Francis Bacon (30 September 1600 – c. September 1663) was an English politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

at various times between 1645 and 1660. He supported the

Parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

cause in the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

Life

Bacon was the son of Sir Edward Bacon of

Shrubland Hall Shrubland Palace, Coddenham, Coddenham, Suffolk, is an historic English Palace with planned gardens in Suffolk, England, built in the 1770s. The Palace was used by the Royal Family members and briefly reopened as a hotel, restaurant and spa in ...

Barham, Suffolk Barham is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. The village is on the River Gipping. Surrounded by Great Blakenham, Baylham, Coddenham, Henley, Suffolk, Henley and Claydon, Suffolk, Claydon, Barham is on t ...

, son of Queen Elizabeth's Keeper of the Great Seal Sir Nicholas Bacon by his first wife, Jane Ferneley (d. 1552). He was educated at

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the 16 "old colleges" of the university, and was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. Its buildings span the R ...

. His brother was Nathaniel Bacon. In 1645 Bacon was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

in the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an Parliament of England, English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660, making it the longest-lasting Parliament in English and British history. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened f ...

. In 1654 he was re-elected MP for Ipswich in the

First Protectorate Parliament The First Protectorate Parliament was summoned by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the terms of the Instrument of Government. It sat for one term from 3 September 1654 until 22 January 1655 with William Lenthall as the Speaker of the H ...

and was returned in 1656 and 1659 for the

Second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

and

Third Protectorate Parliament The Third Protectorate Parliament sat for one session, from 27 January 1659 until 22 April 1659, with Chaloner Chute and Thomas Bampfylde as the Speakers of the House of Commons. It was a bicameral Parliament, with an Upper House having a po ...

s.History of Parliament Online – Bacon, Francis
/ref> In April 1660, Bacon was elected for the Convention Parliament which proclaimed the Restoration of Charles II in which he served with his brother Nathaniel and later with Sir

Frederick Cornwallis Frederick Cornwallis (5 March 1713 – 19 March 1783) was a British clergy member who served as Archbishop of Canterbury after a career in the Church of England. He was born the seventh son of an aristocratic family. Early life and education C ...

Bt. He had married Katherine, daughter of Sir Thomas Wingfield of

Letheringham Letheringham is a sparsely populated List of civil parishes in Suffolk, civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district (formerly Deben Rural District and then Suffolk Coastal) in Suffolk, England, on the River Deben, Deben Ri ...

, Suffolk; they had six sons (of whom four died before him) and two daughters.

References

External links

A list of the Convention Parliament
1600 births 1663 deaths People from Barham, Suffolk Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Ipswich Politics of Suffolk Roundheads Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge

Francis Francis may refer to: People and characters *Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church (2013–2025) *Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Francis (surname) * Francis, a character played by YouTuber Boogie2 ...

English MPs 1640–1648 English MPs 1654–1655 English MPs 1656–1658 English MPs 1659 English MPs 1660 {{1660-England-MP-stub