Nathaniel Bacon, Virginia Rebel (Born 1647)

8^th Great Grandfather – FFFMFFMMMF¹

Nathaniel Bacon was Rebecca Luther’s great grandfather and my 8^th great grandfather.

Most of the Biographical Dictionaries and Encyclopedias are agreed that he was born on 2^nd January 1647 at Friston Hall in Suffolk to Thomas Bacon Esquire and Elizabeth (nee Brooke) Bacon^2,3, but I have not been able to find a baptism register entry for Nathaniel. The Suffolk parish registers are not online yet, although Ancestry is currently digitising and indexing them, so hopefully once that project is complete I will be able to confirm this.

Nathaniel’s father Thomas was a Member of Parliament for Suffolk during the Commonwealth and in 1660 he was elected Member of Parliament for Aldeburgh in Suffolk for the “Convention Parliament” which invited Charles II to return as King⁴.

Nathaniel was his father Thomas’s only known son. He was educated at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge where he matriculated on 5^th May 1661⁵.

He traveled around Europe in 1663-1664 with John Ray who was a Christian English Naturalist (see “John Ray” 2024) and fellow pupils Francis Willughby (see “Francis Willughby” 2024) and Philip Skippon (see “Philip Skippon (1641–1691)” 2024). Philip Skippon wrote an account of the trip⁶. At the end of April 1664 in Naples, Ray and Skippon took a ship to Messina to continue their travels while Willughby and Bacon returned to Rome, and presumably from there home to England.

On 22^nd November 1664, Nathaniel was admitted to study law at Gray’s Inn⁷. It was not unusual for sons of persons with property to study law in those times.

In May 1670 Nathaniel married Elizabeth Duke, the daughter of Sir Edward Duke and Ellen (nee Panton) Duke. Edward Duke was a Member of Parliament for Orford in Suffolk, being elected to the short lived Parliament of 1640⁸. However, he was not reelected to the so-called Long Parliament of 1640-1653⁹. On 11^th July 1641 Edward Duke was knighted by Charles I.

Edward disapproved of the marriage, a sentiment he made clear in his will¹⁰ when he disinherited her. However, apparently the couple received financial help from Nathaniel’s father and after her father’s death by her older brother, who had inherited their father’s estates when he died in 1671.

Apparently, Nathaniel got into financial trouble in the summer of 1674 and decided to try his luck in the New World, so he left England for Virginia¹¹. It is not clear whether his family accompanied him, some references claim that he travelled alone to Virginia, at least initially. It is also not clear whether his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth were born in England before he left for Virginia, or born in Virginia after his wife joined him.

A cousin, also called Nathaniel Bacon, was already a prominent colonial leader. Technically he was the first cousin of Nathaniel’s father Thomas. Often referred to as Nathaniel Bacon the elder, he had moved to Virignia by 1653 and had settled in Isle of Wight County. Nathaniel the elder served as a member of the Governor’s council for 30 years, and was a friend of the governor, William Berkeley, who was governor of Virginia at this time. It is claimed that Nathaniel, the younger, may also have been related by marriage to the governor¹².

In October 1674, Nathaniel purchased 820 acres of land at Curles Neck in Henrico County from Thomas Ballard¹³. He also aquired a smaller piece of land near the falls of the James River. On 3^rd March 1675 Governor Berkeley appointed Nathaniel to the Governor’s Council, in spite of the brevity of Nathaniel’s residence in Virginia¹⁴.

The rebellion that Bacon led against the governor began the following year, following a a long period of unrest. The motives for the rebellion were two-fold. The first motive was a desire amongst many colonists to drive the native Indians out of the colony, while no doubt a second motive was to remove the governor who had a reputation for corruption (see “Bacon’s Rebellion” 2024).

Skirmishes in 1675 between frontier settlers and Doeg and Susquehannock Indians in the Potomac River valley caused widespread fear of organized Indian raids, and in September 1675 Bacon seized a number of friendly Appamattuck Indians whom he accused of stealing corn.

In March 1676 the Virginia General Assembly met to prepare to defend the colony and decided to build forts to try and keep friendly Indians at peace while cutting off trade with other Indian groups. Bacon became leader of the militiamen in the upper James River valley and requested permission from the Governor to lead an expedition against the hostile Indians. Berkeley denied the request further increasing the resentment of the frontier settlers and increasing Bacon’s popularity.

In May, Berkeley expelled Bacon from the Governor’s Council and branded him a rebel, offering to pardon his followers if they returned home. he also called for new elections for the House of Burgesses, but Henrico County elected Bacon and one of his principal Lieutenants to the House of Burgesses. By this time Bacon was in de facto control of the colony.

Eventually the crisis came to a head when on 18^th September 1676, Governor Berkeley abandoned Jamestown, and Bacon and his men burned it down. By this time letters had arrived in London apprising royal officials of the situation and on 27^th October the king signed a proclamation for putting down the rebellion.

However, unknown to the Government in London, the situation had basically resolved itself. On 26^th October 1676 the day before the royal proclamation Nathaniel Bacon died of the “Bloody Flux” (dysentery) at the house of Thomas Pate. Without his leadership, the rebellion collapsed and Berkeley later hanged several of his most active followers and confiscated their property.

Nathaniel’s burial place is unknown, and apparently there is no will. His widow Elizabeth (nee Duke) Bacon eventually remarried to Thomas Jarvis, and after his death in 1684 to Edward Mole.

I know very little about Nathaniel’s daughter Mary, before she married my 7^th great grandfather Hugh Chamberlen, although in 1695 she is mentioned in her grandfather Thomas Bacon’s will as he makes her his heir and one of his Executors¹⁵. As she is married before the will is proved she is referred to in the Administration as Maria Chamberlen thus confirming her ancestry.

Bacon’s Rebellion was recognized by Thomas Jefferson and others as the first stirring of revolutionary sentiment and therefore Nathaniel was an American patriot. This understanding is recognized by a memorial window in Colonial Williamsburg and a memorial tablet in the Virginia State Capitol. More recently historians view the dispute as more of a power struggle between stubborn selfish leaders (see “Bacon’s Rebellion” 2024).

References

Footnotes