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]
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.[8]
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.
Matthew Parker,a close friend of Bacon's
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.[8]
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 François,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.[8]
Death and legacy
He died in London[7] and was buried in Old St Paul's Cathedral;[9] 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.[8]
Marriages and issue
Nicholas Bacon's first marriage was to Jane Ferneley (d.1552). Nicholas and Jane had six surviving children,three sons and three daughters:[10]
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,[11] (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.[12]
12A.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 OnlineArchived 6 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine (accessed June 2018).
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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