Francis Bacon 1561-1626

Francis BACON, Viscount St Alban 1561-1626

Armorial stamp of Francis Bacon (British Armorial Bindings)

Biographical Note

Born at York House in the Strand, London, son of Sir Nicholas Bacon (1510–1579), lord keeper. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge; entered Gray’s Inn in 1576. He was admitted to the bar in 1582, became bencher in 1586, and reader in 1587. MP for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, Dorset in 1584, 1586 and for Taunton, Somerset in 1586. He was knighted in 1603 and became Viscount St Alban in 1621 but was impeached in the same year. He married Alice, daughter of Benedict Barnham, Alderman of London in 1606; the pair had no children. Bacon is well-known for his works on science and natural philosophy, particularly the Novum Organum.

Bacon with his books, as envisaged in the frontispiece to his Historie of ... Henry the seventh, 1642

Books

Numerous books survive with his armorial stamp.

Sources

• British Armorial Bindings.
• History of Parliament.
• Peltonen, Markku. "Bacon, Francis, Viscount St Alban (1561–1626), lord chancellor, politician, and philosopher." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Rogers, D. The Bodleian Library and its treasures, 1991, 124-5.
• Francis Bacon, Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts 1450-1700.