...Some time in 1724 Henry Baker, an aspiring poet with a unique ability to teach deaf children to speak and to give them a general education, began a journey from Enfield to Stoke Newington where he stayed with a local family. Baker states that Daniel Defoe first sought him out here. If this is so...

.... The engagement between Henry Baker and Defoe’s daughter Sophia began to founder over questions involving the extent of her dowry. What Defoe said about trade as a form of crime without morality seems to have applied to his dealings over Sophia’s dowry. It seems clear that once the marriage became a matter...

.... The June letter is about love and the misunderstandings arising from family intimacy and disagreements. He had felt betrayed by a remark made by Sophia, probably having to do with the quarrel between her father and her husband, Henry Baker. During the last six months of his life, Defoe was once more...