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Both Baker and Gabb were old Catholic families from Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. The Baker family claimed descent from Sir Roger Vaughan of Bredwardine, Herefordshire, and had held large estates in Monmouthshire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. The earliest deed relating to a member of the Baker family of Abergavenny is dated 1590. The family believed (probably wrongly) that David Lewis otherwise Charles Baker (1616-1679), a Jesuit priest and 'pretended bishop of Llandaff', was a member of the family. The Gabb family also owned property in the Abergavenny area. The earliest Gabb deed (of Grosmont, Monmouthshire) appears to be that dated 1660. The families were joined by the marriage of John Gabb (d. 1690) of Goytre, Grosmont, to Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry Baker of Bailey Baker, Abergavenny.

Thomas Gabb founded a solicitor's practice in Abergavenny in 1760. The firm of Gabb & Co. still practices out of the same offices in Abergavenny. Thomas Gabb practised on his own until 1781, when he was joined by Baker Gabb the elder (d. 1821), and in 1808 by his son, Baker Gabb the younger (d. 1858). There was a member of the Gabb family in the firm from 1760 until 1921.

From the 1850s, most family members seem to have either used Baker as a last christian name, or used a hyphonated Baker-Gabb surname.

William Higgs Barker, Hebraist and headmaster, was born in London and educated at the newly-founded St Paul's School and at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1765 and subsequently taking holy orders. In 1767 Barker was elected headmaster of Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Carmarthen, where he continued to teach until 1815. He was ordained rector of Bleddfa in Radnorshire from 1793 and vicar of St Peter's, Carmarthen from 1796, holding both positions until his death. He published Grammar of the Hebrew Language ... in 1774 and a Hebrew and English Lexicon in 1812. William Higgs Barker's youngest son, the Reverend John Crawford Barker, served as rector of St George's, Grenada. His grandson, the Reverend Alleyne Higgs Barker, served as vicar of Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire.