Born: January 22, 1561, Strand, London
Died: April 9, 1626, Highgate, United Kingdom
Education: University of Cambridge
University of Poitiers
Lived: Old Gorhambury House, Gorhambury, St Albans AL3 6AH, UK (51.75618, -0.39292)
York House, Watergate Walk, London WC2N 6DU, UK (51.50809, -0.12292)
Canonbury Tower, N1
Buried: St Michael, St.Michael's Street, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL3 4SL
Trinity College (memorial)
Spouse: Alice Barnham (m. 1606–1626)
Anthony Bacon and his brother, Francis Bacon, spent their early years at York House in the Strand, London. Their mother (who was one of the most educated women of her day, speaking French, Latin, Greek, Spanish, Hebrew and Italian) oversaw their early education. In April 1573, the Bacon brothers enrolled in Trinity College, Cambridge, where they lived in the household of the Master of Trinity College, John Whitgift. The boys’ father died in Feb. 1579 after having been one of the most powerful men in England for the past twenty years.
Address: Watergate Walk, London WC2N 6DU, UK (51.50809, -0.12292)
Type: Public Park (open to public)
English Heritage Building ID: 208922 (Grade II, 1958)
Place
York House in the Strand in London was one of a string of mansions which once stood along the route from the City of London to the royal court at Westminster. It was built as the London home of the Bishops of Norwich not later than 1237, and around 300 years later it was acquired by King Henry VIII. It came to be known as York House when it was granted to the Archbishop of York in 1556 and retained that name for the rest of its existence. Its neighbours were Suffolk House (later Northumberland House) on the west and Durham House, London residence of the Bishop of Durham, to the east. For about seventy years from 1558 it was leased to various Lord Keepers of the Great Seal of England, including Nicholas Bacon, Thomas Egerton and Francis Bacon. In the 1620s it was acquired by the royal favourite George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, and after an interlude during the English Civil War it was returned to George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, who sold it to developers for £30,000 in 1672. He made it a condition of the sale that his name and full title should be commemorated by George Street, Villiers Street, Duke Street, Of Alley, and Buckingham Street. Some of these streets are extant, though Of Alley has been renamed York Place, Duke Street is now John Adam Street and George Street is now York Buildings. Villiers Street runs along the eastern side of Charing Cross railway station. The mansions facing in the Strand were built where they were partly because they had direct access from their garden fronts to the Thames, which was then a preferred transport artery. The York Watergate (also known as Buckingham Watergate), built ca. 1626, survives, now marooned 150 yards (137 m) from the river, within the Embankment Gardens, due to the construction of the Thames Embankment. With the Banqueting House it is one of the few surviving reminders in London of the Italianate court style of Charles I. Its boldly rusticated design in a confident Serlian manner has been attributed to Sir Balthazar Gerbier, to Inigo Jones himself and to the sculptor and master-mason Nicholas Stone. The design is modelled closely on that of the Medici Fountain in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. It was restored in the 1950s.
Life
Who: Anthony Bacon (1558–1601)
Anthony Bacon was a member of the powerful Bacon family who was also a spy during the Elizabethan era. He was Francis Bacon’s brother. Bacon traveled to France in 1580. While there, he served as an intelligencer reporting to spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham. He initially settled in Montauban-de-Picardie. In 1586, he was charged with sodomy for having sex with his page Isaac Burgades, who had sodomized other pages in the household, and they in turn having let the practice become known in the town. Although the theoretical punishment was still burning at the stake, as the result of intervention in 1587 of Henry, then King of Navarre, Bacon never suffered any consequence, but left Montauban because of the scandal. The 1975 biography by Daphne du Maurier, “Golden Lads,” located the archival records in Montauban; no English records had existed. Bacon returned to England in Feb. 1592. He initially stayed with his brother Francis in Francis’ chambers at Gray’s Inn. Together, they established a scrivenery employing scriveners who acted as secretaries, writers, translators, copyists and cryptographers, dealing with correspondence, translations, copying, ciphers, essays, books, plays, entertainments and masques. In 1593, Bacon paid for his friend Antonio Pérez to come to England. Pérez may have been the model for the character of Don Adriana de Armado in Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost.” In 1593 Bacon was also elected member of Parliament for Wallingford, Berkshire. In April 1594, Bacon established his own residence in Bishopsgate. The next year, he became Secretary of State of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and moved into Essex House. During this time, Essex House was the center of the so-called "Shakespeare circle,” a literary circle that involved the Earl of Essex, Sir Thomas Walsingham, and Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. Sir Henry Cuffe and Sir Henry Wotton were also among the Earl of Essex’s supporters at this time. In 1597 Bacon was MP for Oxford. In 1601, Essex was accused, and then convicted, of high treason, with Bacon’s brother Francis playing a role in Essex’s prosecution. Anthony Bacon died shortly thereafter, at the home of Essex’s widow Frances Walsingham. He is buried at St Olave Church (8 Hart St, London EC3R). After Anthony’s death, Francis Bacon collected his correspondence, bequeathing it to his literary executor William Rawley, who in turn bequeathed it to Thomas Tenison, who in turn bequeathed it to the Lambeth Palace library, where it currently remains.
