Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/378

Bacon also rendered his advice of great value to the colonists in their disputes with the governor; and the prestige of his descent secured him a large amount of deference. Shortly after his arrival he became a member of the governor's council. His estates being specially exposed to Indian raids, he was one of the foremost in concerting measures of resistance; and he was chosen general by the volunteer colonists. An application was made to the governor for a commission, but as he deferred granting the request, Bacon set out against the Indians without obtaining his sanction. Thereupon he was declared a rebel, but an insurrection in the middle counties compelled the governor to yield to the popular demands. Writs were issued for the election of a new council on a system of wider suffrage. Bacon was elected for his county, and though arrested on his return, he was soon set at liberty, and sat in the assembly which passed the code known as 'Bacon's Laws.' In another expedition against the Indians, he defeated them with great slaughter. The governor, having meanwhile received reinforcements, again declared him a rebel, but, after a stubborn contest, was compelled to take refuge in the English vessels. Jamestown thereupon fell into the hands of Bacon, who, being unable to garrison it, burned it to the ground. While organising further and more comprehensive measures on behalf of the colonists, he died somewhat suddenly in October 1676. He left an only daughter, Mary, who was married to Hugh Chamberlain, M.D., of Alderton Hall, Suffolk, physician to Queen Anne. Oldys in a manuscript note to the article on Mrs. Behn, authoress of 'Widow Ranter, or the History of Bacon in Virginia,' 1690, in Langbaine's 'Dramatic Authors' (letter of Samuel Egerton Brydges, in Gent. Mag. lxxiv. 808), attributes to the Virginian the 'Historical Discourse of the Government of England,' 1647, but the date of the publication of the work is sufficient to disprove that he was the author of it.

[Sparkes's American Biography (1848), ill. 243-306; Strange News from Virginia, London, 1677; History of Bacon and Ingram's Rebellion in Virginia in 1675 and 1676, a contemporary account first published in 1867; Gent. Mag. lxxiv. 807-8, lxxxvi. part ii. 297-8, xcv. part i. 20-24; Notes and Queries, 2nd series, xi. 202, 3rd series, xii. 480-81; MS. Eger. 2395, pp. 156-198, where, besides other documents, will be found a copy of Nathaniel Bacon's description of the fight with the Indians in May 1676, of his letter to the governor, 26 May 1676, and of a letter of his wife to her sister, describing their mode of life and the raids of the Indians.]  BACON, alias, NATHANIEL (1598-1676), Jesuit. [See .]

BACON, NICHOLAS (1509–1579), lord keeper, born in 1509, probably in a house belonging to the parents of Sir Francis Walsingham at Chislehurst, Kent, was the second son of Robert Bacon, of Drinkstone, Suffolk, sheepreeve to the abbey of Bury St. Edmunds. His mother was Isabella, daughter of John Cage, of Pakenham. A younger brother, James, engaged in trade in London; was elected an alderman 24 April 1567; was sheriff in 1568; died 5 June 1573; and was buried in the church of St. Dunstan's in the East ( London, 1633, p. 139; Remembrancia, 21 n.). There is reason to believe that Nicholas was at first educated at the abbey school of Bury. In 1523 he proceeded to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he obtained a bible-clerkship, and graduated B.A. in 1527. At the university he made friends with two fellow-students, William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burghley, and Matthew Parker, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, with both of whom he remained on intimate terms in after life (, Life of Parker, 8vo, i. 9). Shortly after taking his degree he made a journey to France, and stayed at Paris. On his return he studied common law at Gray's Inn, being called to the bar in 1533, and becoming an 'ancient' of the society in 1536. A little later Archbishop Cranmer recommended Bacon to the minister Cromwell for the appointment of town-clerk of Calais. Cranmer describes the young man as being of such towardness in the law, and of so good judgment touching Christ's religion, that in that stead he should be able to do God and the king right acceptable service (, Works, Parker Soc, ii. 384). But the recommendation does not seem to have had any effect. In 1537 he was nominated solicitor of the Court of Augmentations, at an annual salary of about 70l. In 1540 he was one of the commissioners appointed to arrange for the dissolution of the chapter of the collegiate church of Southwell. At the time he was described as the solicitor of Cambridge university.

Bacon was desirous that the confiscated revenues of the dissolved monasteries should be applied to useful purposes, and with two friends, Thomas Denton and Robert Cary, drafted a scheme for their employment in the establishment of a college for the education of statesmen. It was proposed to erect a house in London where young men of good family and attainments should be