====== Baker, John ====== 
(died 18 Jan. 1871, said to have been aged 105 but real age was probably about 93), slave. Born at Quebec. Parents: Dorinda, a slave, and her husband Simon Baker. John Baker, the subject of the present entry, was a slave and later servant in the Gray family of Gray's Creek. John’s brother Simon was drowned in the loss of the //Speedy// (1804). (See entry for Robert Isaac Dey Gray.) Gray in his will freed Dorinda and her children, and as well as making provision for Dorinda and Simon, he left John 200 acres of land in the 2nd Concession of Whitby, and £ 50. John Baker lived at Gray's Creek and at York, and is said to have served in the British Army and to have been in the Battle of Waterloo. He spent his later years in Cornwall, Ont. He was thought to have been at the time of his death the last surviving person who had been a slave in what is now Ontario. (Pringle, O’Brien). Judge Pringle , who knew him, devoted a chapter to him in his //Lunenburgh// (1890).


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<fs small>Obituary //The Canadian Gleaner// (Huntingdon, Que.) 19 Jan.1871 * Pringle * biog. article //Standard Freeholder// 20 Oct. 1937 and (Roy F. Fleming’s historical series) //SFH// 8 Dec.1949 * //Dictionary of Canadian Biography// V, 389 (mentioned) * W. R. Riddell, //Upper Canada Sketches// (1922), chapter on Gray, which includes text of Gray’s will * Brendan O’Brien, //Speedy Justice: The Tragic Last Voyage of His Majesty’s Vessel Speedy// (1992)
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