Dr. Henry Baker

The son of a Chancery clerk, "Microscope" Baker was apprenticed to John Parker, a bookseller, though he later made his fortune teaching the deaf and dumb. He was Defoe's son-in-law, a member of the Society of Antiquaries (1740), Fellow of the Royal Society (1741), and a founder of the Society of Arts (1754). With Defoe, he edited the Universal Spectator and Weekly Journal (1728-33); he founded the Bakerian lecture of the Royal Society. Bonamy Dobree notes that "posterity's chief debt to him is as the introducer of rhubarb into England" OHEL (1959) 399.

TEXT RECORDS:

1723An Invocation of Health. A Poem.
1741[To Meanwell: On Jealousy.]

PUBLICATIONS:

An invocation of health: a poem. 1723.
Original poems: serious and humorous. 1725.
Second part of original poems. 1726
The universe: a poem. 1727.
Medulla poetarum romanorum: or the most beautiful and instructive passages of the Roman poets, with translations in English verse. 2 vols, 1737.
The works of Moliere [trans, with James Miller]. 8 vols. 1739.
The universal spectator, ed. Baker. 1728-33; 4 vols, 1756.
The microscope made easy. 1743.
Employment for the microscope. 1753.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English
Anglican

no formal education
Fellow of Society of Antiquaries
Fellow of the Royal Society

antiquary
physician
book trade

essayist
poet
editor

Universal Spectator
Weekly Journal

Daniel Defoe
Robert Dodsley

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL.

Robert Southey, Specimens of Later English Poets (1807); "Life" in The universe, 1808; Alexander Chalmers, General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17); John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15) [portrait]; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); George R. Potter, "Henry Baker, FRS" Modern Philology 29 (1932) 301-21; Fairchild, in Religious Trends in English Poetry (1939); Dobree, OHEL (1959); G. L'E. Turner, "Henry Baker, F.R.S.: Founder of the Bakerian Lecture" Notes and Queries, 29 (1974) 53-79.; Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database (1995); Edward W. R. Pitcher, The Universal Spectator (1728-1746): an Annotated Record of the Literary Contents (2004).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Dr. Henry Baker:

1.	1722  Henry Baker to Richard Steele, 1722|23; Steele, Correspondence, ed. Blanchard (1941) 178.
2.	1746  Alexander Carlyle, 1746; in Autobiography of Dr. Alexander Carlyle (1910) 204.
3.	1772  Anonymous, in "Catalogue of the most celebrated Writers" Letters concerning the present State of England (1772) 336-37.
4.	1807  Robert Southey, in Specimens of the Later English Poets (1807) 3:83.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Dr. Henry Baker:

1.	1812  John Nichols, in Literary Anecdotes of the XVIII Century (1812-15) 5:276.
2.	1812  Alexander Chalmers, in General Biographical Dictionary (1812-17) 3:336-41.
3.	1842  C. H. Timperley, in Encyclopaedia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote (1842) 2:732.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1722  Dr. Henry Baker:   Henry Baker to Richard Steele, 1722|23; Steele, Correspondence, ed. Blanchard (1941) 178.