Frances Baker

Frances Baker, singer from Maidstone, Kent.

Songs collected by Francis Collinson, 1946:

• The Gleaner (words only)
• Oyster Girl (Roud 875)
• The Sergeant in the Wagon Train
• Mary at the Garden Gate
• Bold Fisherman (words only)

Note by Collinson in JEFDSS Vol 5 No 1 (1946), p20, accompanying her husband Harry Baker's version of Death and the Lady:

"His wife also knows folk-songs and I got the following songs from her : "The oyster girl", "The bold fisherman" and "The sergeant in the wagon train". She was born at Mereworth in Kent and learned her songs from her father, who used to sit and sing them in the chimney corner in the evening. He knew over a hundred and fifty songs. Mrs Baker was hopeful of getting some more songs from her sister, but the latter unfortunately died very shortly afterwards, and her songs died with her."