Talk:Nathaniel Bacon (painter, fl. 1640)

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This page, with much confusion, is about the same man as Nathaniel Bacon (painter), or confuses him badly with his uncle. It basically repeats the entry in the old National Dictionary of Biography, which was an many particulars wrong. The younger Nathaniel Bacon MA was a clergyman who probably never touched a paintbrush, didn't live at Culford, and he was never knighted either, although he did eventually inherit the tile of baronet.

"Let me first of all set down, in order, the three Nathaniel Bacons who have been confused. They are-

1. Sir Nathaniel Bacon, K.B., of Stiffkey, Nor- folk, second son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, and, therefore, one of the elder half- brothers of the great Sir Francis Bacon. He was born in (?) 1547, became an 'Ancient' of Gray's Inn in 1576, was knighted in 1604 and died in 1622. He was buried at Stiffkey, where is his monument.

2. Sir Nathaniel Bacon, K.B., of Culford, Suffolk (nephew of the above), youngest surviving son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, premier baronet (brother of the above). He was born in (?) 1583, was knighted in 1625, and died in 1627. His monument is at Culford, hut the registers do not show that he was buried there.

3. Nathaniel Bacon, third son of Robert Bacon of Great Ryburgh, Norfolk (second son of the first baronet and himself afterwards third baronet). He was born in (?) 1603, and admitted to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1621. He took his M.A. degree in 1628, and in the same year was instituted, by his father, to the rectory of Great Ryburgh. He may possibly have died in 1647, «is in that year his successor was appointed, but I have not looked this up. Here, then, we have an uncle, nephew and great-nephew all mistaken for one another ! I think most of the confusion has been caused by Horace Walpole, in his 'Anecdotes of Painting in England,' where, although he speaks of Sir Nathaniel as ' of Cul- ford,' he calls him the half-brother of Sir Francis, and a painter of Elizabeth's reign. This (but for his place of residence) would be quite right if he were the first Sir Nathaniel ; but there is not one tittle of evidence to show that Sir Nathaniel of Stiffkey ever put pencil to paper or brush to canvas. The third Nathaniel Bacon on my list, rector of Great Ryburgh, may be dismissed on the same negative evidence. He no doubt ' flourished,' as the ' Dictionary of National Bio- graphy' has it, circa 1640 ; but he seems to have remained a quiet country parson. " http://www.archive.org/stream/burlingtonmagazi11londuoft/burlingtonmagazi11londuoft_djvu.txt