Henry Baker (1698–1774)

by William Nutter, pubd 1812 (after W. B. Thomson)

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Baker, Henry (1698–1774), natural philosopher and teacher of deaf people, was born on 8 May 1698 in Quality Court, Chancery Lane, London, to William Baker, a clerk in chancery, and his wife, Mary, the daughter of Aaron Pengry, comptroller of the petty bag office. His father died when he was very young, and he himself recorded that he was brought up by his paternal grandmother. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a bookseller of Pall Mall, John Parker, whose business was later bought by Robert Dodsley, who printed Baker's books on microscopy. In 1720, having completed his apprenticeship, Baker went to Enfield on a visit to John Forster, an attorney and a relative, whose eight-year-old daughter had been born deaf, and was consequently dumb. He undertook the task of teaching this child, as well as her sister and younger brother, also born deaf, to speak and read, with such success that this became his chosen career. He achieved both reputation and a considerable fortune in the teaching of deaf people and those with speech defects, and had many aristocratic clients.

Baker was certainly aware of the theories of speech training of Dr John Wallis, fellow of the Royal Society and Savilian professor of geometry, whose treatise of speech, De loquela, Baker paraphrased into English as A Short Essay on Speech (1723). Wallis had written that for each sound the organ producing it and the position in which it is produced must be minutely studied; for, 'by such Organs, in such Positions, the Breath issuing from the lungs, will form such Sounds, whether the Person do or do not hear himself speak' (Autobiography, 41). It is likely that Baker applied this laborious process of teaching the production of each individual sound, though he kept his actual methods a close secret. His success is attested by a witness, Louis Dutens, who 'was astonished at the facility with which they [Baker's pupils] understood what I said by observing the motion of my lips; they also answered me, but their voice wanted modulation and so was disagreeable' (Dutens, 101–2).

While teaching a fourteen-year-old deaf boy in Stoke Newington in 1724, Baker met Daniel Defoe and his family, and began to court Defoe's youngest daughter Sophia (1701–1762). Baker became engaged to Sophia in 1727 but the marriage was delayed while Baker, who was extremely careful with his finances, negotiated a dowry with Defoe. Nevertheless, when Baker established The Universal Spectator and Weekly Journal in 1728 Defoe contributed to the first number. Baker conducted the journal, using the pseudonym Henry Stonecastle, until 1733, and it continued to exist for a further thirteen years. Baker married Sophia in April 1729. They had two sons: the elder, David Lionel Erskine Baker (1730–1767?), continued in the literary tradition of his father and maternal grandfather; the younger, Henry Baker (1734–1766), a lawyer, attempted the same but with less distinction.

Baker's involvement with a literary journal was in no way surprising for, like his father-in-law, he had strong literary interests. In his youth he produced several volumes of verse, both original and translated, and achieved success with a poem published in 1727 entitled The Universe: a Philosophical Poem Intended to Restrain the Pride of Man. This reached a posthumous third edition in 1805, and contained a short eulogy of the author. The work revealed Baker to be a typical natural philosopher of his time, keenly interested in the wonders of nature, as manifesting the power of the creator. From 1740 Baker's literary skills were used in prose, embodying his scientific discoveries. He became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in that year, and in 1741, a fellow of the Royal Society, to whose Philosophical Transactions he was a frequent contributor. The book that established his name as a scientific writer was The Microscope Made Easy, which appeared in 1742, and achieved five editions in the author's lifetime, as well as translation into Dutch and French. Written for the novice, it was divided into two parts, the first describing various types of microscope, how best to use each, and how to prepare specimens, while the second part was concerned with the examination of various natural objects, such as the flea, hairs, and pollen. The particular microscopes that he described and illustrated were all made by John Cuff, who did much business as a result. Eleven years after the publication of what proved to be a best-seller, Baker published a second microscopical work, Employment for the Microscope (1753) that repeated the success of its predecessor. Also written for a popular audience, Employment described Baker's own microscopical discoveries, which had been presented to the Royal Society.

Baker's most important scientific study, for which he received the Copley medal of the Royal Society in 1744, concerned his observation under the microscope of crystal morphology. For this work, using crystals from solution, he found the then current design of the compound microscope awkward, and had Cuff make him one of completely new design. Baker made this study the first part of Employment for the Microscope. His other main microscopical research involved repeating the experiments on freshwater polyps (Hydra viridis) of Abraham Trembley. Trembley's discoveries, reported to the Royal Society in January 1743, caused a sensation, since the polyps, when cut in two, grew into two complete specimens, a plant-like property strangely combined with the animal-like ability to move and ingest worms. Baker, in association with Martin Folkes, examined the creatures with the microscope, and, with due acknowledgement to Trembley, published in November 1743 An Attempt towards a Natural History of the Polype. He also examined, and made measurements on the twenty-six bead microscopes bequeathed to the Royal Society by the Dutch microscopical pioneer Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. Baker's account of these unique instruments is a valuable historical document.

A well-known popularizer of science in Britain, Baker also corresponded regularly with members of philosophical societies all over Europe. An important result of these contacts was that he introduced into England two new plants, the alpine strawberry, for which the seeds were sent to him by a correspondent in Turin, and, more importantly, Rheum palmatum, a variety of rhubarb with wide-ranging medicinal uses, which was sent from Russia. Baker's interest in the practical applications of scientific knowledge led to his being one of the founders of the Society of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, established formally in 1755.

Henry Baker died at lodgings in the Strand on 25 November 1774 and is said to have been buried at St Mary-le-Strand. His two sons predeceased him and he left most of his estate to his grandson, William Baker, a clergyman. In addition he bequeathed to the Royal Society £100 to establish a lecture bearing his name. Among famous Bakerian lecturers in the fifty years following his death were Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday. Baker had amassed a considerable collection of antiquities and natural specimens that was sold at auction during nine days beginning on 13 March 1775.