BAKER

baker, sir richard (1568-1644/5), author of the _chronicle of the kings of england_ and other works, was probably born at sissinghurst in kent, and entered hart hall, oxford, as a commoner in 1584. he left the university without taking a degree, studied law in london and afterwards travelled in europe. in 1593 he was chosen member of parliament for arundel, in 1594 his university conferred upon him the degree of m.a., and in 1597 he was elected to parliament as the representative of east grinstead. in 1603 he was knighted by king james i., in 1620 he acted as high sheriff at oxfordshire where he owned some property, and soon afterwards he married margaret, daughter of sir george mainwaring, of ightfield, shropshire. by making himself responsible for some debts of his wife's family, he was reduced to great poverty, which led to the seizure of his oxfordshire property in 1625. quite penniless, he took refuge in the fleet prison in 1635, and was still in confinement when he died on the 18th of february 1644 (1645). he was buried in the church of st bride, fleet street, london. during his imprisonment baker spent his time mainly in writing. his chief work is the _chronicle of the kings of england from the time of the romans' government unto the death of king james_ (1643, and many subsequent editions). it was translated into dutch in 1649, and was continued down to 1658 by edward phillips, a nephew of john milton. for many years the _chronicle_ was extremely popular, but owing to numerous inaccuracies its historical value is very slight. baker also wrote _cato variegatus_ or _catoes morall distichs, translated and paraphrased by sir richard baker, knight_ (london, 1636); _meditations on the lord's prayer_ (1637); _translation of new epistles by moonsieur d'balzac_ (1638); _apologie for laymen's writing in divinity, with a short meditation upon the fall of lucifer_ (1641); _motives for prayer upon the seaven dayes of ye weeke_ (1642); a translation of malvezzi's _discourses upon cornelius tacitus_ (1642), and _theatrum redivivum, or the theatre vindicated_, a reply to the _histrio-mastix_ of william prynne (1642). he also wrote _meditations_ upon several of the psalms of david, which have been collected and edited by a. b. grosart (london, 1882). see j. granger, _biographical history of england to the revolution_ (london, 1804); _biographia britannica_, corrected by a. kippis (london, 1778-1793).