his wife Elizabeth, only daughter and heiress of Jeremy Innes of Redland Court (Glos), born 16 July and baptised at St Nicholas, Bristol, 13 August 1742. Linen draper in Bristol and a partner in the Miles Bank, 1786-98. He was joint Sheriff of Bristol, 1771, and was elected an Alderman of the City Council in 1792, but declined that honour (being the first man ever to do so). He did not really have the financial means to support his inheritance of the Redland estate, and at his death he was found to be heavily in debt, with the estate mortgaged to the Smythe family of Long Ashton. He married, 31 May 1772 at St John, Hackney (Middx), his first cousin, Katherine (1751-1809), daughter of William Pyndar of London and had issue including:
(1) Katherine Pyndar Baker (c.1775-1842), born about 1775; married, 24 September 1804 at Westbury-on-Trym, Rev. John Turner (c.1776-1847), rector of Hagley (Worcs), and had issue; died 8 August 1842;
(2) Joanna Slade Baker (1778-1846), born 12 July 1778; married, 4 August 1814 at Claines (Worcs), Rev. Robert Foster (1766-1836), rector of Sutton Bonnington (Notts) and prebendary of Wells Cathedral, and had issue two sons; died 22 November 1846 and was buried in Wells Cathedral, where she is commemorated by a monument; will proved 5 December 1846;
(3) Rev. Jeremiah (alias Jeremy) Innys Baker (1780-1809), born 24 May 1780; educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1798; BA 1802); ordained deacon, 1803 and priest, 1804; perpetual curate of Westbury-on-Trym (Glos) and minister of Redland Chapel, 1804-09; died unmarried, 12 November 1809;
(4) William Pyndar Baker (1784-1815), baptised at Westbury-on-Trym, 1784; naval officer in service of East India Co.; inherited part of the Redland estate from his brother in 1809 and left it to his infant daughter; married and had issue one daughter; died 26 March 1815 when the East Indiaman 'Alexander', bound from Bombay (India) to London was wrecked off Chesil Beach (Dorset).
He inherited Redland Court in 1775 under the will of his maternal aunt, Martha Cossins (d. 1762). After his death, the Court of Chancery directed that the house and much of the estate should be sold to pay his debts. This property was sold in three lots in 1799. The stables and outbuildings with six acres were bought by his brother, Slade Baker, who was already in possession, but had been reunited with the mansion by 1811. The portion of the estate which was not sold in 1799 passed to his two sons in turn and then to his younger son's infant daughter, who sold it for development from the 1830s onwards.
He died at Redland Court, 2 May 1798; a monument in Redland church commemorates him, his wife, his son and his mother-in-law; his will was proved 2 July 1798. His widow died at Redland, 11 December 1809.

Baker, John Innes (1746-1805). Second son of Slade Baker (1717-84) and his wife Elizabeth, only daughter and heiress of Jeremy Innes of Redland Court (Glos), born 5 July 1746. Linen merchant at Bristol; member of the Bristol Society of Merchant Venturers; a subscriber to the Bristol Dock Co., 1802. He married, 9 December 1775 at St Nicholas, Bristol, Mary (c.1748-1825), daughter of Robert Bright of Brockbury (Herefs), and had issue:
(1) Elizabeth Baker (1776-1814), baptised at St Nicholas, Bristol, 21 October 1776; married, 11 June 1810 at St Werburgh, Bristol, Abraham Flint, and had issue two daughters; died 28 April 1814;
(2) Mary Baker (1778-1810), baptised at St Nicholas, Bristol, 22 January 1778; married, 4 December 1804 at St Paul, Bristol, Rev. John Bannister of Wareham (Dorset) and had issue; died 11 April 1810;
(3) John Lowbridge Baker (1779-1822), born 11 September 1779; in partnership with William Smith (as Smith & Baker) (dissolved 1816) and then with his brother George as woollen cloth manufacturers at Leeds (Yorks WR) (bankrupted 1817); received a legacy of £5,000 from his uncle, Richard Bright, 1818, conditional on his bankruptcy being discharged; married, 20 February 1811 at Leeds, Lydia Rawson of Leeds, and had issue three sons and three daughters (who all died young except for one son); died at Coventry (Warks), 11 May and was buried at Coventry Independent Chapel, 15 May 1822; will proved 22 July 1822, leaving his personal property to his wife for life and everything else to be sold and used to pay off his debts;
(4) Dorothy Baker (1780-1807), baptised at St Nicholas, Bristol, 21 September 1780; died unmarried, 6 November and was buried at St Nicholas, Bristol, 14 November 1807;
(5) Slade Baker (1782-1819), born 19 April 1782; linen merchant at Small St., Bristol (in partnership with his mother and John Ryland to 1816); received legacy of £5,000 from his uncle Richard Bright, 1818; married, 19 June 1810 at Uplyme (Devon), Hannah (d. 1856) (who m2, 28 February 1828 at St Augustine, Bristol, Rev. Frederick Joseph Cox Trenow (d. 1856), rector of Langton Herring (Dorset), and had issue), daughter of Bento Dare of Ware, Uplyme, but had no issue; died 4 September and was buried at St Werburgh, Bristol, 10 September 1819; will proved 5 October 1819;
(6) Martha Baker (1783-1809), baptised at St James, Bristol, 15 December 1783; died unmarried, 23 June 1809;
(7) Robert Baker (1786-1860) (q.v.);
(8) Henry Baker (1788-1808), born 15 March 1788; died unmarried in Jamaica, 28 June 1808;
(9) George Baker (1790-1829), born 6 March 1790; in partnership with his brother John as woollen manufacturers at Leeds (Yorks WR) (bankrupt 1817); married, 2 December 1824 at Edgbaston (Warks), Sarah Cochrane of Westbury-upon-Trym (Glos), and had issue one son; lived latterly at Rose Hill Cottage, Walcot (Somerset); died 12 June and was buried in Bath Presbyterian Cemetery, 18 June 1829;
(10) Sarah Margaret Baker (c.1792-1821), born about 1792; died unmarried, 6 June and was buried at Brunswick Square Presbyterian Cemetery, 14 June 1821.
He died 31 January, and was buried at St Nicholas, Bristol, 6 February 1805; his will was proved 3 April 1805. His widow died 13 February 1825.

