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Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bacon, Thomas

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681660Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 02 — Bacon, Thomas1885Thomas Andrew Archer

BACON, THOMAS (fl. 1336), judge, was most probably a member of the same family that produced Sir Nicholas and the great Francis Bacon; for he was possessed of property at Baconsthorpe and other places in Norfolk, which later belonged to the lord chancellor. He was a justice of the Common Pleas in the early years of Edward III's reign, and in this capacity was knighted by that king (Dugdale, Origines, 102). According to Foss, he was raised to the King's Bench in 1332, and certainly appears in this year as one of those appointed to try and terminate petitions from Gascony, Ireland, Wales, and the foreign isles in the parliament held at York. The same year, in conjunction with two others, he was deputed to assess the tallages for Norfolk and Suffolk. He seems to have continued a judge till 1336, and was possibly still living in the year 1339.

[Foss's Judges of England, iii. 393; Rot. Parl. ii.68, 447.]