BAKER, THOMAS (1656-1740), English antiquary, was born at Lanchester, Durham, England, and died at Cambridge. His most important printed work was his Reflections on Learning (1709-10) . He spent the greater part of his life as fellow, and then as commoner-master of St. John's college, Cambridge. He was a non-juror, and resigned, in 1690, the living to which he had been presented by Lord Crewe, bishop of Durham. In 1716-17 he had to resign his fellowship at St. John's, but the authorities allowed him to retain his rooms. His valuable manuscript collec tions relative to the history and antiquities of the University of Cambridge, amounting to 39 volumes in folio and three in quarto, are divided between the British Museum and the public library at Cambridge.
The life of Baker was written by Robert Masters (1784), and by Horace Walpole in the quarto edition of his works. A cata logue of the contents of the Cambridge mss. was edited by Prof. J. E. Mayor for the University Press (1867) . Prof. Mayor also edited (1869) Baker's exact and detailed ms. History of St. John's college, Cambridge.