Baker, Robert (1786-1860). Third son of John Innes Baker (1746-1805) and his wife Mary, daughter of Robert Bright of Brockbury (Herefs), born 26 November 1786. Recived a legacy of £5,000 from his uncle, Richard Bright, 1818. Physician; Licentiate of Society of Apothecaries, 1820; MRCS, 1821. JP (by 1835) and DL for Somerset. He married, 5 April 1826 at Belbroughton (Worcs), Dorothea (1801-66), youngest daughter of Rev. John Wylde, rector of Aldridge with Barr (Staffs), and had issue:
(1) Frances Maria Baker (1828-1909), born 10 March and was baptised at Wrington, 24 June 1828; married, 7 July 1851, Rev. Reginald Pyndar Turnor (c.1811-88), rector of Churchill (Worcs), son of Rev. John Turnor, rector of Hagley (Worcs); died 21 July 1909; will proved 2 October 1909 (estate £9,569);
(2) Mary Baker (1829-85), baptised at Wrington, 21 August 1829; married, 5 November 1868 at Churchill (Worcs), John James (d. 1873) of Alburys, Wrington (Somerset); died 28 May 1885; will proved 18 June 1885 (effects £21,623);
(3) Rev. Robert Lowbridge Baker (1831-1904) (q.v.);
(4) Lucy Baker (1832-1905), baptised at Wrington, 2 October 1832; lived in Clifton (Glos); died unmarried, 27 January 1905; will proved 1905 (estate £10,930);
(5) Emily Dorothea Baker (1834-1918), baptised at Wrington, 26 March 1834; married, 5 September 1867 at Malvern Priory (Worcs), Dr. William George Prichard MD (1813-87), Inspector-General of Hospitals, Madras (India), and had issue two daughters; lived latterly at The Grange, Tatsfield (Surrey); died 8 July and was buried at Tatsfield, 11 July 1918; will proved 31 December 1918 (estate £2,927);
(6) Helen alias Ellen Baker (1836-1912), born 17 June and baptised at St John, Weston-super-Mare (Somerset), 7 October 1836; married, 28 February 1867 at Wrington, as his second wife, Col. Thomas Biggs RA (1822-1905), eldest son of Rev. Thomas Hesketh Biggs, rector of Whitbourne (Herefs), and had issue one son and two daughters; died 5 March 1912; will proved 28 May 1912 (estate £1,558).
He lived at West Hay, Wrington (Somerset).
He died 18 December and was buried at Wrington, 24 December 1860; his will was proved 28 May 1861 (effects under £45,000). His widow died 12 February 1866; her will was proved 17 March 1866 (effects under £1,500).

