B A K 
“ As you brew, fo you fhall bake." This proverb is 
applicable to fuch as aft hand-over head, in matters of 
moment, without the precaution of good counfel and ad¬ 
vice; and all the (lips, mil'nianagements, and afflictions, of 
both old or young, through ralhnefs or overlight, are ex- 
pofed to this bitter taunt. 
BA'KED MEATS. Meats drelled by the oven.— 
There be lorne houfes, wherein fweetmeats will relent, 
and baked meals will mould, more than others. Bacon. 
BAKE'HOUSE, f. [from bake and houje. ] A place for 
baking bread.—I have marked a willingnefs in the Italian 
artizans, to diftribute the kitchen, pantry, and bakekoufe , 
under ground. IVotton. 
BA'KEN, the participle from to bake. —There was a 
cake baken on the coals, and a crufe of water at his head, 
i Kings. 
BA'KER,yi He whole trade is to bake.— In life and 
health, every man mult proceed upon trull, there being 
no knowing the intention of the cook or baker. South. 
The learned are in great doubt about the time when 
bakers were profedionally introduced. It is however ge¬ 
nerally agreed, that they had their rife in the ealt, and 
paffed from Greece into Italy after the war with Pyrrhus, 
about the year of Rome 583 ; till which time, every houfe- 
wife was her own baker; for the word pijlor, which we 
find in Roman authors before that time, (ignified a perfon 
who ground or pounded the grain in a mill or mortar to 
prepare it for baking. According to Athenaeus, the Cap¬ 
padocians were the mod approved bakers, after them the 
Lydians, then the Phcenicians. To the foreign bakers 
brought into Rome, were added a number of freed-men, 
who were incorporated into a body, or, as they called it, 
a college ; from which neither they nor their children were 
allowed to withdraw'. They held their effefts in common, 
and could not difpofe of any part of them. Each bake- 
houfe had a patronus, who had the fuperintendancy there¬ 
of; and thefe patroni elefted one out of their number 
each year, who had fnperintendance over all the reft, and 
the care of the college. Out of the body of the bakers 
were every now and then one admitted among the fena- 
tors. To preferve honour and honefty in the college of 
bakers, they were exprefsly prohibited all alliance with 
comedians and gladiators ; each had his bakehoufe, and 
they were diftributed into fourteen regions of the city. 
They were excufed from guardianfhips and other offices, 
which might divert them from their employment. By 
our own fiatutes bakers are declared not to be handicrafts. 
No man for ufing the myfteries or fciences of baking, brew¬ 
ing, forgery, or writing, (hall be interpreted a handicraft. 
The bakers were a brotherhood in England before the 
ear 1155, in the reign of Henry II. though the white 
akers were not incorporated till 1407, by Edward III. 
and the brown bakers not till 1621, by James I. The 
London company of bakers have their hall in Harp-lane, 
Thames-fireet; and their court-day is on thefirft Monday 
of the month. They make the nineteenth company; and 
confift of a warden, four mailers, thirty aflhtants, and 140 
men on the livery, befidcs the commonalty. The French 
had formerly a great baker, grand pane tier de France, who 
had the fuperintendency of all the bakers of Paris ; but 
lince the revolution they have been put under the jurif- 
diftion of the police. 
Baker (Sir Richard), author of the Chronicle of the 
Kings of England, was born at Sellingherfi, in Kent, 
about the year 1568. After going through the ufual 
courfe of academical learning at Hart-hall, in Oxford, he 
travelled into foreign parts ; and upon his return was 
created mailer of arts, and foon after, in 1603, received 
from king Janies I.' the honour of knighthood. In 1620, 
he was high (heriff of Oxfordfhire ; but, engaging to pay 
fome of the debts of his wife’s family, he was reduced to 
poverty, and was thrown into the Fleet prifon, where he 
compofed feveral books; among which are, 1. Medita¬ 
tions and Difquifitions on the Lord’s Prayer. 2. Medita¬ 
tions on the Plaints of David. 3. Meditations upon the 
Vol. II, No. 93. 
B A K. 63 ^ 
feven Days of the Week. 4. Cato Variegatus, or Cato’s 
Moral Diftichs varied, See. It has been obferved, that 
his Chronicle of the Kings of England vyas ever more 
efteemed by readers of a lower clafs than by .fuch as had a 
critical knowledge of hi (lory. The language of it was 
called polite ; and it long maintained its reputation, it 
has been feveral times reprinted, and is now carried as low 
as the reign of George I. Sir Richard alfo tranfiated fe¬ 
veral works from the French and Italian; and died very 
poor, in the Fleet prifon, on the 18th of February, 1645. 
Baker (Thomas), an eminent mathematician, was born 
at llton, in Somerfetfliire, about the year 1625, and en¬ 
tered at Magdalen-hall, Oxford, in 1640; after which lie 
was vicar of Bilhop’s Nymmct, in Devonflure, where lie 
wrote The Geometrical Key, or the Gate of Equations 
unlocked ; by which he gained a confiderable reputation. 
A little before his death, the members of the Royal So¬ 
ciety feat him fome mathematical queries, to which he re¬ 
turned fo fatisfaftory an anfwer, that they prefented him 
a medal with an infeription full of honour and refpeft. 
He died at Bifiiop’s Nymmet the 5th of June, 1690. 
Baker (Thomas), an ingenious and learned antiquary, 
was born at Crook, in 1656. He was educated at the 
frec-fchool at Durham, and thence removed to Sr. John’s 
college, Cambridge, in 1674. He proceeded B. A. 1677; 
M.A. 1681; was elefted fellow March 1679; ordained, 
deacon by bifliop Compton, of London, Dec. 20, 1685; 
pried by bidiop Barlow, of Lincoln, Dec. 19, 1686. He 
was made chaplain to lord Crew’, bifliop of Durham; and 
his lord Hi i p collated him to the reftory of I.ong-Newton, 
June 1687 ; and intended to have given him that of 
Sedgefield, worth 700!. a-vear, had he not incurred his 
difpleafure, by refilling to read James II.’s declaration for 
liberty of confidence. The bifliop, who difgraced him for 
this refufal, and was excepted out of king William’s par¬ 
don, took the oaths to that king, and kept his bilhopric 
till his death. Mr. Baker refigned Long-Newton, Aug. i„ 
1690, refilling to take the oaths ; and retired to his fel- 
lowfliip at St. John’s, in which he was protected till Jan. 
20, 1717, when he was difpoflelled of it. He retained a 
lively refentment of his deprivations ; and wrote himfelf 
in all his books, as well as in thofe which lie gave to the 
college library, foetus ejedlus, and in lome cjeElus rector. He 
continued to relide in the college as commoner-mafler til! 
his death, which happened July 2, 1740, of a paralytic 
flroke, being found on the floor of his chamber. Being 
appointed one of the executors of his elder brother’s w ill, 
by which a large fum was bequeathed to pious ufes, he 
prevailed on the other two executors to lay out 1310!. of 
the money upon an efiate to be fettled upon St. John's, 
college for lix exhibitioners. He likewife gave to the li¬ 
brary feveral choice books, both printed and MS. me¬ 
dals, and coins. All that Mr. Baker printed was, 1. Re- 
fleftions on Learning; London, 1710; (which went thro’ 
eight editions : and Mr. Bofwell, in his “ Method of 
Study,” ranks it among the Englilh dallies for purity of 
ftyle.) And, 2. The Preface to Bilhop Fifher’s Funeral 
Sermon for Margaret Countefs of Richmond and Derby, 
1708. If is much to be regretted that he did not live to 
publifli his Hiflory of St. John’s College, from the Foun¬ 
dation of old St. John’s ; collefted principally from MSS. 
and carried on through a Succeflion of Mailers to the end 
of Bilhop Gunning’s Mafterlhip, 1670. The original, fit 
for the prefs, is among the Harleian MSS. No. 702S. 
His MS. colleftions relative to the hiflory and antiquities 
of the univerfity of Cambridge, amounting to forty-nine 
volumes in folio and three in quarto, are divided between 
the Britifli Mufeum and the public library at Cambridge : 
the former poflefles twenty-three volumes, which he be¬ 
queathed to the earl of Oxford, his friend and patron ; the 
latter fixteen in folio and three in quarto, which he be¬ 
queathed to the univerfity. 
Baker (Henry), an ingenious and diligent naturalill, 
was born in London about the beginning of the eighteenth 
century. He was brought up under aji eminent book- 
7 Y feller. 
