Nicholas Bacon (courtier)

Sir Nicholas Bacon
Sir Nicholas Bacon by an unknown artist, 1579
Born	(1510-12-28)28 December 1510 Chislehurst, England
Died	20 February 1579(1579-02-20) (aged 68) Gorhambury, England
Spouse(s)	Jane Ferneley Anne Cooke
Children	Sir Nicholas Bacon, 1st Baronet, of Redgrave Sir Edward Bacon Sir Nathaniel Bacon Elizabeth Bacon Anne Bacon Elizabeth Bacon (again) Anthony Bacon Francis Bacon
Parent(s)	Robert Bacon, Isabel Cage

Sir Nicholas Bacon (28 December 1510 – 20 February 1579) was an English politician during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, notable as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. He was the father of the philosopher and statesman Sir Francis Bacon.

He was born at Chislehurst, Kent, the second son of Robert Bacon (1479–1548) of Drinkstone, Suffolk, by his wife Eleanor (Isabel) Cage. He graduated from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1527, and, after a period in Paris, he entered Gray's Inn, being called to the Bar in 1533. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII gave him a grant of the manors of Redgrave, Botesdale, Gislingham, and Gorhambury. Gorhambury belonged to St Albans Abbey and lay near the site of the vanished Roman city of Verulamium (modern day St Albans). From 1563 to 1568 he built a new house, Old Gorhambury House (now a ruin), which later became the home of Francis Bacon, his youngest son.

In 1545 he became a Member of Parliament, representing Dartmouth. The following year, he was made Attorney of the Court of Wards and Liveries, a prestigious and lucrative post, and by 1552 he had risen to become treasurer of Gray's Inn. As a Protestant, he lost preferment under Queen Mary I of England. However, on the accession of her younger sister, Elizabeth in 1558 he was appointed Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, largely owing to the influence of his brother-in-law William Cecil. Shortly afterwards, Bacon was knighted.