Bacon, Francis, Viscount St Albans (1561 -1626)

Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor, was the second son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, and his second wife Ann, second daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, and sister of the wife of Lord Burleigh. In 1573, at the age of twelve, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, leaving the college in March 1575. On 27 June 1576 he was admitted to Gray's Inn. The same year he was attached to the embassy of Sir Amias Paulet in France, and was still abroad in 1579 when his father died, and he was left in comparatively straightened circumstances. Returning to a legal career, he entered Parliament for Melcombe Regis 23 November 1584, and subsequently sat for a succession of seats, and endeavoured to bring himself to the notice of the Queen, and became one of the Queen's counsel. About 1591 he made the acquaintance of the Earl of Essex, who was enchanted by Bacon's sharp brain. Bacon tried to model the younger man into a statesman, but after the Irish debacle and Essex's rebellion took a prominent part in the prosecution on the Queen's side. Bacon was knighted by James I in 1603, became Solicitor General in 1607, Lord Keeper ten years later, and in 1618, Lord Chancellor, at the same time he was raised to the peerage as Baron Verulam. On the 27 January 1621 he became Viscount St Albans, but in the first half of the same year was impeached by Parliament for taking bribes and was discharged from office on the 3 May. Sir Francis married, 10 May 1606, Alice, second daughter and coheir of Benedict Barnham, Alderman of London, but they had no children.