Analysis: Who was Edmund Baker?
According to contemporary records, Mary Ann Bugg married Edmund Baker at Stroud in 1848 (see Marriage entry), a man for whom no other references have been found in colonial records for the period. Various claims have been made about Baker in secondary-source publications. Some say that he was previously a policeman, others that he was a shepherd working for the Australian Agricultural Company (A.A.Co.). All that is known with certainty is that he was illiterate (he signed his marriage entry with his mark), probably protestant as he married in a protestant church, and was residing in the Stroud district when he married Mary Ann in 1848.[1]
Experienced researchers know to be suspicious when a person appears in one colonial record then, seemingly, is never recorded again – not that anyone can locate, anyway – as if they were magically conjured up then just as magically disappeared. The inability to find other references to a person is frequently a sign that the person’s name was listed incorrectly, which more often occurs when that person was illiterate – as Edmund Baker’s marriage entry reveals him to be. Moreover, any experienced family historian knows that Edmund/Edmond and Edward were often used interchangeably in the past, sometimes because war and mun/mon were difficult to distinguish (and the same for Edmd and Edwd, the standard abbreviations for the two names) leading to errors when the record was produced or later transcribed. More importantly, there doesn’t appear to have been the same sense of distinction between the two names then, as there is now. That being the case, researchers looking for Edmund always need to take note of any references to Edward, and vice-versa.
Aware of this interchangeability, Lynne Robinson, Honorary Researcher for the Mudgee Historical Society, searched for a possible Edward Baker who might fit the criteria for Mary Ann’s husband. She found convict Edward Baker who was transported on the Lady Harewood in 1831. He was a previously unmarried, protestant, illiterate shepherd who was initially assigned to a pastoralist in the Williams River/Dungog district, and who remained in the district after receiving his certificate of freedom in 1839. Moreover, he did not otherwise marry, have children or die in the district.[2] Edward Baker was a perfect match!
It is feasible that Edward/Edmund Baker was indeed shepherding for the A.A.Co. at the time of his marriage to Mary Ann Bugg, as the Company was the largest employer in the district and no longer had the assigned convict workforce of the 1820s and 1830s. If he wasn’t working for the Company prior to his marriage, he possibly did so afterwards as Mary Ann’s father was a Company overseer.
For further information, see Mary Ann Bugg and Edmund Baker.
Sources:
[1] Marriage: Mary Ann Bugg & Edmund Baker [RBDM ref: Marriage Vol. 33 No. 518]
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