Frances Harriett Baker née Bell, 1879-1954
Writing in the Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society Vol 5 No 1 (1946), Francis Collinson provided a brief paragraph about Mr and Mrs Baker of Maidstone:
His wife also knows folk-songs and I got the following songs from her: “The oyster girl,” “The bold fisherman” and “The sergeant in the wagon train.” She was born at Mereworth in Kent and learned her songs from her father, who used to sit and sing them in the chimney corner in the evening. He knew over a hundred and fifty songs. Mrs. Baker was hopeful of getting some more songs from her sister, but the latter unfortunately died very shortly afterwards, and her songs died with her.
Frances Bell was born on 5th October 1879, and baptised at St Lawrence, Mereworth on 26th October 1879. Her father Josiah was a labourer. Both he and his wife Mary née Cheesman had been born and raised in Mereworth. In 1881 they were living at an unspecified address in Butcher’s Lane, Mereworth; in 1891 the family (now including 5 children) were residing at Moorcocks Cottages in Butcher’s Lane.
At the time of the 1901 census Frances was 21, and working as a cook for farmer John Godwin at Hazlewood, East Peckham. She married Harry Baker at St Lawrence, Mereworth on 19th December 1903, and by 1911 they were living in Maidstone, initially in Upper Fant Road and then later at 5 Evelyn Road.
She died at Maidstone in 1954, aged 75.
Josiah Bell, 1845-?
Frances’ father Josiah was baptised at Mereworth on 19th February 1845. He lived in Mereworth all his life, with censuses from 1881 through to 1911 showing him living in Butcher’s Lane; his occupation was consistently given as agricultural labourer, with the exception of 1901, when he was listed as “Fruit grower, own account”. By 1911 he was a widower, and living with his daughter Kate and son-in-law Jesse Pantrey (also a farm labourer) at Herne House Cottages, Butcher’s Lane. I have not as yet been able to identify his date of death, but this would appear to have occurred before the 1921 census.
Kate Pantrey née Bell, 1886-1944
Frances had two sisters. The elder, Annie Louisa, died at the age of 16, in 1893. Therefore Kate, born 25th January 1886, must have been the sister from whom “Mrs. Baker was hopeful of getting some more songs”. She was still living in the family home in Butcher’s Lane, Mereworth in 1901. In 1905 she married Jesse Robert Pantrey, and they set up home at Herne House Cottages – also in Butcher’s Lane. In 1911 they were living at 8 Kent Street, Mereworth in 1921, with a son and a daughter. By 1939 they had moved to 8 Council Cottage, Herne Pound. Kate died in the second quarter of 1944.
Songs
The Gleaner (Roud 13638)
Mary at the garden gate (Roud 418)
Oyster girl (Roud 875)
Sergeant in the wagon train (Roud 1354)
Although in the 1946 JEFDSS Francis Collinson ascribed ‘Bold fisherman’ to Mrs Baker, his notebooks record that it was actually sung by Mr Baker.
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