Sir Nathaniel Bacon (died 7 November 1622), of

Stiffkey Stiffkey () is a village and civil parish on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the A149 coast road, some east of Wells-next-the-Sea, west of Blakeney, and north-west of the city of Norwich.Ordnance Survey ( ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, was an English lawyer and Member of Parliament (MP).

Life

Nathaniel Bacon was the second son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, full brother of Elizabeth Bacon, and half-brother of

Sir Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both n ...

and Anthony Bacon. Educated at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, he was admitted to

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

in 1562, and became an "ancient" of the Inn in 1576. He was MP for

Tavistock Tavistock ( ) is an ancient stannary and market town within West Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy from which its name derives. At the 2011 census the three electoral wards (North, South and South West) had a population of 13,028 ...

(1571–1583),

(1584–1585, 1593 and 1604–1611, and defeated there in 1601) and

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...

(1597–1598); a

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

, he was an occasionally vocal member of their parliamentary faction during Elizabeth's reign. He also served as

High Sheriff of Norfolk The high sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown and is appointed annually (in March) by the Crown. The High Sheriff of Norfolk was originally the principal law enforcement officer in Norfolk and presided at the assizes and other imp ...

in 1586 and 1599, and was knighted in 1604. Bacon's will, written in 1614, mentions the construction of his tomb at Stiffkey, and a jewel with a

unicorn horn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years or ...

, which his three daughters were to use as a medicinal charm. Bacon was married twice. He had three daughters by his first wife, Anne Gresham, daughter of

Thomas Gresham Sir Thomas Gresham the Elder (; c. 151921 November 1579), was an English merchant and financier who acted on behalf of King Edward VI (1547–1553) and Edward's half-sisters, queens Mary I (1553–1558) and Elizabeth I (1558–1603). In 1565 G ...

; his eldest daughter and a co heir,

Anne Bacon Anne, Lady Bacon (née Cooke; 1527 or 1528 – 27 August 1610) was an English lady and scholar. She made a lasting contribution to English religious literature with her translation from Latin of John Jewel's ''Apologie of the Anglican Church'' ...

, married Sir John Townshend. His second wife was Dorothy Hopton, who inherited the manor of Eccles from her husband.

Notes

References

* Mentioned at the end of article on the father. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bacon, Nathaniel High Sheriffs of Norfolk 1622 deaths English MPs 1572–1583 Year of birth missing Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Members of Gray's Inn English MPs 1584–1585 English MPs 1593 English MPs 1597–1598 English MPs 1604–1611

Nathaniel , nickname = {{Plainlist, * Nat * Nate , footnotes = Nathaniel is an English variant of the biblical Greek name Nathanael. People with the name Nathaniel * Nathaniel Archibald (1952–2018), American basketball player * Nate A ...

People from Stiffkey English knights Members of Parliament for Norfolk Members of the Parliament of England for Tavistock