by Elisa Rolle
Queer Places, Vol. 2 edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1532906312
ISBN-10: 1532906315
Release Date: July 24, 2016
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English Heritage Blue Plaque: 145 North End Road, Golders Green, Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) "Writer lived here"
Address: Canonbury Square, London N1 2AL, UK
Type: Historic Street (open to public)
Place
Canonbury is a residential district in the London Borough of Islington in the north of London. It is roughly in the area between Essex Road, Upper Street and Cross Street and either side of St Paul’s Road. In 1253 land in the area was granted to the Canons of St Bartholomew’s Priory, Smithfield and became known as Canonbury. The area continued predominantly as open land until it was developed as a suburb in the early XIX century. In common with similar inner London areas, it suffered decline when the construction of railways in the 1860s enabled commuting into the city from further afield. The gentrification of the area from the 1950s included new developments to replace war-damaged properties in Canonbury Park North and South as well as restoration of older buildings. East Canonbury is the south-eastern corner of the district, bordering on the Regents Canal. Parts of this area were transferred to the district from the London Borough of Hackney in a boundary adjustment (along the line of the northern tow-path of the canal), in 1993. In the east is the New River Estate (formerly the Marquess Estate), a 1,200 dwelling council estate, completed in 1976 on 26 acres (110,000 m2), and designed by Darbourne & Darke. A dark red brick, traffic free estate, it was praised as an example of municipal architecture, but acquired a bad reputation and has since been extensively redeveloped to improve security for residents. Canonbury Square is an attractive square, developed between 1805 and 1830, it includes a variety of distinct styles. In 1812, when few properties had been built, the New North Road turnpike, now known as Canonbury Road, was constructed and bisects the square. Many significant figures from the arts and literary worlds have lived on the square, including George Orwell, Evelyn Waugh and Samuel Phelps.
Notable queer residents at Canonbury Square:
• Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), King James I’s Lord Chancellor, lived in Canonbury Tower, N1 1616-1626
• Evelyn Waugh (October 28, 1903- April 10, 1966), writer, lived at 17a Canonbury Square, N1; he left after a couple of years in 1930, claiming he was tired of having to explain to friends why he was livng in so appalling a district. Waugh lived also at 145 North End Road (London, W14)
• Duncan Grant (1885-1978) and Vanessa Bell (1879-1961), painters and designers, lived at 26a Canonbury Square, N1 from 1949 to 1955.
Queer Places, Vol. 2 edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1532906312
ISBN-10: 1532906315
Release Date: July 24, 2016
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/6228833
Amazon (print): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1532906315/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
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Old Gorhambury House located near St Albans, Hertfordshire, is a ruined Elizabethan mansion, a leading and early example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. It was built by Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, and was visited a number of times by Queen Elizabeth.
