BACON, SIR FRANCIS
Sir Francis Bacon was an English lawyer and statesman whose philosophical theories and writings influenced the development of scientific and legal thought in Great Britain and the
United States.
Bacon was born in 1561, the second son of
Sir Nicholas Bacon, the lord keeper of the great
seal, and Lady Ann, whose brother-in-law was
Baron Burghley (William Cecil), the first minister
to Queen Elizabeth I. Bacon, like his father,
was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge,
where he enrolled at the age of twelve. In 1576
he was admitted to Gray’s Inn, one of the four
Inns of Court in London, which were institutions
established for LEGAL EDUCATION. He also
spent time in France as a member of the English
ambassador’s staff, before his father’s sudden
death required him to return to England and
resume his legal education so that he could support
his family. After completing his studies,
Bacon became a barrister in 1582 and then
attained the posts of reader (lecturer at the Inn)
and bencher (senior member of the Inn).
In 1584, at the age of twenty-three, Bacon
was elected to the House of Commons, representing
Taunton, Liverpool, the county of Middlesex,
Southampton, Ipswich, and the
University of Cambridge. In 1594, he argued his
first major case, Chudleigh’s Case (1 Co. Rep.
1136, 76 Eng. Rep. 261 [K.B. 1594]), which
involved the interpretation of complex inheritance
statutes. He also began writing about science
and philosophy and started work on his
first major volume, Temporis Partus Maximus
(The greatest part of time), though the book,
along with many of his earliest works, was never
published and so disappeared.
Through his friendship with Robert Devereux,
the Earl of Essex, Bacon became
acquainted with Queen Elizabeth I and he eventually
became her counsel around 1600. As
counsel, Bacon later took part in the prosecution
of Essex, from whom he had become estranged,
for TREASON, and for these efforts Bacon was
knighted in 1603. In 1605, he published his first
book, The Advancement of Learning, a collection
of essays on philosophy that he dedicated to
King James I. Later the same year, he married
Alice Barnham, the daughter of a wealthy London
politician.
Bacon continued to curry the king’s favor by
assisting James in his plans to unite Scotland
with England, and was named to the post of
SOLICITOR GENERAL in 1607. He also continued
to write, publishing in 1609 The Wisdom of the
Ancients, in which he analyzed the meaning of
ancient myths. Seeking promotion to attorney
general, Bacon advised the king concerning
affairs of state and the relationship between the
Crown and Parliament. He successfully engineered
the ouster of the chief justice of the COMMON
PLEAS, SIR EDWARD COKE, a longtime rival
who had earlier occupied solicitor and attorney
general posts that Bacon had sought. Bacon
finally became attorney general in 1613, which
enabled him to continue his feud with Coke. He
eventually prosecuted Coke for his role in the
case of Edmond Peacham, a clergyman charged
with treason for advocating rebellion against
oppression in an unpublished treatise, leading to
Coke’s dismissal in 1616. Bacon continued his
service to the king and was appointed lord
keeper of the great seal in 1617. A year later, he
became lord chancellor of England, a post he
held until 1621.
Bacon, a man of great intellect and energy,
was often torn between his ambitions for higher
office and his keen interest in science and philosophy.
Though he was primarily concerned
with his service to the Crown during most of his
adult life, he did devote time to the study of philosophy.
He was an early proponent of inductive
reasoning, the theory that by analyzing observed
facts, one can establish general laws or principles
about how the world works. This theory is the
opposite of deductive reasoning, which holds
that one can draw specific conclusions by reasoning
from more general premises. Bacon believed inductive reasoning to be more useful
because it permitted the development of new
theories that could be more generally and widely
applied to a variety of situations. The legal systems
of many countries, including the United
States, were eventually grounded on the application
of general laws derived from specific fact
situations to govern conduct.
Bacon was likewise a strong believer in
empiricism, the belief that experience is the
most important source of knowledge. According
to Bacon, scientists should try to learn about the
world by using information gathered through
the senses rather than by using reason or rules
set forth by religious or political authority.
Empiricism, like inductive reasoning, also influenced
the development of later legal philosophies,
in this case theories that viewed the law
and justice as emerging from social life and
experience.
Bacon was a prolific writer throughout his
life, authoring a number of works expounding
his theories. The Novum Organum, his most well
known and widely read philosophical work, was
published in 1620. The Instauratio Magna
(Great instauration, from the Latin word instaurare,
“to renew or begin afresh”) was a comprehensive
plan in which Bacon attempted to
reorganize and redefine the sciences; it also contained
his views concerning logic and scientific
experimentation. In his philosophical writings,
Bacon argued that the mind should be purged of
what he termed idols, or tendencies to err. These
idols, he maintained, arose from human nature,
individual experience, and language. In addition,
Bacon kept an extensive diary, which was
discovered after his death. The notebook, known
as the Commentarius Solutus (Loose commentary),
contained his notes about, among other
things, his debts, his garden, and his health.
Later in his life, Bacon began to fall out of
favor with the Crown. In 1618, the king criticized
him for interfering in the marriage of
Coke’s daughter. In 1621, Bacon was charged
with accepting a bribe concerning a grievance
committee over which he had presided. Bacon
admitted in a full confession that he had
received gifts, but denied that they had influenced
his judgment. Though he begged for
mercy, Bacon found the king unsympathetic to
his case and was forced to resign his office.
Bacon was sentenced to a stiff fine (which was
later suspended), imprisonment in the Tower of
London (which actually lasted only four days),
exclusion from holding any state office, and prohibition
from coming within the vicinity of the
Court of King’s Bench.
Following his ouster from the court, Bacon
returned to his large estate at Gorhambury, in
rural England, to devote all of his energies to
research and writing. He prepared digests of the
laws and wrote a history of Great Britain and its
monarchs. He planned to write six separate natural
histories, but only two were completed: Historia
Ventorum (History of the winds), which
was published in 1622, and Historia Vitae et
Mortis (History of life and death), which
appeared the following year. He also wrote the
History of Henry VII, published in 1622. In 1621,
he enlarged his volume of Essays, which he had
first published in 1597, and in 1627, he published
The New Atlantis. He also corresponded
with Italian philosophers and sent his work to
them. Over the years, some writers have suggested
that Bacon may have been the true author
of William Shakespeare’s plays, but because no
concrete proof has been offered, the theory has
been discounted by most scholars.
Sometime around 1623, Bacon, in ill health,
was finally granted an audience with the king, but he was not granted a pardon for his offenses.
In London, on April 9, 1626, he died of bronchitis
he contracted while conducting experiments
on the effects of refrigeration on poultry.
FURTHER READINGS
Bowen, Catherine D. 1963. Francis Bacon: The Temper of a
Man. Boston: Little, Brown.
Hogan, John C., and Mortimer D. Schwartz. 1985. “A Translation
of Bacon’s Maxims of the Common Law.” Law
Library Journal 77 (fall): 707–18.
Whitney, Charles. 1986. Francis Bacon and Modernity. New
Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press.
Zagorin, Perez. 1998. Francis Bacon. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
Univ. Press.
CROSS-REFERENCES
Coke, Sir Edward; Inns of Court.
