Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series on Mayflower descendants, focusing on Jennifer (Koehler) Mackall and the Baker family line. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

Today I continue my series on “Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who,” featuring Jennifer (Koehler) Mackall, born in 1963 to Christopher Howland and Eleanor Marion (West) Koehler.

Jennifer is a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers Stephen Hopkins and his children Constance and Giles, William Bradford, George Soule, Thomas Rogers, Joseph Rogers, William Brewster and his wife Mary, Richard Warren, John Tilley, Elizabeth Tilley, and John Howland.

This photo features Jennifer’s great-great-great grandparents Robert Clinton Baker (1867-1956) and Hattie Hamblin (Barstow) Baker (1869-1927), and their children. In this photo we see: (back row, left to right) Hattie Robert Baker, married Roswell Buffington Lawrell; Willliam Herbert Baker, married Mildred Florence Weeks; Mercie Barstow Baker; (middle row, left to right) Robert Clinton Baker; Hattie Hamblin (Barstow) Baker, holding son Alton Marvin Baker who married Frances Burton; (front row, left to right) Edith Earle Baker, married 1st Melville Jewet Baker, 2nd William Curtis Angell, and 3rd Benjamin P. Sears; Marion Barstow Baker, married Capt. Nathaniel Hawes Wixon; Robert Winthrop Baker.

Jennifer descends from their daughter Marion Barstow Baker (1896-1978), who married Capt. Nathaniel Hawes Wixon (1896-1970), and their daughter Adela Marion Wixon (1921-2011), who married Robert E. J. West (1919-2006).

Below is a photo of Jennifer when she was a baby with her great-grandmother Marion Baxter (Baker) Wixon.

Here is a genealogy chart of Jennifer’s lineage listing all her Mayflower lines. A red arrow points to her.

Jennifer reached out to me after I published “Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 12)” because she is related to early settlers who are said to have married women of Native American heritage and formed connections with Mayflower families.

Among them are Nickerson, Wixon/Wickhams, Maker, Bearse, and Crowel/Crowell/Crow.

I found an article listing the names of families whose immigrant ancestors were the inhabitants of the Yarmouth area, published in the Barnstable Patriot. Many of Jennifer’s forefathers can be found on this list, as I suspect will be true for many of our readers.

First on the list is Francis Baker (1611-1696), born in St. Albans, Herefordshire, England. He immigrated to America in 1635 on the ship Planter.

He was described as a “tailor,” but would take on trades as cooper and blacksmith. He married Isabel Twining on 17 June 1641 in Yarmouth – the first marriage on record there.

Francis shows up in many court cases, which reminds me – I must do a series on Plymouth Colony gone wild!

Among his transgressions are retailing wine contrary to the court regulations, but was cleared of the charge. On 8 June 1655 he was presented to the court for misusing Samuel, son of John Hall and servant to Francis, “by kicking of him and otherwise viscously striking of him.” That dispute ended when, on 7 August 1655, the court ordered John Hall to pay Francis Baker £8 for the remainder of Samuel Hall’s time.

Francis also had complaints against William Nacarson and Abraham Hedge.

And there was a real hot mess of bawdy behavior in which Francis received 20 sh. each from Thomas Starr and Jonathan Barns for abusive carriage against him; at the same time, he and John Casley were each fined 3s. 4d. for breach of the peace, and Elisha Hedge accused him and Casley of being drunk.

Baker Scions

Robert Clinton Baker (1867-1956), Jennifer’s great-great-great grandfather, born to Captain Nathan Foster Baker (1831-1898) and Mary Ann (Studley) Baker (1836-1906).

He was a marble and wood carver, and artist. He started his work at the shop of Harvey Jenks on Main Street in West Dennis, Massachusetts. Below is a photo of him working with Jenks in his shop.

Robert lived in West Dennis, Mass. Below is the 1910 census listing him with his wife and children.

Robert operated Baker’s Windmill and Toy Shop, which was on Route 28 in West Dennis, just over the Bass River Bridge. His house was located on the left of the bridge and his shop on the right.

In August 1922 National Magazine published an article entitled “‘Up Along’ and ‘Down Along’ Cape Cod,” and Jennifer’s ancestor received a warm review of his famous shop.

It reads:

Driving along the road across the long bridge at West Dennis we came upon a scene that thrilled with boyhood memories. The spacious lawn before a big white house was covered with tiny, whirring windmills of all sizes; there were aeroplanes and all sorts of grotesque figures dancing merrily to the tune of the whistling breezes.

The automobile containing children seems to involuntarily stop here while the kiddies make their exploration. One youngster put up an unanswerable argument:

“Why papa, if I have this windmill, we won’t need gasoline,” and the windmill was attached astern as the party drove off.

This was the Baker shop. The lady inside insisted it was not the shop referred to in “Shavings,” but that it was the original windmill shop. Her husband began making a few for the neighbors’ children, then bird houses, boats and everything that delights a child’s heart and known to the whittler’s art was made.

Robert painted the Portland Head Lighthouse on the shores of Fort Williams Park, Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Jennifer cherishes her great-great-great grandfather’s collection of paintings.

Stay tuned…

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Note on the header image: “Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor,” by William Halsall, 1882. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Related Articles:

• Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 35 (part 9)
• Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 35 (part 10)
• Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 35 (part 11)
• Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 35 (part 12)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 1)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 2)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 3)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 4)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 5)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 6)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 7)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 8)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 9)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 10)
• Mayflower Descendants & the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (part 11)
• Richard Bourne: Missionary to Plymouth Colony Indians
• Thomas Tupper: Missionary to Plymouth Colony Indians