Address: Gorhambury, St Albans AL3 6AH, UK (51.75618, -0.39292)
Type: Museum (open to public)
Hours: Open all year round during any reasonable daylight hours (Managed by English Heritage)
Phone: +44 370 333 1181
English Heritage Building ID: 163801 (Grade I, 1953)
Place
Built in 1563-8
The house was built partly from bricks taken from the old Abbey buildings at St Albans, then in process of demolition following the Benedictine priory’s dissolution some 25 years earlier. It was used as a residence by Sir Nicholas Bacon’s youngest son, the polymath (scientist, philosopher, statesman and essayist) Sir Francis Bacon, before being bequeathed by him to his former secretary, Sir Thomas Meautys, who married Anne Bacon, the great-granddaughter of Sir Nicholas. The estate passed in 1652 to Anne’s second husband Sir Harbottle Grimston, Master of the Rolls and Speaker in the Convention Parliament of 1660. The estate is owned by the Grimston family to the present day, having been passed via Harbottle Grimston’s son Samuel, who died childless in 1700, to his great-nephew William Luckyn, who in turn became the first Viscount Grimston in 1719. The surviving remains include a two-storey porch, chapel and clock tower. The site is maintained by English Heritage and is free to visit. In the years 1777-84, the current Palladian-style Gorhambury House was built nearby. Designed by Sir Robert Taylor and commissioned by James Bucknall Grimston, 3rd Viscount Grimston, it replaced Old Gorhambury House, which was left to fall into ruin. It remains the home of the Earl of Verulam. The current house is a member of Historic Houses Association and is open for tours at certain times.
Life
Who: Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban PC KC (January 22, 1561 – April 9, 1626)
Francis Bacon was a philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. After his death, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution. When he was 36, Bacon engaged in the courtship of Elizabeth Hatton, a young widow of 20. Reportedly, she broke off their relationship upon accepting marriage to a wealthier man, Bacon’s rival, Edward Coke. Years later, Bacon still wrote of his regret that the marriage to Hatton had not taken place. At the age of 45, Bacon married Alice Barnham, the 14-year-old daughter of a well-connected London alderman and MP. Bacon wrote two sonnets proclaiming his love for Alice. The first was written during his courtship and the second on his wedding day, May 10, 1606. When Bacon was appointed lord chancellor, "by special Warrant of the King," Lady Bacon was given precedence over all other Court ladies. Reports of increasing friction in his marriage to Alice appeared, with speculation that some of this may have been due to financial resources not being as readily available to her as she was accustomed to having in the past. Alice was reportedly interested in fame and fortune, and when reserves of money were no longer available, there were complaints about where all the money was going. Alice Chambers Bunten wrote in her “Life of Alice Barnham” that, upon their descent into debt, she actually went on trips to ask for financial favours and assistance from their circle of friends. Bacon disinherited her upon discovering her secret romantic relationship with Sir John Underhill. He rewrote his will, which had previously been very generous — leaving her lands, goods, and income — revoking it all. Bacon’s personal secretary and chaplain, William Rawley, however, wrote in his biography of Bacon that his marriage was one of "much conjugal love and respect,” mentioning a robe of honour that he gave to her, and which "she wore unto her dying day, being twenty years and more after his death.” Biographers continue to debate Bacon’s sexual inclinations and the precise nature of his personal relationships. Some authors believe that despite his marriage, Bacon was primarily attracted to men. Forker, for example, has explored the "historically documentable sexual preferences" of both King James and Bacon, and concluded they were all oriented to "masculine love,” a contemporary term that "seems to have been used exclusively to refer to the sexual preference of men for members of their own gender." The Jacobean antiquarian Sir Simonds D’Ewes implied there had been a question of bringing him to trial for buggery, which his brother Anthony Bacon had also been charged with. This conclusion has been disputed by others, who point to lack of consistent evidence, and consider the sources to be more open to interpretation. In his "New Atlantis," Bacon describes his utopian island as being "the chastest nation under heaven,” in which there was no prostitution or adultery, and further saying that "as for masculine love, they have no touch of it.” A monument to Bacon at his burial place is at St Michael (St.Michael's Street, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL3 4SL).
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Edith “Edy” Craig, like her younger brother Edward, was illegitimate, as her mother, Ellen Terry, was still married to her first husband George Frederic Watts when she eloped with architect-designer Edward William Godwin in 1868. Edith Craig was born the following year at Gusterwoods Common in Hertfordshire, and was given the surname “Craig” to avoid the stigma of illegitimacy. The family lived in Fallows Green, Harpenden in Hertfordshire, designed by Godwin, until 1874. The couple separated in 1875.
Queer Places, Vol. 2 edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1532906312
ISBN-10: 1532906315
Release Date: July 24, 2016
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/6228833
Amazon (print): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1532906315/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IZ1KZBO/?tag=elimyrevandra-20
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