Rev. Robert Lowbridge Baker

Baker, Rev. Robert Lowbridge (1831-1904). Only son of Robert Baker (1786-1860) of West Hay, Wrington (Somerset) and his wife Dorothea, daughter of Rev. John Wylde, rector of Aldridge with Barr (Staffs), born 22 February and baptised at Wrington, 13 July 1831. Educated at Rugby and Peterhouse, Cambridge (matriculated 1849; BA 1855; MA 1859). Ordained deacon, 1856 and priest, 1857. Curate of West Felton (Shropshire), 1856-60; Rector of Wilcote (Oxon) and Ramsden (Oxon), 1860-99. JP for Oxfordshire. Chairman of Witney Board of Guardians and Witney Rural District Council. He married 1st, 16 June 1858 at Belbroughton (Worcs), Mary Katherine (c.1833-71), daughter of Charles Noel of Bell Hall (Worcs), and 2nd, 7 January 1873 at Coln St. Aldwyn (Glos), Henrietta Maria (1849-1932), fourth daughter of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, 8th bt., and had issue:
(2.1) Katherine Alice Baker (1874-1949), born 8 May and baptised at Ramsden, 21 June 1874; married, 20 November 1906 at Ramsden, William Parker Rewcastle Spencer (1863-1924), tea planter, son of William Spencer of Southfields, Leicester, and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 7 January 1949; will proved 1 October 1949 (estate £23,362);
(2.2) Mary Dorothea Lowbridge Baker (1876-1946), born 27 March and baptised at Ramsden, 30 April 1876; married, 7 April 1904 at Ramsden, Col. George Henry Barnett CMG DSO DL JP (1880-1942) of Glympton Park (Oxon) and had issue two sons and three daughters; died 26 June and was buried at Glympton, 30 June 1946;
(2.3) Lettice Edith Baker (1877-1952), born 8 April and baptised at Ramsden, 27 May 1877; married, 24 September 1902 at Ramsden, Capt. Arnold Hugh Butler (1858-1935) of Alvescote Lodge, Ramsden, third son of Paul Butler of Wyck Hill House (Glos) and had issue two sons and two daughters; died 4 July 1952; will proved 20 September 1952 (estate £7,863);
(2.4) Marjorie Emily Baker (1878-1932), born 17 July and baptised at Ramsden, 25 August 1878; married, 2 October 1907 at Ramsden, Norman Munn Whitaker (1878-1921), youngest son of John Whitaker of Broadclough (Lancs); died 23 February 1932; will proved 2 April 1932 (estate £18,602);
(2.5) Laura Joan Baker (1879-1959), born 7 December 1879 and baptised at Ramsden, 1 February 1880; married, 6 August 1912 at Ramsden, Sir Charles Leonard Chute (1876-1956), 1st bt., barrister-at-law, but had no issue; died 6 September 1959; will proved 2 October 1959 (estate £52,798);
(2.6) Henrietta Judith Baker (1882-1946), born 20 January and baptised at Ramsden, 19 March 1882; married, 11 October 1916 at Ramsden, Hon. Henry Parker (1860-1952), Sub-Librarian of the House of Lords, tenth son of Thomas Augustus Wolstenholme Parker, 6th Earl of Macclesfield, and had issue two sons; died 8 October 1946; administration of goods granted 12 March 1947 (estate £13,020);
(2.7) Robert Michael Baker (1887-1909), born 13 March and baptised at Ramsden, 10 April 1887; died unmarried, of typhoid, at Bloemfontein (South Africa), 5 November 1909; will proved 6 April 1910 (estate £2,080).
He inherited West Hay from his parents after the death of his mother in 1866, but sold it as he had built Ramsden House in 1861-62, to the designs of William Wilkinson. It was initially the vicarage but shortly afterwards he built a smaller house for the use of future vicars, so that Ramsden House could remain in his family. At his death it passed to his widow, who gave it to their third daughter and her husband c.1922.
He died 23 January, and was buried at Ramsden, 28 January 1904; his will was proved 11 April 1904 (estate £5,721). His first wife was buried at Ramsden, 14 April 1871. His widow died 25 February 1932; her will was proved 20 May 1932 (estate £10,411).

