Lawrence James Baker

Lawrence James Baker (4 January 1828 – 10 June 1921) was an English stockbroker and a Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1886.

Baker was born in London, the son of John Law Baker and his wife Caroline Elizabeth Browne.[1] He became a stockbroker and was a trustee of the London Stock Exchange.[2] Baker was living at Haydon Hall in Eastcote but bought Ottershaw Park in 1885.[3]

In the 1885 general election, Baker was elected Member of Parliament for Frome, but he lost the seat in the 1886 general election to the Conservative Party candidate Lord Weymouth.[4] He later stood for parliament unsuccessfully in Chertsey, at by-elections in 1892 and 1897.[5] In 1898 he became High Sheriff of Surrey. He built cottages in Bonsey's Lane at Ottershaw but sold the estate in 1910 after he had put it up for auction unsuccessfully in 1907.[6] He moved for three years to Brantridge Park, Balcome, West Sussex. In 1910 he settled at Brambridge Park, Twyford, Hampshire where he died at the age of ninety-four.

Baker married firstly Ellen Catherine Thompson in 1857. His second wife Susan Taylor he married in 1871 at All Saints Church, Kensington, SW. Lawrence had fourteen children, seven by each marriage.

References

  1. ^ Parish Registers Camberwell St Giles and Medbourne cum Holt
  2. ^ Debretts House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1886
  3. ^ Owners and Occupiers of Ottershaw Park
  4. ^ Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1974]. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 379. ISBN 0-900178-27-2. 
  5. ^ Craig, op. cit., page 396
  6. ^ Owners and Occupiers of Ottershaw Park

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Henry Bernhard Samuelson		 Member of Parliament for Frome
1885 – 1886		 Succeeded by
Viscount Weymouth
Honorary titles
Preceded by
William Keswick		 High Sheriff of Surrey
1898–1899		 Succeeded by
Sir John Whittaker Ellis, Bt.