Source: History of Lynn MA, by Lewis p. 117, 118

Captain Thomas Baker, son of Timothy, just named, [a prominent man of Northampton] and of course a grandson of Edward, the early Lynn settler, was taken captive by the Indians, at Deerfield, on the terrible night of 29 Feb. 1704, and carried to Canada. He, however, the next year, succeeded in effecting his escape. In or about the year 1715, he married (the widow) Madam Le Beau, whose name figures somewhat in the history of that period.

And the lives of both husband and wife furnish touching and romantic passages. She was a daughter of Richard Otis, of Dover, N. H., who, with one son and one daughter, was killed by the Indians on the night of 27 June, 1689, at the time they destroyed the place. She was then an infant of three months, and was, with her mother, carried captive to Canada and sold to the French. The priests took her, baptised her, and gave her the name of Christine. They educated her in the Romish faith, and she passed some time in a nunnery, not, however, taking the veil.

At the age of sixteen she was married to a Frenchman, thus becoming Madam Le Beau, and became the mother of two or three children. Her husband died about 1713. And it was very soon after that her future husband, Capt. Baker, appears to have fallen in with her. He was attached to the commission detailed by Gov. Dudley, under John Stoddard and John Williams for the purpose of negotiating with the Marquis de Vaudreuil for the release of prisoners and to settle certain other matters, and went to Canada. From Stoddard's journal it appears that there was much trouble in procuring her release, and when it was obtained, her children were not allowed to go with her. Her mother was also opposed to her leaving Canada.

After her return, Christine married Capt. Baker, and they went to reside at Brookfield, where they remained till 1733. They had several children, and among their descendants is Hon. John Wentworth, late member of Congress from Illinois. She became a protestant after marrying Capt. Baker, and substituted the name Margaret for Christine, though later in life she seems to have again adopted the latter. In 1727, her former confes- sor, Father Siguenot wrote her a gracious letter, expressing a high opinion of her and warning her against swerving from the faith in which she had been educated, (but not born to). He mentions the happy death of a daughter of hers who had married and lived in Quebec and also speaks of her mother, then living, and the wife of a Frenchman. This letter was shown to Gov. Burnet, and he wrote to her a forcible reply to the arguments it contained in favor of Romanism. And there are, or recently were, three copies of the letter and reply, in the Boston Atheneum. The mother of Christine had children by her French husband, and Philip, Christine's half-brother, visited her at Brookfield.

All the children of Capt. Baker and Christine, seven or eight in number, excepting the first, who was a daughter, bearing her mother's name, were born in Brookfield. There is no reason to doubt that the connection was a happy one. They held a very respectable position, and he was the first representative from Brookfield. He was, indeed, once tried before the Superior Court, at Springfield, in 1727, for blasphemy; but the jury acquitted him. The offence consisted in his remarking, while discoursing on God's providence in allowing Joseph Jennings, of Brookfield, to be made a justice of the peace: "If I had been with the Almighty I would have taught him better."

In 1733 Capt. Baker sold his farm in Brookfield. But this proved an unfortunate step, for the purchaser failed before mak- ing payment, and their circumstances became greatly reduced. They were a short time at Mendon,MA and also at Newport, R. I., before finally removing to Dover, NH. Poor Christine, in 1735, petitioned the authorities of New Hampshire for leave to "keep a house of public entertainment " on the county road from Dover meeting house to Coebeco Boome." In this petition she signs her name Christine Baker," and mentions that she made a journey to Canada, in the hope of getting her children, "but all in vaine." A license was granted, and it seems probable that she kept the house a number of years.

She died, at a great age, 23 Feb. 1773, and an obituary notice appeared in the Boston Evening Post. The Mrs. Bean mentioned in the N. H. Hist. Collections as having died, 6 Feb., 1826, at the age of a hundred years, was Mary, the daughter of Capt. Baker and Christine. She pos- sessed her faculties to the last, and her eyesight was so perfect that she could, without glasses, see to thread a needle. Col. Benjamin Bean, of Conway, N. H., was a grandson of this aged grand-daughter of "Edward Baker, the Lynn settler.

I (Lewis) have given this connected recital, though hardly knowing how to afford the space, not only on account of the romantic incidents touched upon, but also because it aptly illustrates occurrences frequent in those days.