William Baker - https://landedfamilies.blogspot.com/2018/07/337-baker-of-ranston-baronets.html

aker of Ranston, baronets

Baker of Ranston
The founder of this family was William Baker (1715-74), whose father was a yeoman farmer at Bromley in Worfield (Shropshire), where his ancestors can be traced back to the 15th century. William became a builder and speculative developer in London, but as far as I am aware there was no relationship to his namesake and near contemporary, the architect William Baker (1705-71), whose life took him in the opposite direction, from London to Herefordshire and later Cheshire. William the builder leased land from the Portman estate in St Marylebone and built Orchard St. and Portman St., as well as being the contractor for other Portman estate developments. He made a great deal of money from his activities and became a resident of Portman Square himself; he also acquired a suburban villa at Isleworth (Middx) called Wyke House, which was then a 17th century house, although rebuilt by later owners. Although William had three recorded sons, only one of them seems to have survived to maturity; he was Peter William Baker (1756-1815), who was educated as a gentleman at Eton, Cambridge and Lincoln's Inn. He was a man of cultivated tastes, who in 1781, the year of his marriage, used part of his inheritance to buy Ranston House at Iwerne Courtney (Dorset) from the Ryves family. Ranston had been recently and elegantly rebuilt for Thomas Ryves, and Peter turned his attention first to buying additional land to expand the park, and then to altering the landscaping. In about 1808, however, he began remodelling the house, to which he added flanking wings, and a