high sheriff at
Oxfordshire where he owned some property, and soon afterwards he married
Margaret, daughter of Sir George Mainwaring, of Ightfield, Shropshire. By
making himself responsible for some debts of his wife's family, he was
reduced to great poverty, which led to the seizure of his Oxfordshire
property in 1625. Quite penniless, he took refuge in the Fleet prison in
1635, and was still in confinement when he died on the 18th of February
1644 (1645). He was buried in the church of St Bride, Fleet Street, London.

During his imprisonment Baker spent his time mainly in writing. His chief
work is the _Chronicle of the Kings of England from the Time of the Romans'
Government unto the Death of King James_ (1643, and many subsequent
editions). It was translated into Dutch in 1649, and was continued down to
1658 by Edward Phillips, a nephew of John Milton. For many years the
_Chronicle_ was extremely popular, but owing to numerous inaccuracies its
historical value is very slight. Baker also wrote _Cato Variegatus_ or
_Catoes Morall Distichs, Translated and Paraphrased by Sir Richard Baker,
Knight_ (London, 1636); _Meditations on the Lord's Prayer_ (1637);
_Translation of New Epistles by Moonsieur D'Balzac_ (1638); _Apologie for
Laymen's Writing in Divinity, with a Short Meditation upon the Fall of
Lucifer_ (1641); _Motives for Prayer upon the seaven dayes of ye weeke_
(1642); a translation of Malvezzi's _Discourses upon Cornelius Tacitus_
(1642), and _Theatrum Redivivum, or The Theatre Vindicated_, a reply to the
_Histrio-Mastix_ of William Prynne (1642). He also wrote _Meditations_ upon
several of the psalms of David, which have been collected and edited by
A. B. Grosart (London, 1882).

See J. Granger, _Biographical History of England to the Revolution_
(London, 1804); _Biographia Britannica_, corrected by A. Kippis (London,
1778-1793).

BAKER, SIR SAMUEL WHITE (1821-1893), English explorer, was born in London
on the 8th of June 1821. He was educated partly in England and partly in
Germany. His father, a West India merchant, destined him for a commercial
career, but a short experience of office work proved him to be entirely
unsuited to such a life. On the 3rd of August 1843 he married Henrietta
Biddulph Martin, daughter of the rector of Maisemore, Gloucestershire, and
after two years in Mauritius the desire for travel took him in 1846 to
Ceylon, where in the following year he founded an agricultural settlement
at N