English politician (1511?1579)
Sir Nicholas Bacon
(28 December 1510 ? 20 February 1579) was
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
during the first half of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth I of England
. He was the father of the philosopher and statesman Sir
Francis Bacon
.
Life
[
edit
]
He was born at
Chislehurst
, Kent, the second son of Robert Bacon (1479?1548) of
Drinkstone
, Suffolk, by his wife Eleanor (Isabel) Cage.
He graduated from
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
in 1527.
[2]
The college law society at Corpus, the
Nicholas Bacon Law Society
, founded in 1972, is named after him.
[3]
There is a story that he evaded
ordination
by going into hiding "with the help of a rich uncle", and he seems to have entered an
Inn of Chancery
before being admitted to
Gray's Inn
five years later after a period in Paris; he was
called to the Bar
in 1533.
[4]
Following the
Dissolution of the Monasteries
,
Henry VIII
gave him a grant of the manors of
Redgrave
,
Botesdale
and
Gislingham
in Suffolk,
[5]
and
Gorhambury
, Hertfordshire. Gorhambury belonged to
St Albans Abbey
and lay near the site of the vanished Roman city of
Verulamium
(modern day
St Albans
). From 1563 to 1568 he built a new house,
Old Gorhambury House
(now a ruin), which later became the a property of
Francis Bacon
, his youngest son, who also built a nearby property,
Verulam House
, to his own designs.
[6]
In 1545 he became a Member of Parliament, representing
Dartmouth
.
[7]
The following year, he was made Attorney of the
Court of Wards and Liveries
, a prestigious and lucrative post, and by 1552 he had risen to become treasurer of Gray's Inn.
As a Protestant, he lost preferment under Queen
Mary I of England
. However, on the accession of her younger sister Elizabeth in 1558, he was appointed
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal
, largely owing to the influence of his brother-in-law
William Cecil
. Shortly afterwards, Bacon was
knighted
.
Bacon helped secure the position of
Archbishop of Canterbury
for his friend
Matthew Parker
, and in his official capacity presided over the
House of Lords
when Elizabeth opened her first parliament. Though an implacable enemy of
Mary, Queen of Scots
, he opposed Cecil's policy of war against France, on financial grounds; but he favoured closer links with foreign Protestants, and was aware of the threat to England from the alliance between France and
Scotland
. In 1559 he was authorized to exercise the full jurisdiction of
Lord Chancellor
. In 1564 he fell temporarily into the royal disfavour and was dismissed from court, because Elizabeth suspected he was concerned in the publication of a pamphlet,
A Declaration of the Succession of the Crowne Imperial of Ingland,
by
John Hales
, which favoured the claim of
Lady Katherine Grey
(sister of
Lady Jane Grey
) to the English throne.
Bacon's innocence having been admitted, he was restored to favour, and replied to a writing
[
clarification needed
]
by Sir
Anthony Browne
, who had again asserted the rights of the
House of Suffolk
, to which Lady Katherine belonged. He thoroughly distrusted Mary, Queen of Scots; objected to the proposal to marry her to
Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk
; and warned Elizabeth that serious consequences for England would follow her restoration. He seems to have disliked the proposed marriage between the English queen and
Francois, Duke of Anjou
, and his distrust of the Roman Catholics and the French was increased by the
St Bartholomew's Day massacre
. As a loyal English churchman he was ceaselessly interested in ecclesiastical matters, and made suggestions for the better observation of doctrine and discipline in the church.
Death and legacy
[
edit
]
He died in London
[7]
and was buried in
Old St Paul's Cathedral
;
[8]
there were many tributes to him. His grave and monument were destroyed in the
Great Fire of London
in 1666. A modern monument in the crypt lists his as one of the important graves lost.
He had been an eloquent speaker, a learned lawyer, a generous friend; and his interest in education led him to make several gifts and bequests for educational purposes, including the foundation of a free grammar school at
Redgrave
in
Suffolk
.
Marriages and issue
[
edit
]
Nicholas Bacon's first marriage was to Jane Ferneley (d.1552). Nicholas and Jane had six surviving children, three sons and three daughters:
[9]
- Sir Nicholas Bacon, 1st Baronet, of Redgrave
(c.1540?1624), who married Anne Butts, the only child and daughter of Edmund Butts (a son of
Sir William Butts
, doctor to King Henry VIII) by his wife Anne Bures,
[10]
(whose inscribed ledger stone is in Redgrave Church)
[4]
one of the daughters and co-heiresses of Henry Bures (d.1528) of Acton, Suffolk. Anne Butts was the heir of her uncle Sir William Butts (d.1583), junior, of Thornage, Norfolk, Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1563, whose Easter Sepulchre monument survives in Thornage Church. Three of the daughters and co-heiresses of Henry Bures married three of the sons of Sir William Butts, senior.
[11]
- Edward Bacon
(1548/9 ? 1618), who married Helen Little, the daughter of Sir Thomas Little of
Bray, Berkshire
, by Elizabeth Lyton (daughter of Sir Robert Lyton of
Knebworth
,
Hertfordshire
), by whom he was the father of
Nathaniel Bacon
(1593?1660) and
Francis Bacon
(1600?1663).