Baker (later Lloyd-Baker) family of Stouts Hill and Hardwicke Court

Baker, Rev. Thomas (1695-1755). Second son of Thomas Baker (d. 1725) of Boreley in Ombersley (Worcs) and his wife Elizabeth Aston (d. 1726), baptised at Ombersley, 1 November 1695. Educated at Oriel College, Oxford (matriculated 1711/12; BA 1715; MA 1718). Rector of Upton Warren (Worcs), 1719-21; Vicar of Bibury (Glos), 1721-55. He married 1st, (possibly 1 November 1725 at Aldworth (Berks)), Anne (d. 1735) (possibly Crocksford) and 2nd, 1745 (licence 11 June), Mary (1710-85), daughter of William Lloyd, Chancellor of Worcester Cathedral and sister of Rev. John Lloyd of Ryton (Durham), and had issue:
(2.1) Jane Baker (b. & d. 1747), baptised at Bibury, 20 May 1747; died in infancy and was buried at Bibury, 26 June 1747;
(2.2) Lucy Maria Baker (1748-49), baptised at Bibury, 13 November 1748; died in infancy and was buried at Bibury, 31 December 1749;
(2.3) Rev. William Lloyd Baker (1752-1830) (q.v.).
He died 8 November and was buried at Bibury, 13 November 1755, where he was commemorated by a monument; his will was proved in the PCC, 25 May 1756. His first wife died 16 March and was buried at Bibury, 20 March 1734/5. His widow lived latterly in Worcester and died in 1785; her will was proved at Worcester, 29 June 1785.

Baker, Rev. William Lloyd (1752-1830). Only son of Rev. Thomas Baker (1695-1755) and his second wife Mary, daughter of William Lloyd, Chancellor of Worcester Cathedral, born 19 May and baptised at Bibury (Glos), 17 June 1752. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1769; BA 1773; MA 1776). Ordained deacon, 1775, and priest, 1776. Rector of Aston Ingham (Herefs), 1776-85 and of Uley, 1785-1830. He married, 10 August 1776 at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), his cousin, Mary (d. 1819), daughter and heiress of Rev. John Lloyd of Ryton (Durham) and granddaughter of Dr. William Lloyd, Chancellor of the diocese of Worcester, and had issue:
(1) Thomas John Lloyd Baker (1777-1841) (q.v.).
He purchased the Stouts Hill estate at Uley (Glos) in 1785. In about 1783 his wife inherited from her sister Katherine Lloyd her family's property in Islington and Clerkenwell (Middx), which included the Sadlers Wells Theatre, Islington Spa, and several fields which were developed from c.1810 as the Lloyd Baker estate.
He died 24 June and was buried at Uley, 1 July 1830, where he and his wife are commemorated by a monument; his will was proved in the PCC, 16 August 1830. His wife died 5 February, was buried at Uley, 3 March 1819, and bequeathed her London property to her husband.

Baker, Thomas John Lloyd (1777-1841). Only son of Rev. William Lloyd Baker (d. 1830) and his wife Mary, daughter and heiress of Rev. John Lloyd of Ryton (Durham), born 17 May and baptised at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), 9 June 1777. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1795; BA 1798). JP (from 1803) and DL for Gloucestershire; High Sheriff of Gloucestershire, 1824-25; Freeman of Gloucester, 1805. He played a leading role in the formation of the Gloucestershire Agricultural Association, and was widely regarded as an excellent and improving landlord. He also had antiquarian interests, and was involved in the opening of Hetty Pegler's Tump, a long barrow near Uley. He married 1st, 20 May 1800 at Fulham (Middx), Mary (1778-1812), daughter and heiress of William Sharp of Fulham, surgeon, and niece of Granville Sharp, the anti-slavery campaigner, and 2nd, 27 September 1814 at Maulden (Beds), Annabella (c.1783-1856), daughter of Rev. William Ralfe, rector of Maulden, and had issue:
(1.1) Catherine Baker (1801-82), born at Fulham (Middx), 27 April and baptised there, 20 May 1801; her father settled part of the family's Middlesex estate, including Sadlers Wells, on her and her sister and their husbands; married, 4 February 1834, Canon Thomas Murray Browne (c.1801-79), vicar of Almondsbury (Glos) and hon. canon of Gloucester Cathedral, and had issue five sons; died at Stouts Hill, 22 February, and was buried at Almondsbury, 27 February 1882; will proved 9 May 1882 (effects £1,429);
(1.2) Mary Anne Lloyd Baker (1803-82), born at Fulham, 11 April and baptised there, 20 May 1803; her father settled part of the family's Middlesex estate, including Sadlers Wells, on her and her sister and their husbands; married, 25 March 1832 at Hardwicke, Col. Benjamin Chapman Browne (c.1800-53) of 9th Lancers, son of Capt. Thomas Browne of Hinkley (Leics); died 9 March 1882;
(1.3) William Lloyd Baker (1804-05), born 16 October 1804; died in infancy at Combe, Gittisham (Devon), 5 August 1805;
(1.4) Thomas Barwick Lloyd Baker (1807-86) (q.v.);
(1.5) Frances Sharp Baker (1810-12), baptised at Uley, 17 January 1810; died in infancy, 26 September 1812 and was buried at Dawlish (Devon).
After his marriage he seems to have rented houses in Devon until he purchased Hardwicke Court as a temporary home in 1815, but he was obliged to rebuild it because of dry rot. He subsequently enlarged his Hardwicke estate by additional purchases and held over 1,000 acres there by the 1830s. When he inherited Stouts Hill, Uley from his father he remained at Hardwicke and Stouts Hill became a secondary seat or dower house. He also inherited his father's Middlesex property and continued the development of the Lloyd Baker estate.
He died 5 May, and was buried at Hardwicke, 12 May 1841; his will was proved in the PCC, 21 June 1841. His first wife died at Dawlish (Devon), 26 December 1812 and was buried there, 1 January 1813. His widow was buried at Heavitree, Exeter (Devon), 11 October 1856; her will was proved 24 October 1856.

