Francis Bacon and the King's Printer

Abstract

Although Barker's gift was the largest which Bacon admitted receiving in cash, in one payment, and from an individual, the giver seems not to have been identified in any life of the Lord Chancellor. He was Robert Barker, the King's Printer, who a few years before had printed and published the 1611 King James Version of the Bible. An examination of the evidence gives some reason to accept Bacon's statement of the circumstances of the gift. It was almost certainly given to Bacon after May 7, 1619, when he had handed down a decision in favor of Barker. And Bacon's receipt of Barker's gift apparently did not move him to rule in Barker's favor when he next faced the Court of Chancery.2 Bacon's Chancery suit grew out of a family quarrel. His eldest son had married the eldest daughter of Bonham Norton. Norton was an experienced stationer and of a family well established in the printing trade. He was wealthy and influential; he had been the sheriff of Shropshire and was an alderman of London. But he was a hard, grasping, covetous man. Barker, although he had accumulated a fortune from Bible-printing, needed money and entered into a partnership with John Bill and Norton. Soon after, Norton attempted by none too ethical means to take from him the office of King's Printer which he and his father had long held.3 A Chancery suit resulted in a victory for Barker. Some time after this, according to Bacon, he received the gift of ?700. Bacon may have reasoned as he did when he accepted gifts from the London grocers and apothecaries (articles 24-26 of the Confession), that he had acted as arbiter between Barker and Norton. Bacon had appointed, at the beginning of the suit, Sir Henry Savile and Sir