coloured terra cotta bust besides two portraits are at the modern Gorhambury house.
Bacon was twice married, first to Jane, daughter of William Fernley of West Creting, Suffolk, by whom he had three sons, Nicholas, Nathaniel, and Edward, and three daughters, Anne, Jane, and Elizabeth. His second wife was Ann [q. v.], daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, by whom he had two sons, Anthony [q. v.] and the illustrious Francis [q. v.].
Of the lord keeper's first family, Nicholas, usually described as of Redgrave, Suffolk, became an ‘ancient’ of Gray's Inn on 21 Nov. 1576, having been admitted a student on 15 Dec. 1562; was knighted by Elizabeth at Norwich on 22 Aug. 1578; was high sheriff of Suffolk in 1581; was M.P. for the same county from 1572 to 1583; was created the premier baronet of England by James I on 22 May 1611, died 22 Nov. 1624, and was buried at Redgrave. Seven sons survived him, and he was succeeded in the baronetcy by Edmund, the eldest of them, a friend and correspondent of Sir Henry Wotton, whose niece, Philippa, he married. His will is printed in ‘Bury Wills’ (Camden Soc. p. 211). On Sir Edmund's death without issue, in 1649, his brother Robert became third baronet. A third brother, Butts, of Mildenhall, Suffolk, was himself created a baronet in 1627. Nicholas of Gillingham, son of the lord keeper's fourth son Nicholas, was also created a baronet in 1616, but this baronetcy became extinct in 1685. In 1755 Richard, eighth baronet of Mildenhall, became seventh baronet of Redgrave, and thus united the honours of both branches of the family (Bury Wills, p. 266). The title is still held by lineal descendants of the lord keeper.
Nathaniel, the lord keeper's second son, usually described as of Stiffkey, Norfolk, was admitted to Gray's Inn on 15 Dec. 1562; became an ‘ancient’ of the society on 21 Nov. 1576; was M.P. for Tavistock in 1571 and 1572, for Norfolk in 1584 and 1593, and for Lynn in 1597; was sheriff of Norfolk in 1599; was knighted at Whitehall on 21 July 1604; and died 7 Nov. 1622, at the age of seventy-five. There is a monument to the memory of his two wives, erected by himself in 1615, in Stiffkey Church, where he is also buried. A will drawn up by him in 1614, when he believed himself to be dying, is printed in the ‘State Papers Calendars.’ He left no male issue, and his eldest daughter, Anne, married Sir John Townshend, the ancestor of the marquises of Townshend. A number of manuscripts in his handwriting, chiefly dealing with his estates, are among the Townshend papers.
Edward, the lord keeper's third son, usually described as of Shrubland Hall, Suffolk, became ‘ancient’ of Gray's Inn on 21 Nov. 1576; was M.P. for Yarmouth (1576–83), for Tavistock (1584), for Weymouth (1586), for Suffolk (1592–3); was sheriff of Suffolk in 1601; was knighted on 11 May 1603; died 8 Sept. 1618, and was buried at Banham.
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantab, i. 389-96; Biog. Brit.; Cal. State Papers, 1547-80; Froude's History; Cantiana Archæologica, xiii. 391; Masters's Hist. Corpus Christi Coll. ed. Lamb; Strype's Annals and Life of Parker; Foss's Judges of England, v. 447; Foster's Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn; Burke's Peerage and Baronetage. Mr. J. P. Collier, in Archæologia, xxxvi. 339 et seq., described a number of manuscript speeches and memoranda by Sir Nicholas in his possession. Other manuscripts of speeches and letters are to be found among the Harleian, Lansdowne, and Cottonian MSS. at the British Museum, in the Cambridge University Library, and among the papers at Hatfield. Sir Nicholas's name appears frequently in the archives of Ipswich, where the burgesses often entertained him (cf. Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix. 250-1). A ludicrous attempt to identify Bacon with the original of two of Shakespeare's characters — Hamlet's uncle Claudius and Sir John Falstaff — was made in Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. iii. 83, 105. Other references are given in the text.]
BACON, PHANUEL (1700–1783), divine and dramatist, the son of Phanuel Bacon, fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, vicar of St. Lawrence's, Reading, and author of 'A Pastor's Admonition to his Parishioners' (Reading, 1727-8), was born on 13 Oct. 1700, at Reading, was a demy of Magdalen College, Oxford, and proceeded B.A. 12 June 1719, M.A. 17 April 1722, B.D. 29 April 1731, and D.D. 9 Dec. 1735. He became vicar of Bramber, in Sussex, and rectot of Balden, in Oxfordshire, at which place he died 10 Jan. 1783. His literary efforts won for him a reputation which, small as it is, is now difficult to understand. The 'Kite,' a poem, first published in 1719, appears in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for 1756, not in 1758, as Watt, in the 'Bibliotheca Britannica,' states, and all subsequent writers repeat. It is an ingenious mock-heroical poem, in the style of the 'Rape of the Lock.' A humorous ballad, called the 'Snipe,' is printed in the 'Oxford Sausage." In this, which is said to be founded on fact, the author depicts himself in the character of the friar, and his fellow-collegian, Peter Zinzan, M.D., in that of Peter. A 'Song of Similes,' also by him, is found in the same
compilation. His most considerable effort consists of five plays: 1. 'The Taxes,' a dramatic entertainment; 2. 'The Insignificants,'
a comedy; 3. 'The Tryal of the Time-Killers,' a comedy; 4. 'The floral Quack,' a dramatic
