Person:Nicholas Baker (1)

In his will, dated 15 June 1678 and proved 29 October 1678, "Mr. Nicholas Baker, pastor of a Church of Christ at Scittuate," bequeathed "unto Grace my beloved wife, in the consideration of her singular and extraordinary love & faithfulness in the discharge of her duty unto me and my children, ... all that which was her own before marriage with me, everything only the Great Cyprus Chest which I give to her during her natural life only," also household goods and livestock for her maintenance, also "the one half of that my dwelling house which is in Hull ... with the full half of the orchard," stock, and gardens, and "all my homelot in Hull aforesaid, which lies upon the hill southwestward next adjoining to Thomas Jones his lot, together with that lot of salt meadow which lies in White Head meadows, and so much of the swamp at Allerton Hill as is or may be mowable, together with one lot upon Strawberry Hill, and one lot upon Sagamore Hill, one lot upon White Head, one lot upon Peducke's Island, and the one half of all my land upon any island belonging to Hull on which I have any land, together with one half of all common rights" during her natural life, also "all my estate of upland and meadow land ... in Hingham ... together with all the common rights ... during her natural life only," with provisions for the cutting of timber by the children; "also it is my will that my son Samuel shall pay unto my wife forty shillings in money per annum during her natural life in consideration of such lands as I shall put into his hands"; to "my eldest son Samuel I give the other part of my dwelling house ... and all my other lands ... before mentioned as given unto my wife during her natural life ... together with all the common rights both for wood and pasture belonging to one lot," also "after my wife her decease the other part of my said dwelling house ... before given unto my wife during her natural life, together with the other part of my land at Allerton Hill, and half all land and meadow, whether upon the main or upon the islands, and half the common right both for wood and pasture in the township of Hull," also "my first division of Conahasset lands in Hingham ... the half of my home lot next to Thomas Jones his lot excepted from these gifts," also "my home lot entirely which lies next to Thomas Jones his lot before given unto my wife ... together with the other half of all the land or meadow either on the islands or on the main, with the other half also of the common rights both of pasture and wood ... of my lands in Hull ... only," also "provided that my son Samuel pay ... unto my daughter Mary and my daughter Elizabeth ten pounds to each of them in silver money within one year after my wife's decease, or his entrance upon the above-given estate"; to "my son Nicholas ... all my estate in land and meadows, common right and whole estate in Hingham ... after my wife's decease ... excepting only the first division of Conihasset land before given unto my son Samuel, provided my son Nicholas pay ... unto my daughter Sarah ten pounds in silver money, and to my daughter Deborah ten pounds in silver money ... within one year after my wife's decease or his entrance upon the above given estate; but in case my son Nicholas should not live to come again then my mind and will is that all my estate in Hingham settled upon Nicholas ... do rest and settle upon my four daughters ... Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah and Deborah," and if this should come to pass then Samuel would be discharged from paying the legacies above mentioned to the daughters Mary and Elizabeth; "the land given me by a town vote in Scittuate ... unto my four daughters Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah and Deborah to be equally divided betwixt them"; to "my wife's grandchild Mary Webb after my wife's decease the Cyprus Chest"; to "my children sons and daughters by an equal division" "the brass andirons and the rest of my books not before disposed of"; to "my four daughters abovenamed by an equal division" "the rest of my moveables not before given"; "my wife" to pay "unto my grandchild Mercye Baker ten pounds"; "my beloved wife Grace executrix and my eldest son Samuell Baker as joint executor"; "my beloved brother Nathaniel Baker and my loving kinsman John Loren to be the overseers." In a nuncupative codicil Thomas Nicolls, aged about forty years, deposed on 29 October 1678 that "a little before Mr. Nicholas Baker of Scittuate died I was at his house and watched with him, and he called his son Samuell, and his wife, and said that it was his mind that his sons, Samuell and Nicholas, should have his wearing apparel, ... for he said that he had forgot to set it down in the will, but he said it was my real mind" [PCPR 3:2:133-35].

1.   William Richard Cutter, A.M., Genealogical and Family History of Western New York: a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the building of a nation, 3 vols. (New.

   According to source, Nicholas Baker was pastor of the First Church in Scituate.

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Weis, Frederick Lewis. The Colonial Clergy and the Colonial Churches of New England, Second Publisher: Genealogy.com, Second Address: Fremont, California. (Clearfield Company, Inc., Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1936)
   page 25.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} Nicholas Baker, in Anderson, Robert Charles; George F. Sanborn; and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635. (Boston, Massachusetts: NEHGS, 1999-2011).

   BIRTH: About 1610 (deposed on 2 June 1663 aged 53 years [PCPR 2:2:76]).
   DEATH: Scituate 22 or 29 August 1678 [PCPR 3:2:137; NEHGR 121:202]. (The inventory of Nathaniel Baker's estate at Hingham gives his date of death as 22 August, while Peter Hobart's journal says that he died on 29 August; neither gives his age at death, and no other contemporary record of his death has been found. Savage said that he died "22 Aug. 1678, aged 67" [Savage 1:67], but he does not state his source, and the age at death may simply be based on the deposition of 1663.)
   MARRIAGE: (1) By 1638 _____ _____. She died at Scituate on 23 April 1661 [NEHGR 121:112].
   (2) 29 April 1662 Grace (_____) Dipple [Hingham Hist 2:17, citing an unknown source], who survived him. (Her daughter, Grace Dipple, married at Scituate on 16 April 1666 Joseph Webb of Boston.)

4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   1:98.

   [Baker] "NICHOLAS, Hingham 1635, br. of the first Nathaniel, freem. 3 Mar. 1636, rep. 1636 and 8, rem. to Scituate, there was ord. 1660, third min. of the first ch. and was of such good temper as to reconcile the two chs. wh. had quarrel. for thirty yrs. He had Samuel, bapt. 7 Oct. 1638; John, 6 Nov. 1642; Elizabeth Nov. 1644; and Deborah, 6 June 1652. Mather, with his habitual carelessness, cays, in the Magn. III. 219, "he had but a private educat." taking occasion to utter one of his brilliant clauses; yet I found at St. John's Coll. Cambr. that he had his A. B. 1631-2, and A. M. 1635. A short time he stopped at Roxbury. His w. that prob. was mo. of all his ch. d. 4 Apr. 1661, and he next yr. took ano. of wh. the bapt. name Grace only is kn. and d. 22 Aug. 1678, aged 67. Her he made Extrix. of his will, in wh. he names six ch. Samuel, Nicholas, Elizabeth Sarah, Deborah, and Mary. The wid. Grace d. 22 Jan. 1697. All the ds. were m. Mary, 26 Feb. 1662, to Stephen Vinal; Elizabeth m. 1664 to John Vinal; Sarah m. 1671, Josiah Litchfield; and Deborah m. 1678, Israel Chittenden. Deane, 181-3."

5. ↑ The Hobart Journal, in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   Vol. 121:367, July 1967.
6. ↑ ^6.0 6.1 Seventeenth Century Hull, Massachusetts, and Her People, in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   Vol. 142 & 143, page 121.
7. ↑ Eagan, C. Edward. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register: The Hobart Journal, Volume: 121. (January - July, 1967)
   July 1967, page 202.
8. ↑ A.B.||
9. ↑ 3rd Minister, 1st Church