Baker, Thomas Barwick Lloyd (1807-86). Only son of Thomas John Lloyd Baker (1777-1841) and his first wife Mary, daughter and heiress of William Sharp of Fulham (Middx), born 14 November and baptised at Uley, 27 December 1807. Educated at Eton, Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1826) and Lincolns Inn (admitted 1828). JP (from 1833) and DL for Gloucestershire; High Sheriff of Gloucestershire, 1847-48. He was a staunch Conservative in politics, and a High Church Anglican in religion, and he contributed generously to the restoration of Hardwicke, Uley and other churches. His principal interest was in increasing the effectiveness of the criminal justice system at discouraging recidivism, and he was one of the early pioneers of the reformatory system for young offenders, establishing the Hardwicke Reformatory in 1852; his vision was that reformatories should discourage further delinquency by severity, and the inmates at Hardwicke were compelled to carry out heavy labour on the clay soil of the farm and were punished by beating or confinement in cells for any disobedience.  It was his model of reformatory training (rather than the more nurturing model favoured by Mary Carpenter) which was widely adopted at other reformatories in the late 19th century. As a magistrate, he secured the adoption in Gloucestershire of a scheme of escalating sentences for second and third offences, but his belief that a fourth offence should lead to mandatory life imprisonment never secured sufficient support to be implemented. He was a keen ornithologist, and published a list of birds in 1835, but he was known primarily for his writings on crime and punishment, which amounted to some 200 articles across his lifetime; a selection of them were reprinted after his death as War with Crime (1889). A biographical sketch of his life and works by the German Professor von Holzendorf, who made his acquaintance in 1861, was translated by Rosa Gibhard under the title, An English Country Squire, as sketched at Hardwicke Castle (1878). He married, 10 March 1840 at Besford (Worcs), Mary (1815-1905), daughter of Nicholas Lewis Fenwick of Besford Court, and had issue:
(1) Granville Edwin Lloyd Baker (later Lloyd-Baker) (1841-1924) (q.v.);
(2) Henry Orde Lloyd Baker (1842-1909), born 1 June and baptised at Hardwicke, 3 July 1842; educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1860); JP for Gloucestershire; Hon. Secretary and Treasurer of the Bussage House of Mercy; member of council of Royal Agricultural Society; died unmarried, 25 October 1909.
He inherited Stouts Hill and Hardwicke Court, as well as part of the family's Middlesex property, from his father in 1841.
He died 10 December, and was buried at Hardwicke, 15 December 1886; his will was proved 24 February 1887 (estate £8,171). His widow died 8 January 1905; her will was proved 28 January 1905 (estate £743).

