Charles Baker journals, 1859, 1861-1879, and 1900-1904.

ArchivalResource

Baker, Charles. Charles Baker journals, 1859, 1861-1879, and 1900-1904.

Charles Baker journals, 1859, 1861-1879, and 1900-1904.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/37600427

Manuscript journal written in 25 annual vols. of Lett's Diary. Volume 1870 consists of 7 separate parts. In the early volumes, Baker lived in Bayswater and was a partner in a firm in the Colonial Commission trade. He wrote of attending plays, concerts, and sporting events. He spent much of his time working among boys and young men at the West London Youths Institute. Although married with children, he wrote of his great affection for boys, and sometimes mentioned taking them home and sleeping with them. He described marital discord caused by his wife's "cold" treatment of particular boys. In 1875, his wife left him. Entries also document his financial difficulties, which necessitated his borrowing large sums of money and which culminated in bankruptcy in 1875. He attempted to open a school in 1877, but had few students due to "terrible scandals," which he attributed to his wife. By 1875, he had been ordained into the Church of England, and the later volumes describe his life as a curate in various parishes. In 1902, he signed on as chaplain on the S.S. MACQUERIE on a 3-month voyage to Australia, but left the ship in Melbourne with the atheist Captain angry at him. At the end of the last journal, he was living in his home town of Derby.

32 v.

Duke University Libraries, Duke University Library; Perkins Library