Nope. Not our Bakers!
Robert James “The Gunsmith” Baker (1660-1728) The Gunsmith wasn’t a period nickname, but one added by modern genealogists to help identify which Robert Baker was being discussed. As noted elsewhere on this website, two of my male Baker cousins have participated in the Baker DNA Project, and we now have proof that the “Gunsmith” was not in our Baker line.
I included this page only to hold the following excerpt from the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) magazine entitled, “The American Monthly Magazine”. This is from the June, 1911 issue, page 332, ‘Genealogical Notes and Queries’ and may help to resolve some of the confusion around which of the early Bakers were actually gunsmiths by trade. –BB
“Caleb Baker d. at his residence in Prince Edward Co., Va., March 10, 1824, aged 90 years. From an unpublished book, written by his youngest son, who was b. during the Rev., we find: ‘Caleb Baker with his two brothers, Samuel and Andrew Baker, emigrated to Pa. from Eng., commissioned by the King to make Guns and supply the Colonies (they were artisans or gun makers), which they did until the Revolution; then turned over their establishment to the Whigs and enlisted.’ The obituary of Caleb Baker, written at the time of his death, also states that ‘he served his country through her mighty maze in her struggles for Independence, he being faithful to her cause through life.’ He owned lands and dwellings in Prince Edward Co., Va., at the earliest census. He m. Catherine, dau. of John Hadnill, who emigrated from Ireland and was the son of the founder of the Presbyterian faith in Ireland.”