BACON, Sir Edmund, 6th Bt. (c.1680-1755), of Garboldisham, Norf.

Bacon was the premier baronet of England. In his father’s time the family estates had been loaded with debts, and in about 1703 Redgrave and other properties in Suffolk and Norfolk were sold to clear the encumbrances, the family removing to Garboldisham. Bacon was returned unopposed at a by-election shortly after the general election of 1710, in place of (Sir) Thomas Hanmer II* (4th Bt.), and probably with his help. He told on the Tory side in the disputed election for Cockermouth on 17 Mar. and 24 Apr. 1711. He was listed among the ‘worthy patriots’ who had exposed the mismanagements of the old ministry. On 7 Dec. 1711 he joined a Tory back-bench revolt and voted with the Whigs in favour of the ‘No Peace without Spain’ motion. He was a member of the March Club. On 11 Apr. he told in favour of taking into custody a Whig printer who had published a ‘scandalous libel’. He was elected on 13 May 1712 to the abortive commission to examine King William’s land grants. On 26 May he told against bringing in an East India bill. In the next session he was a teller on 7 May 1713 against a Whig motion to adjourn before the House had completed consideration of the report of the accounts commissioners.2 CSP Dom. 1703–4, pp. 456–7; Huntington Lib. Q. xxxiii. 168–9.

Bacon’s marriage helped his finances, and in 1713 he was returned for Norfolk. No vote is recorded in this Parliament, but the Worsley list classed him as a Tory who had sometimes voted with the Whigs, an assessment which may indicate that he was a follower of Hanmer. Bacon did not stand in 1715. His name was included in the list of possible Jacobite sympathizers sent to the Pretender in 1721, and in Christopher Layer’s list of the ‘loyal’ Norfolk gentlemen he was noted as having £1,500 a year. He was returned as a Tory knight of the shire at a by-election in 1728. Bacon died on 30 Apr. 1755, having in his will requested to be buried at Redgrave.3HMC Portland, vi. 152; P. S. Fritz, Ministers and Jacobitism 1715–45, p. 143; PCC 155 Paul.