Page:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu/33

Rh Mary Baker Eddy’s ancestry can be traced clearly through six generations to the first Baker in America, her earliest emigrant ancestor being John Baker, who was freeman in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1634. The generations succeeding, eliminating all but the direct line, are Thomas, of Roxbury; a second Thomas, of Roxbury, who married Sarah Pike; Joseph, born 1714, deacon of the Congregational church, who held a captain’s commission. He was the surveyor of several towns in that part of the colony of New Hampshire which was claimed by Massachusetts, — among the rest, of Pembroke, where he afterwards settled. He married, 1739, Hannah Lovewell, only daughter of Captain John Lovewell. Hannah was born 1721, was heir to one third the estate of Captain Lovewell and inherited with her brothers the lands assigned to her distinguished father in Pembroke.

Captain Joseph Baker had a son Joseph, born 1740, who married Marion Moor McNeil, a descendant of the Scotch Covenanters. They settled in Bow. Their youngest son was Mark Baker, born 1785. He was the father of Mary Baker. So the generations run thus: Mary, Mark, Joseph, Joseph, Thomas, Thomas, John, — which takes the record back almost to Plymouth Rock.

An examination of the genealogy of the wives of the Bakers reveals that the influx was of good blood through the maternal strains. The Pikes of New England have an honorable and interesting genealogy. Hannah Lovewell, great-grandmother of Mary Baker and born just one century before her,