BAKER, SIR RICHARD (1568-1645), author of the Chronicle of the Kings of England and other works, was born prob ably at Sissinghurst, in Kent. He was educated at Oxford, and sat in Parliament for East Grinstead (1597). In 1620 he was high sheriff of Oxfordshire, but in 1625 his property in the county was seized for debts contracted by his wife's family, for which he had made himself responsible. He died on Feb. 18, 1645, in the Fleet prison where he spent the last ten years of his life.
His Chronicle of the Kings of England from the Time of the Romans' Government unto the Death of King James (1643, and many subsequent editions), was translated into Dutch in and was continued down to 1658 by Edward Phillips, a nephew of John Milton. The Chronicle was extremely popular, but its historical value is very slight. Baker also wrote many con troversial and religious works during his imprisonment. His Medi tations upon the psalms were edited by A. B. Grosart (1882).
See J. Granger, Biographical History of England to the Revolution (1804) ; Biographia Britannica, corrected by A. Kippis (1778-93).