A disparaging estimate of his character and his powers is furnished in the List of Dramatic Authors with some Account of their Lives, attributed to John Mottley (the compiler of Joe Miller's Jests), which appears at the close of Thomas Whincop's tragedy of Scanderbeg.
According to this rather prejudiced authority, Baker 'was under disgrace' with his father, 'who allowed him a very scanty income,' and was compelled to retire into Worcestershire, where he lived as a schoolmaster and vicar until his death in 1749.
His successor at Bolnhurst, John Jones, remarked in private papers that he was "A man of strange turn, imperious and clamorous upon topics of no service towards the promoting of true religion in his parish, and not a little addicted to stiff and dividing principles".
He states that a character named Maiden, introduced in Tunbridge Walks, the best-known comedy of Thomas Baker, was intended by the author for himself.
Durfey condemns the plotless and trifling quality of 'Tunbridge Walks,' accuses Baker, in reference to two other comedies, of having 'brought Oxford upon Hampstead Heath,' and declares that the 'Fine Ladies Airs' (sic) was 'deservedly hist' (hissed).