Baker,

Baker, HENRY, naturalist, born in London in 1698, from a bookseller's apprentice turned a teacher of deaf-mutes, and, making a largish fortune, in 1729 married Defoe's youngest daughter. In 1740 he was elected a Fellow both of the Royal Society and of the Society of Antiquaries. He contributed many papers to the Transactions of the former society, received its Copley gold medal (1744) for his microscopical experiments, and published a philosophical poem on the Universe. He was founder of the Bakerian lectureship, and died 25th November 1774.