Remember Baker

Background

He was born on June 6, 1737 in Roxbury, Connecticut, the son of Remember and Tamar (Warner) Baker.

Career

As a young man in his early twenties Baker took part in the French and Indian War, serving on Lake George and Lake Champlain. It was undoubtedly during this service that he saw the possibilities of the country now known as Vermont, then called the New Hampshire Grants, for he settled at Arlington, with his wife and child in 1764. Together with his cousins, Allen and Warner, he early became prominent in the controversy which raged between the governments of New Hampshire and New York over the jurisdiction of the territory. The cousins sided with those who received their grants from New Hampshire, and persistently fought off the grantees of the New York government. To accomplish this the Green Mountain Boys were organized under the command of Ethan Allen, with Remember Baker in charge of one of the companies. They had made themselves so obnoxious to the government of New York by December 1771 that on the 9th of that month, Gov. Tryon issued a proclamation offering a reward of twenty pounds for the capture of Allen, Baker, and others. To this Allen, Baker, and Robert Cochran replied with a burlesque proclamation, dated at Poultney, February 5, 1772, offering a similar reward for the apprehension of James Duane and John Kempe, two of the New York grantees. As a result, a serious effort was made to capture Baker, who was attacked in his house at Arlington on March 22, 1772, when he was wounded and carried off by Justice John Munro, and his wife and son were injured. A rescue party was formed by some of the New Hampshire grantees, the Munro party captured, and Baker, weak from the loss of blood, brought back in triumph to Bennington. The activities of the Green Mountain Boys continued, and reached such a height that Tryon issued a second proclamation, March 9, 1774, increasing the amount of the reward for the capture of Baker and Allen to 8100. Baker was with Allen in the Crown Point campaign in the spring of 1775, and the following summer he accompanied Gen. Schuyler on a scouting party up Lake Champlain toward Canada. He was killed in a skirmish with the Indians near St. Johns, in August 1775.

Achievements

• Remember Baker went doan in history as a land speculator, leader in the dispute with New York.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Natural and Political History of the State of Vermont

    (Book by Allen, Ira)

Connections

He married, April 3, 1760, Desire, daughter of Consider and Patience (Hawley) Hurlbut, by whom he had an only son, Ozi.

Father:

Remember Baker

Mother:

Tamar (Warner) Baker

Wife:

Desire Hurlbut

Son:

Ozi Baker

Cousin:

Ethan Allen