by a foreign tour, which extended as far as Poland (Baker's Chron. sub anno 1583). On 4 July 1594 the university conferred on him the degree of M.A. (Wood's Fasti (Bliss), i. 268). In 1603 he was knighted by James I at Theobalds, and was then residing at Highgate. In 1620 he was high sheriff of Oxfordshire, where he owned the manor of Middle Aston. Soon afterwards Baker married Margaret, daughter of Sir George Mainwaring, of Ightfield, Shropshire, and good-naturedly became surety for heavy debts owed by his wife's family. He thus fell a victim to a long series of pecuniary misfortunes. In 1625 he was reported to be a debtor to the crown, and his property in Oxfordshire was seized by the government (cf. Cal. State Papers (Dom. 1628-9), p. 383). On 17 Oct. 1635 Sir Francis Cottington desired of the exchequer authorities 'particulars' of the forfeited land and tenements, which were still 'in the king's hands.' Fuller writes that he had often heard Baker complain of the forfeiture of his estates. Utterly destitute, Sir Richard had, about 1635, to take refuge in the Fleet prison. There he died on 18 Feb. 1644-5, and was buried in the church of St.Bride's, Fleet Street. Several sons and daughters survived him. Wood reports that one of his daughters, all of whom were necessarily dowerless, married 'Bury, a seedsman at the Frying Pan in Newgate Street;' and another, 'one Smith, of Paternoster Row.' Smith is credited with having burned his father-in-law's autobiography, the manuscript of which had fallen into his hands.
'The storm of [Baker's] estate,' says Fuller, 'forced him to flye for shelter to his studies and devotions.' It was after Baker had taken up residence in the Fleet that he began his literary work. His earliest published work, written in a month, when he was sixty-eight years old, was entitled 'Cato Variegatus, or Catoes Morall Distichs. Translated and Paraphrased with variations of Expressing in English Verse, by Sr Richard Baker, Knight ,' London, 1636. It gives for each of Cato's Latin distichs five different English couplets of very mediocre quality, and is only interesting as the work of the old man's enforced leisure. In 1637 Baker's 'Meditations on the Lord's Prayer' was published. In 1638 he issued a translation of 'New Epistles by Moonsieur D'Balzac,' and in 1639 he began a series of pious meditations on the Psalms. The first book of the series bore the title of 'Meditations and Disquisitions upon the Seven Psalmes of David, commonly called the Penitentiall Psalmes, 1639.' It was dedicated to Mary, countess of Dorset, and to it were appended meditations 'upon the three last psalmes of David,' with a separate dedication to the Earl of Manchester. In 1640 there appeared a similar treatise 'upon seven consolatorie psalmes of David, namely, the 23, the 27, the 30, the 34, the 84, the 103, the 116,' with a dedication to Lord Craven, who is there thanked by the author for 'the remission of a great debt.' The last work in the series, 'Upon the First Psalme of David,' was also issued in 1640, with a dedication to Lord Coventry. (These meditations on the Psalms were collected and edited with an introduction by Dr. A. B. Grosart in 1882.) In 1641 Baker published a reasonable 'Apologie for Laymen's Writing in Divinity, with a short Meditation upon the Fall of Lucifer,' which was dedicated to his cousin, 'Sir John Baker, of Sissingherst, baronet, son of Sir Henrv Baker, first baronet.' In 1642 he issued 'Motives for Prayer upon the seauen dayes of ye weeke,' illustrated by seven curious plates treating of the creation of the world, and dedicated to the 'wife of Sir John Baker.' A translation of Malvezzi's 'Discourses upon Cornelius Tacitus' was executed by Baker in 1642 under the direction of a bookseller named Whittaker.
Baker's principal work was a 'Chronicle of the Kings of England from the time of the Romans' Government unto the Death of King James,' 1643. The author describes the book as having been 'collected with so great care and diligence, that if all other of our chronicles were lost, this only would be sufficient to inform posterity of all passages memorable, or worthy to be known.' The dedication was addressed to Charles, Prince of Wales, and Sir Henry Wotton contributed a commendatory epistle to the author. The 'Chronicle ' was translated into Dutch in 1649. It reached a second edition in 1653. In 1660 a third edition, edited by Edward Phillips, Milton's nephew, continued the history till 1658. Fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth editions, with continuations, appeared in 1665, 1670, 1674, 1679, and 1684 respectively. 'The ninth impression, freed from many errors and mistakes of the former edition,' appeared in 1696. An edition continued 'by an impartial hand' to the close of George I's reign was issued in 1730, and was reprinted in 1733. An abridgment of the 'Chronicle' was published in 1684. The account of the restoration given in the fourth and succeeding editions is attributed to Sir Thomas Clarges, Monck's brother-in-law. Phillipps and the later anonymous editors of the book omit many original documents, which are printed in the two original editions.
Baker's 'Chronicle' was long popular
