Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Baker, William (1668-1732)
BAKER, WILLIAM (1668–1732), bishop of Norwich, was the son of William Baker, vicar of Ilton, Somersetshire, where he was born in 1668. He was educated at Crewkerne School, and entered at Wadham College, Oxford, of which college he was first fellow, and eventually became warden in 1719. He was successively rector of St. Ebbes, of Padworth, and of Blayden, all in the diocese of Oxford. In 1714 he was collated to the archdeaconry of Oxford. In 1723 he was promoted to the see of Bangor, whence in 1727 he was translated to Norwich. He held the rectory of St. Giles-in-the-Fields in commendam up to the time of his death, which occurred at Bath, 4 Dec. 1732. He was never married. During his brief tenure of the see of Bangor he managed to make his only brother treasurer of the church there, and his two nephews were provided for by being made registrars of the diocese of Norwich. Blomefield, the historian of Norfolk, who was ordained by him, gives the titles of four sermons which he printed; one of them was published by special command of Queen Anne in 1710. He was chaplain in ordinary to George I. In the abbey church at Bath there is a monument to him with a fulsome epitaph.
[Blomefield's Norf. iii. 595; Le Neve's Fasti.]