Sotheby's predecessor, Baker and Leigh, was founded in London on 11 March 1744, after Samuel Baker auctioned several hundred valuable books from the library of The Rt Hon Sir John Stanley, 1st Baronet, of Grangegorman and became business partners with George Leigh. After Baker's death in 1778, the business was left to Leigh and his nephew John Sotheby, where it became a prominent book auction house and was renamed Leigh and Sotheby. The library Napoleon took with him into exile at St Helena, as well as the library collections of John Wilkes, Benjamin Heywood Bright and the Dukes of Devonshire and of Buckingham (both related to George Leigh), were sold through Samuel Baker's auctions.