Short Biography of Joseph Baker

The name of Joseph Baker frequently occurs as one who actively participated in the early settlement of Tolland. He was one of the petitioners in 1718, for a charter of the new town, and his name is on various other petitions relative to its settlement; he also received an early allotment of land. He was one of the fifty-one grantees of the township in 1719. He was of Windsor and was the grandson of Jeffrey Baker, from England, one of the early settlers of that town. Joseph Baker finally removed his entire family, (all of whom were born in Windsor,) to Tolland, in the year 1724. He settled on a tract of several hundred acres lying south of Shenipset pond, — he was a large landholder, owning besides other tracts, one in the south-west district, where he settled two or three of his sons, and where their descendants have resided until this day. One of his sons, Jacob, was educated for the ministry and graduated at Yale College in 1731, being the earliest graduate belonging to Tolland; but he was consumptive — never preached except where there was a temporary vacancy, and died early in life. Joseph Baker was two years a selectman, and died in 1784, aged seventy-five years. His son, John, married Sarah, daughter of Dea. Isaac Davis, of Windsor; settled on his share of the original tract, near Shenipset pond, and died in 1802, at the age of ninety-five years. Jerusha, his only child who lived to maturity, married Samuel Stanley; — their oldest son, John Stanley, born in 1752, married Abigail Gibbs, of East Windsor, in 1771 ; — their oldest son, Roswell Stanley, born in 1772, died in 1850, aged seventy-eight years, on the land of his ancestors.

Source: "The Early History of Tolland: An Address Delivered Before the Tolland County Historical Society, at Tolland Conn., on the 22d Day of August and the 27th Day of September, 1861" ⁴⁸¹¹