Sweeney was, in medieval times, a possession of the FitzAlan family, and was purchased from Henry Earl of Arundel in 1563 by Arthur Chambre of Petton (q.v.). The estate continued in the Chambre family but was sold again in 1623 to Thomas Baker (d. 1639), son of Thomas Baker of Weston Lullingfields. Baker had been a spendthrift who, on taking service with Andrew Chambre of Sweeney began to change his ways. With assistance from his stepfather Richard Gough – forebear of the Myddle historian – he was able to purchase the tithes of Maesbury from Andrew Chambre. He continued to make such progress in business that by 1614 Baker was able to lease house and lands at Sweeney from Chambre for fourteen years and the former master retired to his kinsmen at Petton (q.v.). According to Gough, Chambre declared that ‘formerly it was Mr Chambre and Tom Baker, now it is Mr Baker and Andrewe Chambre’.

His son, a further Thomas, is said to have erected ‘a new, faire house at Sweeney, a handsome pile of building…I’ve heard Mr Baker say it was wholly built in 16 weeks’ in circa 1640. This was reputedly a timbered-framed house and he held the office of High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1649 and ‘kept a very noble Shreive’s house’. A Parliamentarian in the Civil War, he was also a noted patron of Independent preachers, including Vavassour Powell and Walter Craddock who were frequent visitors to Sweeney. Richard Gough in his History of Myddle recalled of the pious Baker:

His wife, Elizabeth Fenwicke (d. 1683) shared his faith and presided over prayer meetings at the house. So strong was the couple’s Puritan engagement that, in 1672, Baker arranged for ‘the house in Sweeney’ to obtain a licence for non-conformist worship.

Baker died without issue in 1675 and was buried in his former orchard at Sweeney – now located below the terrace – where his tomb can still be seen in what became a small Puritan graveyard.