B A K 



Baker was nnquertlonably a man of i-itJgrity and candour. 

 By his confcientious lefiifal to take the oaths required by 

 government at the acccfllon of George I. he loll his fellow- 

 (hip ; but he retained his chambers at St. John's college, 

 where he was highly elleemed, and Mr. Prior, the celebrated 

 poet, gave the profits of his own fcUowfhip to Baker, in 

 order to fupply the lofs of income which he had fuffered. 

 His correfpondence with men of learning was extenfive ; 

 and he was liberal in his literary communications to thofe 

 who folicited information ; and particularly to bilhop Burnet, 

 who was indebted to him for feveral remarks and corredlions 

 relating to his " Hillor)' of the Reformation." Thefe two 

 perfons, though very different from each other with regard 

 to their party and principles, maintained a mutual friendfhip 

 and a candid intercourfe, which were honomable to both. 

 Baker's private charafter was amiable, and he was beloved 

 and refpecled by all who knew him. He died at Cam- 

 bridge, July 2d, 1740, in his eighty-fourth year. Of his 

 extenfive colleftions, he left twenty-three volumes in folio, 

 written by his own hand, to lord Oxford, and they now 

 compofe part of the Harleian colleftion in the Britifli mu- 

 feum. He alfo bequeathed fifteen volumes folio, of a like 

 ■kind, to the public library at Cambridge, together witii 

 other MSS. and printed books. Biog. Brit. 



" Mr. Baker," fays a late biographer, Horatio Walpole 

 earl of Orford, " lived and died in charity with all mankind, 

 and was perhaps the fole inftanceof a man, who bequeathed 

 his worldly goods to a fociety that ejefted him, and to the 

 minillers of a church in which he had loll preferment." 

 Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the late Thomas 

 Baker, &c. by R. Mr.fters, ■l^i^4. 



Bake*, Henry, an ingenious and -diiigeirt naturalift, was 

 born in London near the clofe of the fcventeenth or the be- 

 jfinning of the eighteenth century, and apprenticed to a 

 bookfeller. This employment, if he ever engaged in it 

 after the expiration of his apprenticelliip, he foon relin- 

 quiflied ; and having direfted particular attention to the 

 methods v.hich might be practicable ar.d ufeful in the cure 

 of Hammering, he engaged in teaching deaf and dumb per- 

 fons to fpeak ; and in this undertaking he was very fucceff- 

 ful. He married a daughter of the celebrated Daniel Defoe. 

 In the earlier period of his lite, he indulged a taltc for poe- 

 try, and publilhed, in 1725 and 1726, " Original Poems, 

 feriou-. and humorous," in two parts, in which there are 

 fome tales that refenible in wit, and alfo in licentioufnefs, 

 thofe of Prior. He was the author likewilc of " The Uni- 

 verfe, a Poem intended to rcflrain the Prije of Man," fe- 

 veral times reprinted, and of " An Invocation to Health," 

 reprinted in his " Origir.al Poems." At a more advanced 

 period of life, he purlucd various branches of ftudy and ex- 

 periment in philofophy and natural hiftory, and devoted him- 

 ielf more cfpccially to microfcopical refenr?hcs and obferva- 

 tions. In 1740, he was elecled a fellov.- of the Antiquarian 

 and Royal Societies ; in both which he was a regular at- 

 tendant. In 1744, the Royal Society honoured him with 

 ■fir (jodfrcy Copley's medal in rccompeuce of his microfco- 

 pical difcoveries, the cryilallizatious and configurations of 

 laline particles. Among various topics, on which he com- 

 municated papers to the Royal Society, that have been pub- 

 liilied in their TranfaClions, one was the water-jjolype (fee 

 Polype) ; and his remarks on this curious animal were en- 

 larged into a fepnrate treatife, which pafied through feveral 

 editions. The moll important and valuable of his obfcrva- 

 tions are contained in his two principal works, intitled, 

 " The Microfcope made cafy," and " Employment for the 

 Microfcope," of which many editions have been publidied. 

