Sir John Hamilton Baker, KC, LLD, FBA,

FRHistS The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...

(born 10 April 1944) is an English legal historian. He was

Downing Professor of the Laws of England The Downing Professorship of the Laws of England is one of the senior professorships in law at the University of Cambridge. The chair was founded in 1800 as a bequest of Sir George Downing, the founder of Downing College, Cambridge. The profes ...

at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

from 1998 to 2011.

Biography

Baker was born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, the son of Kenneth Lee Vincent and Marjorie Baker (''née'' Bagshaw). He was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School,

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of London a ...

, and

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

(

LLB Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

, PhD). He was called to the Bar at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

in 1966 and was elected an Honorary Bencher in 1988. His first academic post was as an Assistant Lecturer in Law at University College London, in 1965. In 1967 he was promoted to Lecturer, and in 1971 moved to the University of Cambridge. There he was Librarian of the

Squire Law Library The Faculty of Law, Cambridge is the law school of the University of Cambridge. The study of law at the University of Cambridge began in the thirteenth century. The faculty sits the oldest law professorship in the English-speaking world, the R ...

until 1973, and became a Fellow of St Catharine's College. His rooms were above the Sherlock Library until his retirement. In 1973 Baker became a lecturer in Law at University of Cambridge. He was appointed Reader in English Legal History at the University of Cambridge in 1983. In 1988 he was appointed Professor of English Legal History. From 1998 until 2011 he was

. He was President of St Catharine's College, Cambridge until 2007 when he was succeeded by Professor Sir Christopher Alan Bayly. He was also Literary Director of the

Selden Society The Selden Society is a learned society and registered charity concerned with the study of English legal history. It functions primarily as a text publication society, but also undertakes other activities to promote scholarship within its spher ...

until 2011 (jointly with David Yale 1981-91, sole 1991-2011) when he was succeeded by Dr Neil Jones. Appointments have included Visiting Professor,

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

School of Law since 1988, Visiting Fellow,

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...

in 1995, Honorary Fellow, Society for Advanced Legal Studies 1998, Corresponding Fellow American Society for Legal History 1992,www.acls.org "American Society for Legal History"
American Council of Learned Societies. and Foreign Honorary Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2001. He was elected a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

(1984) and a Fellow of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...

(1980). Baker was appointed a Fellow of University College London in 1991, awarded an Honorary LLD of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 1991, and received the

Yorke Prize The Yorke Prize is awarded annually by the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge for an essay of between 30,000 and 100,000 words on a legal subject, including the history, analysis, administration and reform of law, "of exceptional qualit ...

(University of Cambridge) 1975, and the Ames Prize (

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

) in 1985. He was knighted in 2003, the only man ever knighted for services to legal history. In 2004, he was awarded the

Irish Legal History Society Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

's Gold Medal. His first marriage in 1968 was to Veronica Margaret Lloyd, with whom he had two daughters. They were divorced in 1997, and in 2002 he married Fiona Rosalind Holdsworth (née Cantlay), who died in 2005. He remarried in 2010 to

Elisabeth van Houts Elisabeth Maria Cornelia van Houts, Lady Baker (born 1952) is a Dutch-born British historian specializing in medieval European history. Van Houts was born in Zaandam in the Netherlands. She married historian Sir John Baker in 2010. She is an Hon ...

Publications

*(1st ed. 1971, 2nd ed. 1979, 3rd ed. 1990, 4th ed. 2002, and 5th ed. 2019). *''The Reports of Sir John Spelman'' ditor(1977). *''Manual of Law French'' (1979). *''The Order of Serjeants at Law'' (1984). *''English Legal MSS in the USA (Part I)'' (1985). * *''Sources of English Legal History'' (coeditor, with S. F. C. Milsom) (1st ed. 1986, 2nd ed. 2010). *''The Notebook of Sir John Port'' ditor(1987). *''Readings and Moots at the Inns of Court'' (1990). *''English Legal MSS in the USA (Part II)'' (1990). *''Cases from the Lost Notebooks of Sir James Dyer'' ditor(1994). *''Catalogue of English Legal MSS in Cambridge University Library'' (1996). *''Spelman’s Reading on Quo Warranto'' ditor(1997). *''Monuments of Endlesse Labours: English Canonists and Their Work, 1300-1900'' (1998). *''Caryll's Reports'' ditor(1999). *''The Common Law Tradition: Lawyers, Books, and the Law Tradition'' (2000). *''The Law's Two Bodies: Some Evidential Problems in English Legal History'' (2001). *''Readings and Moots at the Inns of Court in the Fifteenth Century'' (2000). *''Oxford History of the Laws of England, Volume VI: 1483-1558'' (2003). *''Reports from the Time of Henry VIII'' ditor(2003–04). *''An Inner Temple Miscellany: papers reprinted from the Inner Temple yearbook'' (2004). *''The Reports of William Dalison, 1552-1558'' ditor(2007). *''English Legal Manuscripts Formerly in the Collection of Sir

Thomas Phillipps Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1st Baronet (2 July 1792 – 6 February 1872), was an English antiquary and book collector who amassed the largest collection of manuscript material in the 19th century. He was an illegitimate son of a textile manufacture ...

'' oeditor(2008). *''The Men of Court 1440 to 1550: A Prosopography of the Inns of Court and Chancery and the Courts of Law'' (2012). *''The Inns of Chancery 1340-1640: with an Edition of the Surviving Statutes and Orders'' (2017).

Notes

External links

''Debrett's People of Today''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, John 1944 births Living people People educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford Members of the Inner Temple Alumni of University College London Academics of University College London Fellows of St Catharine's College, Cambridge Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Legal historians English historians English barristers English legal writers Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Knights Bachelor Fellows of the British Academy Honorary King's Counsel Downing Professors of the Laws of England English male non-fiction writers

Biography

Publications

See also

Notes

External links