Family and Education

b. c.1669, o. surv. s. of Francis Bacon of Gray’s Inn by Elizabeth, da. and h. of Thomas Waller† (d. 1682) of St. Andrew, Holborn, Mdx. and Earlham.  educ. Christ Church, Oxf. matric. 23 Feb. 1686, aged 16; G. Inn 1679, called 1693, bencher 1709.  m. (1) 4 Apr. 1695 (with £2,000), Mary (d. 1701), da. and coh. of Richard Porter of Framlingham, Suff., s.p.s.; (2) settlement 28 Aug. 1703, Frances, prob. da. of Edward Nosworthy, rector of Diptford, Devon, 3s. (1 d.v.p.).  suc. fa. 1679; mother 1704.1

Offices Held

Commr. victualling 1714–17; commissary of musters and stores in Minorca 1722–d.

Freeman, Norwich 1718.2

Biography

Bacon was descended from a younger son of Lord Keeper Nathaniel Bacon. He leased the Earlham estate from his mother, succeeding to this and other property in 1704. He had been appointed a deputy-lieutenant for Norwich by December 1702. Backed by Lord Townshend, he stood on the Whig interest at Norwich in 1705 and, with his partner, John Chambers, carried the day against two Tories. However, there was a double return, and Bacon and Chambers had to wait to be seated until 12 days after the opening of Parliament. A steady Whig, Bacon was classed by Lord Sunderland (Charles, Lord Spencer*) as a ‘gain’. He voted for the Court candidate for Speaker on 25 Oct. 1705. Another list of the new Parliament classed him as a ‘Churchman’. On 19 Jan. 1706 he was appointed to the drafting committee for a bill to regulate duties on coal imported into Great Yarmouth, a measure undertaken in response to popular pressure from Norwich and the county. On 16 Feb. he reported a petition of some army officers for relief, being ordered the same day to bring in a bill to this end. He voted on 18 Feb. 1706 for the Court over the ‘place clause’ in the regency bill. He was appointed on 19 Dec. to draft another bill on Yarmouth coal duties, this time managing it successfully through the House. In two lists of 1708 he appeared as a Whig. On 12 Feb. he reported another petition of army officers for arrears of pay, subsequently introducing, on 3 Mar., a bill to state the accounts of the regiments concerned. Re-elected in 1708, he was appointed on 24 Jan. 1709 to the drafting committee on a bill to continue the Wymondham–Attleborough Road Act. He voted for the naturalization of the Palatines in 1709 and for the impeachment of Dr Sacheverell in 1710. In January 1710 he had assisted in the parliamentary management of a bill to regulate hackney coaches, and he reported a private estate bill on 9 Mar.

Defeated in 1710 and 1713, Bacon came back into Parliament in 1715. He was classed as a Whig in the Worsley list and proved a faithful supporter of Walpole. He died on 11 Nov. 1734.3

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: D. W. Hayton

Notes

• 1. Blomefield, Norf. iv. 195, 510, 515; PCC 93 Cottle, 258 Ockham; Sheffield Archs. Bacon Frank mss BFM 1041, 1247; Norf. Arch. xxxiii. 8, 92–93; Vivian, Vis. Devon, 782.
• 2. Norf. Rec. Soc. xxiii. 102.
• 3. Bacon Frank mss BFM 1043, 1247; CSP Dom. 1702–3, p. 397; Camb. Univ. Lib. Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss, Ld. Townshend to Robert Walpole II*, 8 Oct. 1705.