Anthony Bacon (British Army officer)

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Major General Anthony Bacon (1796–2 July 1864 Crondall, Hampshire) was a notable cavalry officer and commander in the Napoleonic wars, who resigned his command in 1826 in protest over his supersession by Lord Lucan (later of Balaclava fame).[1]

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[edit] Family background

Bacon, educated at Eton, was the son of Anthony Bacon, of Benham, near Newbury, Berkshire, one of the richest commoners in England (d. 1827). The family was allegedly descended from the eldest brother of Francis Bacon, a Lord Chancellor of England.

Anthony Bacon's father Anthony Bacon, sometimes called Anthony Bacon II (d. 11 August 1827 at Aberaman, bur. Speen, Berkshire)] was the eldest illegitimate son (of four sons and one daughter) of Anthony Bacon (1718-21 January 1786 at Cyfarthfa) by his mistress Mary Bushby, of Gloucestershire.

This Anthony Bacon, a notable iron-master and colliery owner in Wales who made Merthyr Tydfil the iron-smelting centre of Great Britain, was said to be descended from Sir Nicholas Bacon (1540 - 1624); however, since very little is known about his ancestry and upbringing, the connection may be spurious or illegitimate. Nicholas Bacon was Member of Parliament for Beverley (1563-1567) and Suffolk (1572-1583) (as one of the two knights representing the county) and ancestor of the Bacon Baronets. Sir Nicholas Bacon was the eldest (half) brother of Sir Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St. Albans and Baron Verulam, and the eldest son of Nicholas_Bacon (1509 - 1579), a prominent Elizabethan politician.

The first Anthony Bacon (d. 1786), one of the richest men of his time, had been married to Elizabeth Richardson, but their only son had died in 1770, aged 12. Bacon therefore made his mistress and his illegitimate children his heirs, The sons received princely amounts for the time. Bacon's eldest son, Anthony Bacon II (d. 1827) was to receive the Cyfarthfa estate when he came of age. The second son Thomas Bacon was to receive the Plymouth furnace, etc. In addition, "The Hirwaun furnace and collieries became the joint property of Anthony II and Thomas, while Robert, it seems, had the mines, etc., at Workington. Elizabeth was to receive a clear annuity of £300 when she became 21. William, then a baby, was to receive the remainder of the trust funds, provided the sum did not amount to more than £10,000, when he came of age."[2] However, the sons showed little or no interest in their father's businesses, and rapidly sold or leased them to men such as Richard Crawshay, who was one of the witnesses to the father's will.

The eldest son, Anthony Bacon II, sold out his business interests to his brother Thomas and to Richard Crawshay, including the mineral rights at Cyfarthfa. In 1806, he acquired the Mathews estate at Aberaman, and retired there. He also had considerable land in Berkshire, notably at Elcott and Benham, near Newbury, Berkshire. He d. at Aberaman, 11 Aug. 1827, and was buried at Speen, Berks. He left at least two children: General Bacon (the subject of this article) and a daughter Emily, Mrs Thomas Peers Williams. Although some sources describe him as one of the richest commoners of his day, it is possible that they confused him with his father the first Anthony Bacon.

Anthony's sister Emily married 1835 a wealthy landowner Lt. Col. Thomas Peers Williams (1795-1875), MP for Great Marlow 1820-1868 and Father of the House of Commons December 1867-1868; several of their daughters (Bacon's nieces) married into the peerage.

[edit] High living

Despite his father's great fortune, Bacon had the habit of high living. This was attributed by Dodge (reviewing a book) to the father's habit of refusing to give the son a regular allowance and paying his debts. Unfortunately, in 1823, he married an expensive wife in Lady Charlotte Harley. Either this couple or the father dissipated the elder Anthony Bacon's fortune; in 1827, when the father died, his estate was discovered to be heavily encumbered. Bacon was ruined, and in November 1829 actually imprisoned for debt.

[edit] Military career

Anthony Bacon formerly of the 10th Hussars was a Waterloo hero who won the Waterloo Medal.

In 1826, after Lord Lucan's purchase of the colonelcy of the 17th Lancers, he sold out in despair. Initially, he sent in his papers to the Duke of Wellington, but these were returned. He then sold his commission.

[edit] Colonial promoter

After Bacon was imprisoned for debt November 1829-1831, the family emigrated to Australia where they did not prosper, thanks to Bacon's habit of borrowing heavily to spend on large projects without paying the workmen.

[edit] Portuguese career and decline

Bacon returned to Europe, and espoused the cause of Pedro I of Brazil but lost his command for looting and selling horses after the emperor's death. He spent the rest of his life trying to obtain arrears in pay and reimbursement of his own money spent in Portugal. He also carried on a running battle with Lord Lucan over the Battle of Balaclava.

He died in 1864, and his widow Lady Charlotte Harley and two surviving children settled in Australia.

[edit] Marriage and descendants

In 1823, he married Lady Charlotte Harley (b. 1801 or 1809, d 1880), second or third daughter of Edward Harley, 5th Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer by his wife Jane Elizabeth Scott, a notable mistress of Lord Byron and daughter of the Rev. James Scott, M.A., Rector of Stokin, county Southhampton. Lady Charlotte Bacon, a muse for Lord Byrons Ianthe, was almost certainly fathered by one of her mother's many lovers.

Their children included Harley Bacon, an Australian settler, and Mrs C.B. Young, nee Nora Creina Bacon, wife of Charles Burney Young. In C.B. Young's obituary (1904), the Duchess of Wellington is described as a niece of the late General Bacon. One grandson of General and Lady Charlotte Bacon was the Australian MP grandson is H.D. Young, MP, of Kanmantoo. For details of General Bacon, see The Story of General Bacon by Alnod J. Boger, or [the review by Theodore Ayrault Dodge in The American Historical Review, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Oct., 1903), pp. 175-177 doi:10.2307/1834245. See also Anthony Bacon online biography. Her brother Alfred, 6th and last Earl of Oxford died 19 January 1853 without issue, but with four sisters as co-heiresses, including Lady Jane Harley, wife of Henry Bickersteth, Lord Langdale. By 1877, after long litigation over her brother's estate Lady Charlotte returned to England as his heiress and died in 1880.

Bacon's descendants include Anthony Harley Bacon, whose daughter Gladys Luz Bacon (d. 28 January 1932) whose son was George Harley Hay, 14th Earl of Kinnoul. Another grandson Harley Bacon was engaged to Countess Melanie von Seckendorff, one of Germany's richest heiresses, in 1900, [3] A Miss Harley Bacon donated paintings to the Bowes Museum by 1953.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Australian Dictionary of Biography accessed 24 February 2008
  2. ^ Dictionary of Welsh Biography: Anthony Bacon". Retrieved 24 February 2008.
  3. ^ Anon. "What's Doing in Society" The New York Times, 20 October 1900 p. 7 [(Abstract). (Full article text).

[edit] External links