Baker (later Lloyd-Baker), Granville Edwin Lloyd (1841-1924). Elder son of Thomas Barwick Lloyd Baker (1807-86) and his wife Mary, daughter of Nicholas Lewis Fenwick of Besford Court (Worcs), born at Besford Court, 6 February and baptised at Besford, 10 March 1841. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1859). JP (from 1862 and later Chair of Whitminster Petty Sessions) and DL for Gloucestershire; one of the Visitors of Gloucester Gaol, 1864-1922 (Chairman, 1896-1922); committee member of Hardwicke Reformatory, 1864-1922 (Secretary, 1866-82 and Chairman, 1882-1922); Guardian of the Wheatenhurst Poor Law Union and Secretary of the West Midland Poor Law Conference, 1885-1910; a committee member of Barnwood House Hospital, 1864-1924; High Sheriff of Gloucestershire, 1898-99; County Councillor, 1889-1910, 1916-20, and Chairman of its Agriculture Committee for some years; Chairman of the Gloucestershire Agriculture Society, 1890. He was a Conservative in politics and an active churchman, serving for some years as a member of the Diocesan House of Laymen. He took the name of Lloyd-Baker in lieu of Baker by royal licence in 1911. He married, 30 December 1868 at Norley (Cheshire), Catherine (1843-90), fourth daughter of Hon. Arthur Lascelles of Norley, and had issue:
(1) Michael Granville Lloyd Baker (later Lloyd-Baker) (1873-1916) (q.v.);
(2) Mary Ruth Lloyd Baker (later Lloyd-Baker) (1874-1954), born 30 June and baptised at Hardwicke, 9 August 1874; lived at Lampern House, Uley; died unmarried, 10 November  and was buried at Uley, 18 November 1954; will proved 1 February 1955 (estate £13,148);
(3) Catherine Lascelles Lloyd Baker (later Lloyd-Baker) (1875-1968) (q.v.);
(4) Clare Lloyd Baker (later Lloyd-Baker) (1877-1941), born 21 March and baptised at Hardwicke, 29 April 1877; lived at Pound House, Hardwicke; JP (from 1937) for Gloucestershire; served as an air raid warden in Second World War; died unmarried, 27 August 1941; will proved 20 November 1941 (estate £8,992);
(5) Eleanor Lloyd Baker (later Lloyd-Baker) (1879-1972), born 5 March and baptised at Hardwicke, 13 October 1879; lived at Lampern House and later at Buckle House, Uley (Glos); died unmarried, 9 June 1972; will proved 31 August 1972 (estate £15,701);
(6) Grace Lloyd Baker (later Lloyd-Baker) (1881-1947), born 16 December 1881; in the 1930s she spent part of each year in Italy, where she had a flat; died unmarried, 26 May 1947; will proved 20 September 1947 (estate £15,486);
(7) Arthur Barwick Lloyd Baker (later Lloyd-Baker) (1883-1979) (q.v.).
He inherited Stouts Hill and Hardwicke Court from his father in 1886, as well as the major part of the Lloyd Baker estate in Middlesex.
He died suddenly, 3 October, and was buried at Hardwicke, 7 October 1924; his will was proved 13 January 1925 (estate £12,386). His wife died at Hardwicke Court, 22 July and was buried at Hardwicke, 26 July 1890.

Baker (later Lloyd-Baker), Michael Granville (1873-1916). Elder son of Granville Edwin Lloyd Baker (later Lloyd-Baker) and his wife Catherine, fourth daughter of Hon. Arthur Lascelles of Norley (Cheshire), born 16 January and baptised at Hardwicke, 17 January 1873. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1891). JP for Gloucestershire; a Guardian of Gloucester Poor Law Union; County Councillor, 1910-16; Secretary of the Hardwicke Reformatory and of Gloucester Children's Hospital. Founder and Chairman of Gloucester Farmers Milk Depot. An officer in Royal Gloucestershire Hussars Yeomanry (2nd Lt., 1905; Lt.; Capt.). He married, 13 April 1898, the Hon. Blanche (1872-1947), daughter of Hugh Verney, 18th Baron Willoughby de Broke, and had issue:
(1) Hylda Blanche Lloyd-Baker (1900-16), born 2 June 1900; died young, 16 January 1916;
(2) Olive Katherine Lloyd-Baker (1902-75) (q.v.);
(3) Audrey Pamela Lloyd-Baker (1908-83), born 8 May and baptised at Hardwicke, 9 June 1908; farmer; lived at various addresses in Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight; died unmarried at Shalfleet (IoW), 21 September 1983; her will was proved 30 November 1983 (estate £13,138).
He died in the lifetime of his father when he was killed in action at the Battle of Katia, 23 April 1916; his will was proved 23 March 1917 (estate £9,365). His widow died 5 October 1947.

