Anne, Lady Bacon, [née Cooke] (c. 1528–1610) Probably born at Gidea Hall, Essex, England. Educated in the classical languages and the early church fathers with her brothers and sisters at home by her father Sir Anthony Cooke. Cooke was one of several humanist educators employed by Queen Katherine Parr to tutor Henry VIII’s children including Edward VI. [1] She came to excel in Greek, Latin, and Italian. Under Sir Anthony’s zealous protestant guidance, her rigorous intellectual training focused on advancing God’s word.
In February 1553 Anne became the second wife of Sir Nicholas Bacon, who would serve as Queen Elizabeth’s lord keeper of the great seal.[2] He celebrated their intellectual achievements and compatibilities. She was an influential player at court as gentlewoman of the privy chamber to Queen Mary despite her reformist principles. From this position she was able to influence the decision to pardon her brother-in-law, William Cecil.[3] Lady Bacon helped to supervise the early education of their sons Anthony Bacon, who became a spy, and Francis Bacon who became a statesman, historian and natural philosopher best known for the empirical method promoted in his Advancement of Learning (1605). After her husband’s death she took charge of their upbringing.
Bacon wrote in Latin, published a translation of Sermons by the Italian Calvinist Reformer Bernadino Ochino and in 1564, made her mark on English religious prose with her translation from Latin of a leader of the Reformers in England John Jewel’s Apologie of the Church of England making her words the voice of the established church. [4] In her widowhood, she took on a more activist role to advance her strong reformist convictions.
Lady Bacon’s formidable personality comes most vividly to life in letters to her sons, most between 1592 and 1597. She counselled her adult sons about their bodily health, spiritual welfare, financial solvency, fit use for their talents, housing arrangements, and male companions, with a persistence only intensified by her frustration at the limited credit they gave her advice. She impoverished herself to help with their debts.[5]
[1] Claire McEachern, “Lady Bacon,” Mary Hays, Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries (1803). Chawton House Library Series: Women’s Memoirs, ed. Gina Luria Walker, Memoirs of Women Writers Part II (Pickering & Chatto: London, 2013), vol. 5, 261-64, editorial notes, 450-51, on 450.
[2] Mary Hays, “Lady Bacon,” Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women of all Ages and Countries (6 volumes) (London: R. Phillips, 1803), vol. 1, 235-38, on 235.
[3] Lynne Magnusson, ‘Bacon [Cooke], Anne, Lady Bacon (c.1528–1610)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004), accessed 22 March 2014, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/987.
[4] McEachern, “Lady Bacon,” vol. 5, 261-64, editorial notes, 450-51, on 450.
[5] Magnusson, ‘Bacon [Cooke], Anne, Lady Bacon (c.1528–1610)’.
Bibliography
Anne Cooke Bacon, The Early Modern Englishwoman, A Facsimile Library of Essential Works, series I, printed writings, 1500–1640: Part 2. Vol. 1, edited by V. Wayne. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000.
Ballard, G. Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain, who have been celebrated for their writings or skill in the learned languages, arts and sciences. Oxford: W. Jackson, 1752.
Biographium Faemineum: The Female Worthies: or, Memoirs of the Most Illustrious Ladies, of all Ages andNations…, 2 vols. London: S. Crowder, and J. Payne, 1766.
Emerson, Kathy Lynn. Wives and Daughters: The Women of Sixteenth Century England. New York: Whitston Publishing, 1984.
Hays, Mary, “Lady Bacon,” Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women of all Ages and Countries (6 volumes) (London: R. Phillips, 1803), vol. 1, 235-38.
Jardine, L. and A. Stewart. Hostage to Fortune: The troubled life of Francis Bacon, 1561–1626. 1998.
Lamb, M.E. ‘The Cooke Sisters: Attitudes towards Learned Women,’ in Silent but for the Word: Tudor Woman as Patrons, Translators and Writers of Religious Works, edited by Hannay, Margaret Patterson. Kent, OH: Kent State Univ. Press, 1985.
Magnusson, Lynne, ‘Bacon [Cooke], Anne, Lady Bacon (c.1528–1610)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004), accessed 22 March 2014, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/987.
McEachern, Claire, “Lady Bacon,” Mary Hays, Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries (1803). Chawton House Library Series: Women’s Memoirs, ed. Gina Luria Walker, Memoirs of Women Writers Part II (Pickering & Chatto: London, 2013), vol. 5, 261-64, editorial notes, 450-51.
McIntosh, M. K. ‘Sir Anthony Cooke: Tudor Humanist, educator, and religious reformer.’ Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 119 (1975): 233-50.
Schleiner, L. Tudor and Stuart Women Writers. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana Univ. Press, 1994.
Resources:
Brooklyn Museum
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: The Dinner Party: Heritage Floor: Anne Bacon
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/heritage_floor/anne_bacon.php
Page citation:
Penelope Whitworth. “Anne Bacon.” Project Continua (June 17, 2013): Ver. 1, [date accessed], http://www.projectcontinua.org/anne-bacon/
Tags: End of Renaissance, Europe, Reformation, Translators