 Mr. Daker was one of the earlielland mod zealous inanbers 



B A K 



of the fociety for the encouragement of arts, manufaftures, 

 and commerce ; and by his extenfive correfpondence he wa« 

 eminently ufeful in introducing into his own country feveral 

 valuable methods of culture. To him we are indebted tor 

 the true hiftory of the " Coccus Polonicns," for the " Al- 

 pine Strawbery," and for the " Rheum Palmatum." After 

 the firll difcoveries in eleftricity, he was one of the firil who 

 announced to the public the apprehended medicinal efftfts 

 that might refult from the application of it, and to relate 

 the experiments of this kind which had been made at Rome 

 and Bologna. He did not, however, efcape the ftridlures 

 of critics, and particularly of Dr. Hill, in his review of the 

 works of the Royal Society. It has been faid of him, more 

 to the diflionour of thofe who have thrown out this unjull 

 and invidious refleAion than to his difgrace, that he was a 

 philofopher in little things ; but cavillers of this dcfcription 

 feem to forget that the minute produ£lions of nature difplay 

 the great firft caufe as much as the largcll; ; and they too 

 generally efcape the vulgar eye. Mr. Baker, fays one of 

 his biographers, was " an intelligent, upright, benevolent 

 man, much refpefted by thofe wiio knew him bell. His 

 friends were the friends of fcience and virtue ; and it will be 

 always remcml.ered by his cotemporaries, that no one was 

 more ready than himfelf to afTilf thofe with whom he was 

 converfant, in their various refearches and endeavours for 

 the advancement of knowledge and the benefit of lociety. 

 After a life induftrioufly devoted to thefe great objedls, he 

 died at his apartments in the Strand, Nov. 25th, 1774. The 

 bulk of his fortune was bequeathed to his only grandfon ; 

 and he left tool, to the Royal Society for an anatomical 

 or chemical lecture. Biog. Brit. 



Baklr's Central Rule, in Matljematics. See Central 

 Rule. 



Baker's Dozen I/lirnds, in Geograpliy, a clufler of ifiands 

 near the eaft fide of Hudfon's bay, about N. lat. 57^^ 30'. 

 and W. long. 81". to the well of an opening which goes 

 to the eaft and noith-eall as far as the loulh-eail end of 

 Hudfon's llraits. 



BAKERSFIELD, a newly-fettkd townlhip of Ameri- 

 ca, in Franklin county, Vermont, formerly in Chittenden 

 county. 



BAKERSTOWN, lies in Cumberland county, and di- 

 ftrici of Maine, containing 1276 inhabitants; dillant 162 

 miles north-eall from Bollon. 



BAKEU, or Bacou, a town of European Turkey, in 

 the province of Moldavia, 60 miles fouth-welL of Jafl'y. 



BAKEWELL, is an ancient market town of England, 

 in the comity of Derby. In the Saxon chronicle it is called 

 Eadccantu-jUivn ; from which circumftance Mr. Brav conjec- 

 tures that a bath had been ufed in this place previous to the 

 year 924, at which time Edward the elder ordered a ilrongly 

 f<.)rtified town to be built in the vicinity. The parifli of 

 Bakewell is the moft extenfive in the county ; its length 

 from north to fouth being more than twenty miles, and its 

 breadth upwards of eight. Its number of houfes is 299, 

 and that of inhabitants 141 2. In confequence of the ex- 

 tent of this parifii, it has nine chapels of eafe befides the 

 church in the town. The latter, fituated on an eminence, 

 is an ancient amd handfome ftruflure, built in the form of 

 a crofs, with an octagonal tower in the centre, fupporting a 

 lofty fpire. The architecture of this fabric combines a va- 

 riety of ftyles. The plain Saxon appears in the nave, and 

 the arch of the weftern doorway is enriched with zigzag 

 ornaments ; but the other parts are built in that ftyle which 

 prevail':d in the fifteenth century. Here are fome ancient 

 and curious monuments. In the church yard is a Catholic 

 Hone crofs, whoft fides are ornamented with a rudely exe- 

 cuted 



