A sugar-baker was the owner of a sugar house, a factory for the refining of raw sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

 from the Barbados

Barbados

Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...

. Sugar refining would normally be combined with sugar trading, which was a lucrative business. Downes gives an example of one sugar baker's house in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

 being estimated to bring in £

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

40,000 a year in trade from the Barbados.

Sources and external links

• Kerry Downes. Sir John Vanbrugh:A Biography (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1987)
• "Industries: Introduction" — A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 2: General; Ashford, East Bedfont with Hatton, Feltham, Hampton with Hampton Wick, Hanworth, Laleham, Littleton (1911), pp 121–32. (Date accessed: 31 March 2006)
• "Sugar Refiners & Sugarbakers" — A database of some of those involved in the sugar refining industry, mainly in the UK, 16th to 20th century. (Date accessed: 6 September 2008)