Hallo there moss. Re James Baker of Wotton-under-Edge. I am his great-great grandson, and his eldest son Alfred my great-grandfather. Poor Alfred died in tragic circumstances. In the mid-1800s and in his mid-forties he was a prosperous and much respected stonemason living in Southsea in a large house with his wife and four children, and employing a servant. He was also a town councillor and rumoured to be in line for a knighthood for his services to the town. In the 1860s he made some unwise investments and lost a lot of money. He was also involved in a court case trying to regain a considerable sum of of money somebody owed him, but the case went against him and he was left bankrupt and facing the workhouse. So, frantic with worry and with the bailiffs knocking at his door he went up to his bedroom and impaled himself on a sword he had bought to deal with burglars, leaving a wife and four children, Naomi, Baroni, Claude (my grandfather) and Edith. He died on 21 December 1865.
