Royal Naval Biography/Baker, George
GEORGE BAKER, Esq.
[Commander.]
Second son of Sir Robert Baker, Knt., Treasurer to the county of Middlesex, and late chief magistrate of Bow Street, by Harriet, daughter of Anthony Aufrere, Esq., of Hoveton Hall, Norfolk, whose ancestor, a French marquis, came over with his family to England at the revocation of the edict of Nantes.
This officer was born at London, May 3d, 1795. He entered the royal navy as midshipman on board the Amazon frigate. Captain (now Sir William) Parker, Aug. 23d, 1808; subsequently served under the late Sir Henry Hotham, in the Northumberland 74; and was present at the destruction of two large French frigates and a national brig, near l’Orient, May 22d, 1812[1]. He afterwards successively joined the Pembroke 74, Ville de Paris 110, and Superb 74; the former ship commanded by the late Sir James Brisbane, and the two latter bearing the flags of Sir Harry Neale, and Sir Henry Hotham. Previous to the receipt of his first commission, which appears to have been antedated, in order to give him rank as lieutenant from Mar. 7th, 1815, he had acted as such under Captains the Hon. F. W. Aylmer and W. Fairbrother Carroll, in the Pactolus 38, and Cyrus 20. His subsequent appointments were, Nov. 20th, 1818, to the Dauntless 26, Captain the Hon. Valentine Gardner, fitting out for the East Indies; and May 11th, 1820, to the Leander 60, bearing the flag of the Hon. Sir Henry Blackwood, commander-in-chief on that station; of which latter ship Mr. Baker was first lieutenant for six months prior to his promotion. He obtained his present rank Jan. 17th, 1822; and married, Jan. 17th, 1827, Elizabeth Octavia, fourth daughter of the late William Harding, Esq., of Baraset House, Warwickshire.
Commander Baker’s eldest brother, a midshipman, died in 1809, of yellow fever, on board H.M. ship Garland, in the West Indies; his two younger brothers are in the Madras army.