Family and Education

b. by 1470. m. Alice, 1da.3

Offices Held

Jurat, New Romney 1500-d., chamberlain 1514-15, commr. subsidy 1514; bailiff to Yarmouth 1504.4

Biography

Clement Baker was born in Romney and as a freeman by birth was admitted to the town’s franchise on 21 Aug. 1491. He was a ‘rippier’, or seller of fish to inland markets, a trade in which he evidently prospered as he was able to buy lands in Hope All Saints, Blackmanstone and Newchurch, all within a few miles of his home; he also owned the house in which he lived in St. Martin’s parish, Romney.5

From 1500 Baker was active in local affairs, representing Romney 22 times at meetings of the Brotherhood of the Cinque Ports. In June 1509 he was chosen by Romney as one of its representatives at the coronation of Henry VIII, and in 1512 the town paid his expenses in entertaining the lord warden of the Cinque Ports and others in London at the time of the Parliament. He was presumably also paid for his attendance at this Parliament, although no record of this survives; during his second period of parliamentary service, in 1515, he was paid at the rate of 2s. a day.6

On 12 Jan. 1516 Baker made a will in favour of his wife and daughter, who was married to Thomas Godfrey of Lydd; he must have died soon afterwards as the will was proved on 26 Mar.7

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Helen Miller

Notes

• 1. Romney assessment bk. 1492-1516, f. 162; Add. 34150, f. 136.
• 2. Romney assessment bk. 1492-1516, f. 183.
• 3. Date of birth estimated from admission as freeman. PCC 21 Holder.
• 4. Romney assessment bk. 1448-1526, ff. 111v seq., LP Hen. VIII, i; Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. (Kent Arch. Soc. recs. br. xix), 132.
• 5. Romney assessment bk. 1448-1526, f. 100v; CPR, 1494-1509, p. 382.
• 6. Cinque Ports White and Black Bks. 125-56 passim; HMC 5th Rep. 550, 552.
• 7. PCC 21 Holder.