[10]
[12]
- Sir Nathaniel Bacon
(c.1546 ? November 1622), who first married, in July 1569, Anne Gresham (d.1594), the illegitimate daughter of
Sir Thomas Gresham
, founder of the
Royal Exchange
, by Anne Dutton; secondly, on 21 July 1597 he married Dorothy Hopton (c.1570?1629), daughter of
Arthur Hopton
and widow of William Smith of
Burgh Castle
,
Suffolk
.
[10]
[12]
- Elizabeth Bacon
, who married:
- Sir Robert Doyley;
- Sir Henry Neville
,
- Sir William Peryam
.
[10]
[13]
- Anne Bacon, who married
Sir Henry Woodhouse
(d.1624),
[10]
[14]
[15]
by whom she was the mother of
Sir Henry Woodhouse
.
- Elizabeth Bacon, who married:
- Francis Wyndham, the son of Sir Edmund Wyndham.,
[10]
[15]
- Robert Mansell
[16]
Sir Nicholas Bacon's second marriage, in 1553, was to
Anne Cooke
(1528?1610), one of the daughters of
Sir Anthony Cooke
, by whom he had two sons:
Jane's widowed younger sister, Anne Ferneley (d.1596), married secondly in 1544 to
Sir Thomas Gresham
.
[9]
[
How does that fit in?
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Montague-Smith, P.W. (ed.), Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly's Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968, p.34
- ^
"Bacon, Nicholas (BCN523N)"
.
A Cambridge Alumni Database
. University of Cambridge.
- ^
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
(Easter term, 2006)
Liz Winter.
"Nicholas Bacon Bursary Fund"
(PDF)
.
The Pelican
.
Retrieved 17 May 2024
- ^
a
b
See image:
File:St Marys church in Redgrave - early C17 memorial (geograph 2258720).jpg
https://www.mbs-brasses.co.uk/index-of-brasses/ann-butts
- ^
"redgravehistory"
. Archived from
the original
on 8 July 2015
. Retrieved
18 November
2007
.
- ^
"Old Gorhambury Water Gardens"
.
www.gardenvisit.com
. Retrieved
8 July
2023
.
- ^
a
b
A.D.K. Hawkyard, 'Bacon, Nicholas (1510-79), of Gray's Inn and York House, London; Redgrave, Suff. Gorhambury, Herts.', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.),
The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558
(from Boydell and Brewer, 1982),
History of Parliament Online
(accessed June 2018).
- ^
"Memorials of St Paul's Cathedral"
Sinclair, W.
p97: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909
- ^
a
b
Tittler 2004
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Tittler 1976
, p. 153
- ^
Farrer, Edmund, Church Heraldry of Norfolk, Vol 2 (1889), pp.407-8
[1]
See image
File:All Saints Church - monument - geograph.org.uk - 764500.jpg
- ^
a
b
Smith 2004
.
- ^
Harley 2005
, pp. 4?7;
Riordan 2004
.
- ^
Ungerer 1974
, p. 278.
- ^
a
b
Smith 2002
, p. 180.
- ^
Dictionary of National Biography, Volumes 1-22 for Robert Mansell
References
[
edit
]
- Harley, John (2005).
"
'My Ladye Nevell' Revealed"
.
Music & Letters
.
86
(1). Oxford: Oxford University Press: 1?15.
doi
:
10.1093/ml/gci001
.
S2CID
191640785
. Archived from
the original
on 23 July 2008
. Retrieved
25 March
2013
.
- Riordan, Michael (2004). "Henry VIII, privy chamber of (act. 1509?1547)".
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/70825
.
(Subscription or
UK public library membership
required.)
- Smith, A. Hassell (2004). "Bacon, Sir Nathaniel (1546??1622)".
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/998
.
(Subscription or
UK public library membership
required.)
- Smith, Hassell (2002).
"Concept and Compromise: Sir Nicholas Bacon and the Building of Stiffkey Hall"
. In Harper-Bill, Christopher (ed.).
East Anglia's History; Studies in Honour of Norman Scarfe
. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press. pp. 159?88.
ISBN
9780851158785
. Retrieved
25 March
2013
.
- Tittler, Robert (2004). "Bacon, Sir Nicholas (1510?1579)".
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/1002
.
(Subscription or
UK public library membership
required.)
- Tittler, Robert (1976).
Nicholas Bacon; The Making of a Tudor Statesman
. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press.
- Ungerer, Gustav (1974).
A Spaniard in Elizabethan England: The Correspondence of Antonio Perez's Exile
. London: Tamesis Books. p. 278.
ISBN
9780900411847
. Retrieved
25 March
2013
.
- Chisholm, Hugh
, ed. (1911).
"Bacon, Sir Nicholas"
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Kimber, Edward
(1771).
The Baronetage of England: containing a genealogical and historical account of all the English Baronets now existing, with their descents, marriages, and memorable actions both in war and peace
. London: G. Woodfall. vol. 1, pp. 2?4.
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