his letters are extant in manuscript, as also collections for a history of Ipswich, from the Saxon heptarchy to the death of Charles I. He died in 1660.—T. F.
BACON, Sir Nathaniel, half-brother of Sir Francis Bacon, an English historical painter at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Of his works are known a picture of a servant girl with dead fowls, one of Ceres, and another of Hercules.
BACON, Sir Nicolas, born in 1510 at Chiselhurst, Kent, son of Robert Bacon, Esq., was educated at home, and then sent to Corpus Christi college, Cambridge, where he took his degree, and, after travelling on the continent became a student of Gray's Inn, and rose to eminence as a lawyer. On the dissolution of monasteries under Henry VIII., he was appointed solicitor to the court of augmentations for managing church property appropriated to the Crown, of which he obtained a grant of a respectable share to himself. He was also appointed attorney to the court of wards, which office he retained under Edward VI. and Mary. Queen Elizabeth made him keeper of the privy seal, an honour which he owed chiefly to the influence of her favourite Cecil, afterwards Baron Burghley, whose interest in Sir Nicolas was probably attributable to their having married sisters, the two daughters of Sir Anthony Cook; but his high qualities, and Elizabeth's sagacity in discovering them, no doubt had their weight; but she declined to give him any other title than that of lord-keeper, with a seat at the privy council.
On the 25th January, 1559, Sir Nicolas opened the first parliament of Elizabeth with an admirably conciliating speech on the controversies which then agitated the Roman catholic and protestant parties. In March following the queen appointed a public conference at Westminster Hall, on the controverted doctrines and rites of the Romish church; nine divines were to argue on each side, and Sir Nicolas was to preside and act as moderator. It has been alleged, that on this occasion his accustomed impartiality was impaired by his bias in favour of protestantism. Be that as it may, his conduct gave great offence to the Roman catholic party, some of whom refused to argue any longer, and the conference was not only abruptly broken up, but the bishops of Winchester and Lincoln were committed to the Tower, and then fellows bound over to answer for their contempt. Bacon was amongst those who strove to induce Elizabeth to marry, and in the parliaments of 1565 and 1567, by the urgency of his speeches, he drew upon himself a sharp rebuke from her offended Majesty. Again, on the subject of the succession to the throne, he incurred the queen's displeasure by his advocacy of the claims of the House of Suffolk, to which she was so opposed, as to prefer the Stuarts, despite her jealousy of Mary, and her antipathy to Romanism. Fortunately for Sir Nicolas, a fitting successor could not readily be found, or he would have lost the great seal. His name was erased from the privy council, and he was ordered to confine himself to the court of chancery. In 1568 he presided over the inquiry into the conduct of Mary Queen of Scots, then a prisoner at Bolton castle, and acquitted himself with great credit; but when, two years afterwards, negotiations for Mary's liberty were reopened, he displayed a spirit of antagonism, which excited in Scotland great animosity. He strongly opposed the interference of parliament with the succession, and several members who disregarded his injunctions were summoned before the privy council, where he reprimanded them severely, and even committed one of them to prison. On a renewal of these discussions in 1572, he summarily disposed of the question by an abrupt prorogation of parliament. He took an active part in the prosecution of the duke of Norfolk in 1572; and though unqualified to sit on the trial, not being a peer of the realm, he must be held responsible for the flagrant perversion of law and justice, by which the noble prisoner was deprived of fair notice of trial, interdicted from all communication with his friends, and kept in ignorance of the charges brought against him until called upon in court to answer them; whilst the main proofs of guilt alleged and accepted were questionable confessions, extorted from witnesses put to the torture by order of the council.
