William Baker (colonist)

William Baker
Born c. 1761
Died September 1836 (aged 74–75)
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Nationality English
Occupation British Marine
Superintendant of convicts
Farmer
Crier, Supreme Court of Van Diemen's Land
Title Sergeant
Spouse(s) Susannah Huffnell (1788 - 1790)
Elizabeth Lavender (1795 - c.1804)

William Baker (c. 1761  – 14 September 1836) was a British Marine and member of the First Fleet to Australia which founded the European penal colony of New South Wales.

Initially an orderly for Australia's first colonial Governor, Arthur Phillip, he was later appointed government storekeeper in Parramatta, and storekeeper and superintendent of convicts in the rural settlement of Hawkesbury. Dismissed from these posts in 1810, Baker relocated to Hobart where he became the inaugural Crier for Australia's oldest colony-wide judicature, the Supreme Court of Van Diemen's Land.

The Australian fish Latropiscis purpurissatus, or "Sergeant Baker," is named in his honour.[1][lower-alpha 1]

Early colonial service

Captain Watkin Tench, Baker's commanding officer during his first colonial enlistment, 1788 to 1792.
Artist unknown, c.1800.

Voyage on First Fleet

Baker joined the First Fleet to Australia in 1787 as a Marine corporal of the 53rd (Portsmouth) Company, embarked aboard the convict transport Charlotte.[3] The Fleet set sail from Portsmouth on 13 May 1787. Two days later Baker was severely wounded when he accidentally shot himself in the foot, having placed his loaded musket on the deck while preparing for guard duty.[4] Ship's surgeon John White treated the wound, and reported a significant injury to the right ankle:

"The bones, after being a good deal shattered, turned the (musket) ball which, taking another direction, had still force enough left to go through a harness cask full of beef at some distance, and after that to kill two geese who were on the other side of it."[5]

Baker was incapacitated for three months, but took pains to advance his recovery through exercise and careful tending of the wound. To the surprise of his shipmates he had recovered sufficiently to resume active duty when the Fleet reached Rio de Janeiro in August 1787. Surgeon White recorded that Baker had regained "the perfect use of the wounded leg," which he credited to Baker's youth and "good habit of body."[6]

Marine service

The Fleet arrived in Australia in January 1788, with the Marines disembarking first at Botany Bay. Six days later they reboarded the ships for the voyage to Port Jackson, where they were reorganised into four companies under the commands of Captains James Campbell and John Shea, and Captain-Lieutenants Watkin Tench and James Meredith. Baker was promoted to sergeant and assigned to Tench's company alongside fellow sergeants William Perry and Edward Campion.[7] He was further appointed as orderly to the colony's Governor, Arthur Phillip, an administrative office that relieved him of routine duties such as supervising the landing of convicts or clearing trees and undergrowth for the building of the settlement.[3][8]

Immediately on arrival in Port Jackson Baker also took a common-law wife from among the convicts - 25 year old Susannah Huffnell, who had been sentenced to seven years transportation for petty larceny.[9] Their only child, Elizabeth, was born on 1 January 1789.[10] The relationship was not a happy one and Baker refused to accompany his wife and child when they were transferred to the remote colonial outpost of Norfolk Island in March 1790. Susannah and Elizabeth had no further contact with Baker, even after they returned to Port Jackson in the 1800s.[3][9][lower-alpha 2]

The New South Wales Marine Corps' terms of enlistment were for three years, expiring in 1791. The bulk of the Marine force departed in December of that year aboard HMS Gorgon. A detachment of sixty Marines remained behind under the command of Lieutenant John Poulden, to support the newly established New South Wales Corps. Baker also remained in the colony, continuing his duties as orderly to Governor Phillip.[11] He returned to England in December 1792, in company with Phillip and the remaining Marines as passengers aboard the convict transport Atlantic.[3][12]

Return to Australia

Baker did not re-enlist in the Marines, instead seeking to return to Australia as a civilian. Within six months of arrival in England he received an appointment from the Navy Board to act as superintendent of convicts aboard the transport vessel Surprize, which departed for Australia in early 1794.[3][13] On arrival in October Baker obtained a 40 acres (16.2 ha) grant of farming land near Toongabbie, which property he cleared and planted with wheat and maize. In January 1795 he was appointed as government storekeeper in Parramatta, supervising the distribution and security of military and civilian supplies.[14] On 26 August, having comfortably established himself as a farmer and government agent, Baker married former convict Elizabeth Lavender.[3]

Baker's farming interests prospered over the following ten years, assisted by the deregulation of land grants under Governor Phillip's successor, Francis Grose. In early 1800 he was granted another 30 acres (12.1 ha) of land at Mulgrave. On 20 June he purchased a further 30 acres from a dissolute former convict, Charles Williams, who had settled in the region in 1791 but subsequently ceased to cultivate his land.[3][lower-alpha 3]

Notes

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The World Fish Center identifies Latropiscus purpurissatus and Hime purpurissatus as synonyms for a single species, with the former the accepted name and the latter a misspelling of later synonym Hime purpurissata.[2]
  2. ↑ Susannah Huffnell (born 1763), a household servant from Worcester, sentenced in 1786 to seven years transportation and carried to Australia aboard the convict ship Lady Penrhyn. She cohabited with Baker from March 1788 to March 1790, after which she and their child were transferred to Norfolk Island. Huffnell remained there until at least 1805, and is recorded as having given birth to at least two more children. She returned when the Norfolk Island settlement was abandoned, sometime between 1805 and 1813. Huffnell remained in Port Jackson until at least 1817, and married a free settler.[3][9]
  3. ↑ Charles Williams, sentenced in 1784 to seven years transportation for stealing, arriving in Australia in 1788 aboard Scarborough. On expiry of his sentence he married fellow convict Eleanor McCabe and was granted 30 acres of farming land at Mulgrave. Eleanor drowned in the Parramatta River in 1793. The Colony's Chief Secretary David Collins noted that after Eleanor's death Williams ceased cultivating his land and gave "himself up to idleness and dissipation."[15] After selling his land, Williams remained in Mulgrave as a labourer on his former property.[16]

Citations

  1. ↑ "Sergeant Baker, Hime purpurissatus Richardson, 1843". Australian Museum. June 2013. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  2. ↑ "Fishbase: Synonyms of Latropiscis purpurissatus (Richardson, 1843)". World Fish Center/FAO. November 2012. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Gillen 1989, pp. 16-17
  4. ↑ Hill 2009, p. 92
  5. ↑ Report by naval surgeon John White, May 1787. Cited in Gillen 1989, p.17
  6. ↑ Report by naval surgeon John White, August 1787, cited in Gillen 1989, p. 17
  7. ↑ Moore 1987, p. 307
  8. ↑ Moore 1989, pp. 88-96
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Chapman 1986, p.108
  10. ↑ Cobley 1963, p.3
  11. ↑ Moore 1987, pp.274-275
  12. ↑ Britton (ed.) 1978, p. 666
  13. ↑ Correspondence, Officers of Surprize to Under Secretary King, Spithead 21 April 1794, cited in Bladen (ed) 1978, pp. 854-855
  14. ↑ Chapman 1986, pp. 32-33
  15. ↑ Collins 1798, cited in Chapman 1986, p. 199
  16. ↑ Chapman 1986, p. 199

References