Nathaniel Bacon of Stiffkey
politician
Sir Nathaniel Bacon (died 7 November 1622), of Stiffkey in Norfolk, was an English lawyer and Member of Parliament (MP).
Life
Nathaniel Bacon was the second son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, full brother of Elizabeth Bacon, and half-brother of Francis Bacon and Anthony Bacon. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, he was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1562, and became an "ancient" of the Inn in 1576. He was MP for Tavistock (1571–1583), Norfolk (1584–1585, 1593 and 1604–1611, and defeated there in 1601) and King's Lynn (1597–1598); a Puritan, he was an occasionally vocal member of their parliamentary faction during Elizabeth I's reign. He also served as High Sheriff of Norfolk in 1586 and 1599, and was knighted in 1604.
Bacon's will, written in 1614, mentions the construction of his tomb at Stiffkey, and a jewel with a unicorn horn, which his three daughters were to use as a medicinal charm.
Bacon was married twice. He had three daughters by his first wife, Anne Gresham, daughter of Thomas Gresham; his eldest daughter and a co-heir, Anne Bacon, married Sir John Townshend. Tailor's bills detail clothing materials he bought for his family.
Bacon's second wife was Dorothy Hopton, the daughter of Arthur Hopton.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6969488. VIAF identifies the subject as 25476956. The Library of Congress control number is n84174122. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1622, 1562, 1576 and 1571.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nathaniel Bacon of Stiffkey” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.