Lloyd-Baker, Olive Katherine (1902-75). Elder surviving daughter of Michael Granville Lloyd-Baker (1873-1916) and his wife the Hon. Blanche, daughter of Hugh Verney, 18th Baron Willoughby de Broke, born 15 August 1902. Educated at St James's School, West Malvern. Farmer and landowner. First female County Chairman of National Farmers' Union, 1942-43, and of the Country Landowners' Association, 1953-56. JP (from 1943) for Gloucestershire; High Sheriff of Gloucestershire, 1970. Member of Gloucester Rural District Council, 1924-63 and Gloucestershire County Council, 1942-49. Chairman of Stroud Conservative Association. Member of the Church Assembly, 1960-75; author of pamphlets entitled The celibate woman (1945) and The church in the countryside (1957). Appointed CBE, 1958. She ran her estates in an almost maternalistic manner, keeping the rents moderate, paying regular visits, and making it her business to get to know her tenants. According to her friend and obituarist Stella Newton, she 'took an equal interest in their budgerigars, incunabulae [sic] and aunts in Australia, though she often found it difficult, after consuming spaghetti at four in the afternoon with a tenant of Italian origin, to do justice to tea and muffins in each of three adjacent houses' on the London estate. She had antiquarian interests, and built up a collection of farming equipment at Hardwicke which was donated after her death to the Cotswold Museum Service and displayed at Northleach. She suffered from deafness throughout her life, and was unmarried and without issue.
She inherited Stouts Hill and Hardwicke Court from her grandfather in 1924, but sold the former in 1935. She also inherited the Lloyd-Baker estate in Middlesex. After the Second World War she engaged her Gloucestershire neighbour, the architect C.D. Carus-Wilson, to make a plan for the comprehensive redevelopment of the London estate, but although one block of flats was built to his designs her preference for retaining the original Georgian houses meant that the plan was abandoned in the mid-1950s.
She died as the result of a fall, 31 May 1975; her will was proved 10 March 1976 (estate £1,009,545).

Baker (later Lloyd-Baker), Lt-Col. Arthur Barwick Lloyd (1883-1979). Second son of Granville Edwin Lloyd Baker (later Lloyd-Baker) and his wife Catherine, fourth daughter of Hon. Arthur Lascelles of Norley (Cheshire), born 3 April and baptised at Hardwicke, 13 May 1883. Educated at Eton and New College, Oxford (matriculated 1902; BA 1905; MA 1907). Assistant Master at The Grange, Folkestone (Kent), 1909-13 and Cheltenham College, 1914-39. An officer in Buckinghamshire Rifle Volunteers and later the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (2nd Lt., 1902; Lt., 1903; Capt. by 1914; Maj., 1917; Lt-Col., 1919), who served in the First World War (DSO 1918; TD 1920; Croce di Guerra (Italy)). JP (from 1922) and DL (from 1924) for Gloucestershire; Member of Gloucestershire County Council, 1919-66 (Chairman of Education Committee, 1932-52). His early diaries (among the family archives) were published by Joyce Popplewell as A Gloucestershire diarist (1993). He was unmarried and without issue.
From his retirement in 1939, he lived at Hardwicke Court with his niece, Olive Lloyd-Baker, until her death, and thereafter in Uley (Glos).
He died aged 96, 15 September 1979; his will was proved 21 November 1979 (estate £40,156).

Baker, Catherine Lascelles Lloyd (1875-1968). Second daughter of Granville Edwin Lloyd Baker (later Lloyd-Baker) and his wife Catherine, fourth daughter of Hon. Arthur Lascelles of Norley (Cheshire), born 29 December 1875. She married, 20 January 1909, Wilfred Murray-Browne (1874-1968), land agent, son of Rev. Charles Chapman Murray-Browne, vicar of Hucclecote (Glos), and had issue:
(1) William Granville Murray-Browne (1909-79) (q.v.);
(2) Catherine Clare Murray-Browne (1911-2001), born 16 November 1911; married, 28 June 1941, Roger Hargreaves Cobham (1909-84), son of Rev. George Cobham, rector of Beeford (Yorks), and had issue one son and two daughters; died 23 November 2001; will proved 19 December 2001.
She lived at Went House, Uley (Glos) and later in Birmingham.
She died 19 April 1968; her will was proved 12 September 1968 (estate £8,088). Her husband died 24 November 1968; his will was proved 15 March 1969 (estate £50,222).

Murray-Browne, William Granville (1909-79). Only son of Wilfred Murray-Browne (d. 1968) and his wife Catherine Lascelles Lloyd, daughter of Granville Edwin Lloyd Baker (later Lloyd-Baker), born 18 November 1909. Educated at Shrewsbury School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge (MA, MB; BCh 1937). Medical practitioner (LRCS and MRCP). He married, 10 September 1942, Eva Marmion Shaw (1908-2000), daughter of John Shaw McLaren FRCS of Edinburgh, and had issue:
(1) twin, Charles Granville Moray Murray-Browne (later Lloyd-Baker) (1945-2015) (q.v.);
(2) twin, Caroline Grace Olive Murray-Browne (b. 1945), born 24 March 1945; married, Apr-Jun 1976 (div. 1997), as his second wife, John Bainbridge Copnall (1928-2007), artist and teacher of painting, and had issue one son and one daughter;
(3) Harriet Helen Murray-Browne (b. 1946), born 25 November 1946; married, Apr-Jun 1973, Sir Richard Peter Lambert (b. 1944), kt., editor of The Financial Times, 1991-2001, Director-General of the CBI, 2006-11, Chancellor of Warwick University, 2008-14, and had issue one son and one daughter;

(4) (William) John Michael Murray-Browne (b. 1948), born 13 June 1948; bookseller and proprietor of The Angel Bookshop, Islington (closed 2005); married, Oct-Dec 1979, Lindsay E. Duguid (b. 1949), literary critic, author, and fiction editor of The Times Literary Supplement, 1978-2011, and had issue two daughters.

