Elizabeth Baker Papers,

Papers of Elizabeth Baker, 1740-1798, comprising correspondence, 1743-1798; copies of verses, including some relating to the impeachment of Warren Hastings; correspondence relating to legal matters arising from the mining partnership and the ownership of the Nannau estate, 1779-1781; journals relating to silk worms, 1779-1782; and papers concerning politics, literature, and current events, 1740-1798.

Elizabeth Baker ([c. 1720]-1799) was the daughter of a clergyman in the Midlands; she lived at one point in Coventry, Warwickshire. Her later life was spent in Merionethshire, in and around the parish of Llanegryn. In 1770, she was a partner in prospecting for metal ores in the area between Dolgellau and Llanuwchllyn, which proved unsuccessful; a lawsuit concerning the partnership later arose. She later lived at the houses of Hengwrt (1771-1778) (as secretary to Hugh Vaughan), Doluwcheogryd (until 1780), and Bryn Adda (until 1784), after which she remained in Dolgellau until her death in 1799. She kept a series of diaries, reflecting the difficulties faced by the Hengwrt house and estate, and collected and transcribed contemporary verses. She also attempted to breed silk worms.

Arranged as follows: verse of general interest, Simpkin and Simon and other political verse; printed papers; legal papers, etc.; letters to Mrs Baker; miscellaneous letters and copy letters; papers of Welsh interest; prose extracts; and miscellaneous papers, accounts of trials, inscriptions and anecdotes.

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Deposited with the Peniarth Estate Records in 1954-1956, and subsequently purchased in 1980.

Elizabeth Baker ([c. 1720]-1799) was the daughter of a clergyman in the Midlands; she lived at one point in Coventry, Warwickshire. Her later life was spent in Merionethshire, in and around the parish of Llanegryn. In 1770, she was a partner in prospecting for metal ores in the area between Dolgellau and Llanuwchllyn, which proved unsuccessful; a lawsuit concerning the partnership later arose. She later lived at the houses of Hengwrt (1771-1778) (as secretary to Hugh Vaughan), Doluwcheogryd (until 1780), and Bryn Adda (until 1784), after which she remained in Dolgellau until her death in 1799. She kept a series of diaries, reflecting the difficulties faced by the Hengwrt house and estate, and collected and transcribed contemporary verses. She also attempted to breed silk worms.

Title based on contents of fonds.

The Dictionary of Welsh Biography gives Baker's date of death as 1789; the NLW cataloguer notes that this must be incorrect, since her letters in Peniarth MS 501 continue to 1797, and suggests that the Elizabeth Baker buried in Dolgellau in 1799 may be the same individual.

A hard copy of the catalogue is available at the National Library of Wales.

January 2003; revised April 2005.

Compiled by Seri Crawley and Martin Locock for the ANW Project. The following sources were used in the compilation of this description: Dictionary of Welsh Biography down to 1940 (London, 1959); National Library of Wales Journal, 1943-1944;

Usual copyright laws apply.

Action: All records purchased by the National Library of Wales have been retained. The material was partially catalogued in 1957, under the reference Peniarth 663/1-591. The Baker material was renumbered and recatalogued as a separate archive in 1997..

It appears that the papers of Elizabeth Baker were acquired by the Victorian antiquarian W. W. E. Wynne, Peniarth.

Accruals are not expected.

See also NLW, Peniarth MSS 307, 377, 416, 418, 485, 501.

Published

Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru = The National Library of Wales