Bacon died 20th February, 1579, and was buried in St. Paul's cathedral. He enjoyed the reputation of being a sound scholar. As a judge he was highly esteemed for his legal attainments and great impartiality, though warped occasionally by the political influences of the stormy period in which he lived. It would have been marvellous had he passed through his long official career unswayed by prepossessions and prejudices, at a time when opposing parties were so strongly distinguished by religious and political feelings; but he must have been gifted with a large share of temperance and discretion to have held office, successively, under such monarchs as Henry the Eighth, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth, and after playing a conspicuous part in the troubled affairs of the state, not only retained his head upon his shoulders, but escaped any serious degradation. The greatest blot upon his memory appears to have been his conduct towards the unfortunate princess, Mary, against whom—probably as much influenced by religious enthusiasm as political rancour—he acted with unmitigated vindictiveness. Not content with opposing the right of Mary and her son to the throne, he lost no opportunity of heaping obloquy upon her character, maintaining that, although a captive sovereign, she was amenable to the law as a rebellious subject; but he was the servant of Mary's unnatural kinswoman, Elizabeth. He was unquestionably a man of untiring diligence, lively genius, and ready wit, indulging in the latter very freely even on the bench. Amongst the witticisms attributed to him is the facetious rejoinder to a culprit under trial, who craved mercy on the plea of kindred, alleging that, as the name of the judge was Bacon, and that of the prisoner Hog, they were too nearly allied to be separated; upon which the judge replied—"You and I cannot be kindred unless you be hanged, for Hog is not Bacon until it be well hanged." Though Sir Nicolas carried to his grave a fairer name than most of the distinguished worthies of that capricious age, his well-earned fame was doomed to be eclipsed by that of his illustrious son, Francis Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban's.—F. J. H.
BACON, Sir Nicolas, son of Sir Nicolas, and the first person advanced to the dignity of baronet. May 22, 1611, upon the institution of that order. He had been previously knighted by Elizabeth in 1578. He died in 1624.
BACON, Phanuel, D.D., rector of Balden, Oxfordshire, and vicar of Bramber, Sussex. He was a native of Reading; of Magdalen college, Oxford, M.A. 1722, B.D. 1731, D.D. 1735. He died at Balden, January 10, 1783, in his eighty-third year. He was the author of five dramatical works, which were afterwards collected in a volume and entitled "Humorous Ethics." He was also author of the "Snipe," a ballad, and "A Song of Similies," which are to be found in the Oxford Sausage.—T. F.
BACON, Richard Mackenzie, a musical critic, was born at Norwich, May 1, 1776, and educated in the grammar school of that city. His father was proprietor of the Norwich Mercury, which he inherited from him, and bequeathed to his son; he began to write for this journal at seventeen years old, and its editorship was the standard occupation of his whole life. He is most known as having been the projector, editor, and chief writer of the Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review, which was the first journal devoted to music in England, and the character of its criticisms was far above anything that had then appeared here; the first number of this work was issued in January, 1818, and it was for some time continued, as its name implies, quarterly, but the latter numbers came out irregularly; the tenth and last appearing in 1826. He issued proposals for an extensive musical dictionary, for which he had collected the materials, but it was never printed. He contributed musical notices to Colburn's Magazine, and some other periodicals. His "Elements of Vocal Science," was extracted from the review for separate publication. His qualifications for musical criticism were derived rather from intercourse with artists than from knowledge of art, and the character of his writing was accordingly somewhat superficial. He originated the Norwich triennial musical festival, for the benefit of the county hospital, the first celebration of which was held in 1824, when the arrangements were wholly intrusted to him and Mr. E. Taylor, the present Gresham professor. He was the author of several political pamphlets, of a "Life of Pitt," and of a "Life of the Earl of Suffolk." He was distinguished for his elocution and for his conversational powers. He died at Norwich, November 2, 1844.—G. A. M.
BACON, Robert, by some supposed, but scarcely with sufficient reason, to have been a brother of Roger Bacon, was probably born 1168. He studied at Oxford and Paris, and on his return to England, read lectures on divinity at the former place. In 1233, his colleague in that office. Dr. Edmund Rich or Abingdon, having been made archbishop of Canterbury, Bacon succeeded him as treasurer of Salisbury cathedral. The same year, in a sermon before Henry III., Bacon inveighed strongly against the mischief done to the realm, by the king's fondness
