Bacon Sir Nicholas

Bacon, Sir Nicholas, was born at Chiselhurst in 1510, and educated at Benet's (now Corpus Christi) College, Cambridge, and Gray's Inn. He obtained the grant of the monastic estate at St. Edmund's Bury, and other rewards, for his conversion to Protestantism, from Henry VIII. During Mary's reign he was out of favour, but he avoided trouble, and Elizabeth on her accession made him privy councillor and keeper of the Great Seal. He carefully kept out of party intrigues during his career, and seems to have been a wise and honest, if not an entirely disinterested, adviser of the crown, and his eloquence was considerable. He was twice married, Francis Bacon being a son by his second wife. He died in 1579.