He lived at The Mount, Stonehouse (Glos).

He died 9 January 1979; his will was proved 8 May 1979 (estate £329). His widow died 4 February 2000; her will was proved 5 June 2000.

Charles Lloyd-Baker (1945-2015)

Murray-Browne (later Lloyd-Baker), Charles Granville Moray (1945-2015). Elder son of William Granville Murray-Browne (1909-79) and his wife Eva Marmion Shaw, daughter of John Shaw McLaren FRCS, born 24 March 1965. Educated at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. He changed his name by deed poll to Lloyd-Baker after being named as heir to the estate of Olive Lloyd-Baker, 24 March 1966. High Sheriff of Gloucestershire, 1993-94. A prominent figure in the horse racing world, he was a director of Cheltenham Racecourse, a member of the Jockey Club, and a steward at several National Hunt courses. He married 1st, Jan-Mar 1973, Catherine B. Chorlton (b. 1950?), and 2nd, Apr-Jun 1978, Sally Louise Owen (b. 1952), and had issue:
(1.1) Henry Moray Arthur Lloyd-Baker (b. 1976), born January 1976; educated at London Film School; director and executive producer with Okay Studio; married, c.2010, Judith, daughter of Colin Wood of Edinburgh;
(2.1) Alexander Granville Lloyd-Baker (b. 1979), born Apr-Jun 1979; insurance executive with Decus Insurance Brokers Ltd.; steward at Lingfield racecourse;
(2.2) William Barwick Lloyd-Baker (b. 1981), born Jan-Mar 1981; executive chef at The Athenaeum Hotel, London.
He inherited Hardwicke Court and the Middlesex estate from his first cousin once removed, Olive Lloyd-Baker, in 1975. Half of the Middlesex estate was sold to Islington Borough Council in 1979, leaving about forty properties in the family's possession in 2008.
He died 23 December 2015; his will was proved 23 December 2016. His widow is now living.

Sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1972, pp. 38-39; Sir R. Atkyns, The ancient and present state of Glostershire, 1712, plate facing p. 456; S. Rudder, A new history of Gloucestershire, 1779, p. 783; M. Lloyd-Baker, Story of Uley, c.1900, pp. 31-32; C. Hussey, English Country Houses: Early Georgian, 1966, p. 129; V.C.H. Glos, x, 1972, pp. 181-2; Country Life, 5 July 1973, pp. 16-20; Glos & Avon Life, January 1974; R. White, 'The influence of Batty Langley' in The Georgian Group, A Gothick Symposium, 1983, p. 85; D. Verey & A. Brooks, The buildings of England: Gloucestershire - the Vale and the Forest of Dean, p. 524; N. Barton, A history of Stouts Hill, 2006; Sir H.M. Colvin, Biographical dictionary of British Architects, 4th edn., 2008, p. 468; P. Temple (ed.), Survey of London: Vol. 47, Northern Clerkenwell and Pentonville, 2008, pp. 264-97; J. Allen-Williams, Redland, 2012, pp. 18-22; P. Malpass, 'The Redland estates of John Cossins, and what happened to them', Transactions of the Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, vol. 130, 2012, pp. 225-40. 

Location of archives

Baker family of Waresley House: deeds, 1595-1832 [Birmingham Archives & Heritage, MS 3802]
Lloyd-Baker family of Hardwicke Court: deeds, estate and family papers of Sharp, Lloyd and Baker families, 1610-1963 [Gloucestershire Archives, D3549, D6919]

Coat of arms

Azure, on a fesse engrailed and cottised, between three swans' heads erased at the neck or, ducally gorged and beaked gules, as many cinquefoils, gules. [Several different but closely related versions of this coat of arms are recorded for this family, which appear to have been used at different times].

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 3 August 2018 and was updated 25 June, 21-30 July and 9 August 2021, 15 March 2022 and 24 November 2023. I am grateful to Michael P. Butler for additional information and corrections, and for the early photograph of Ramsden House, and to Terry Sancroft Baker for additional information.