1652 Francis BACON De Augmentis
Scientiarum Libri IX Logic Scientific Method
Francis Bacon’s De Augmentis Scientiarum libri IX is one of Bacon’s
premier works on scientific methodology.
Francis
Bacon, (1561 – 1626) was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist,
orator, essayist 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. Bacon was also a jurist by
profession, having written some works for the reform of English Law.
Main author: Francis Bacon
Title: Fr. Baconis de Verulam. Angliæ cancellarii De
augmentis scientiarum lib. IX.
Published: Lugd. Batavorum : Ex
Officina Adriani Wijngaerden, 1652.
Language: Latin
Notes & contents:
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Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban[a] PC KC (/ˈbeɪkən/;[5]
22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher, statesman,
scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He served both as Attorney General and
as 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.
Bacon has been called the father of empiricism.[6] His works
argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive
and careful observation of events in nature. Most importantly, he argued this
could be achieved by use of a skeptical and methodical approach whereby
scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves. While his own practical ideas
about such a method, the Baconian method, did not have a long lasting
influence, the general idea of the importance and possibility of a skeptical
methodology makes Bacon the father of scientific method. This marked a new turn
in the rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, the practical details
of which are still central in debates about science and methodology today.
Bacon was generally neglected at court by Queen Elizabeth,
but after the ascension of King James I in 1603, Bacon was knighted. He was
later created Baron Verulam in 1618[4] and Viscount St. Alban in 1621.[3][b]
Because he had no heirs, both titles became extinct upon his death in 1626, at
65 years of age. Bacon died of pneumonia, with one account by John Aubrey
stating that he had contracted the condition while studying the effects of
freezing on the preservation of meat.
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Early life
1.2 Parliamentarian
1.3 Attorney
General
1.4 James I
comes to the throne
1.5 Lord
Chancellor and public disgrace
1.6 Personal
life
1.7 Death
2 Philosophy
and works
3 Influence
3.1 Science
3.2 North
America
3.3 Law
4 Historical
debates
4.1 Bacon and
Shakespeare
4.2 Occult
hypotheses
5 Bibliography
6 See also
7 Notes
8 References
8.1 Citations
8.2 Bibliography
9 Further
reading
9.1 Primary
sources
10 External
links
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
The 18-year-old Francis Bacon. Inscription around his head
reads: Si tabula daretur digna animum mallem, Latin for "If one could but
paint his mind" (see also below). National Portrait Gallery, London
Francis Bacon was born on 22 January 1561 at York House near
the Strand in London, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon by his second wife, Anne
(Cooke) Bacon, the daughter of the noted humanist Anthony Cooke. His mother's
sister was married to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, making Burghley
Bacon's uncle.[7]
Biographers believe that Bacon was educated at home in his
early years owing to poor health, which would plague him throughout his life.
He received tuition from John Walsall, a graduate of Oxford with a strong
leaning toward Puritanism. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, on 5 April
1573 at the age of 12,[8] living for three years there, together with his older
brother Anthony Bacon under the personal tutelage of Dr John Whitgift, future
Archbishop of Canterbury. Bacon's education was conducted largely in Latin and
followed the medieval curriculum. He was also educated at the University of
Poitiers. It was at Cambridge that he first met Queen Elizabeth, who was
impressed by his precocious intellect, and was accustomed to calling him
"The young lord keeper".[9]
His studies brought him to the belief that the methods and
results of science as then practised were erroneous. His reverence for
Aristotle conflicted with his loathing of Aristotelian philosophy, which seemed
to him barren, disputatious, and wrong in its objectives. A literal translation
of the painting at right would be "If a worthy picture were given, I would
prefer the mind." Note the first person I, suggesting perhaps that Bacon
himself said this, not the painter.
The Italianate York Water Gate – the entry to York House,
built about 1626, the year of Bacon's death
On 27 June 1576, he and Anthony entered de societate
magistrorum at Gray's Inn. A few months later, Francis went abroad with Sir
Amias Paulet, the English ambassador at Paris, while Anthony continued his
studies at home. The state of government and society in France under Henry III
afforded him valuable political instruction. For the next three years he
visited Blois, Poitiers, Tours, Italy, and Spain.[10] During his travels, Bacon
studied language, statecraft, and civil law while performing routine diplomatic
tasks. On at least one occasion he delivered diplomatic letters to England for
Walsingham, Burghley, and Leicester, as well as for the queen.[10]
The sudden death of his father in February 1579 prompted
Bacon to return to England. Sir Nicholas had laid up a considerable sum of
money to purchase an estate for his youngest son, but he died before doing so,
and Francis was left with only a fifth of that money. Having borrowed money,
Bacon got into debt. To support himself, he took up his residence in law at
Gray's Inn in 1579, his income being supplemented by a grant from his mother
Lady Anne of the manor of Marks in Essex, which generated a rent of £46.[11]
Parliamentarian[edit]
Francis Bacon's statue at Gray's Inn, South Square, London
Bacon stated that he had three goals: to uncover truth, to
serve his country, and to serve his church. He sought to further these ends by
seeking a prestigious post. In 1580, through his uncle, Lord Burghley, he
applied for a post at court that might enable him to pursue a life of learning,
but his application failed. For two years he worked quietly at Gray's Inn,
until he was admitted as an outer barrister in 1582.[12]
His parliamentary career began when he was elected MP for
Bossiney, Cornwall, in a by-election (similar to a special election in the US)
in 1581. In 1584 he took his seat in parliament for Melcombe in Dorset, and in
1586 for Taunton. At this time, he began to write on the condition of parties
in the church, as well as on the topic of philosophical reform in the lost
tract Temporis Partus Maximus. Yet he failed to gain a position that he thought
would lead him to success. He showed signs of sympathy to Puritanism, attending
the sermons of the Puritan chaplain of Gray's Inn and accompanying his mother
to the Temple Church to hear Walter Travers. This led to the publication of his
earliest surviving tract, which criticised the English church's suppression of
the Puritan clergy. In the Parliament of 1586, he openly urged execution for
the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots.
About this time, he again approached his powerful uncle for
help; this move was followed by his rapid progress at the bar. He became a
bencher in 1586 and was elected a Reader in 1587, delivering his first set of
lectures in Lent the following year. In 1589, he received the valuable
appointment of reversion to the Clerkship of the Star Chamber, although he did
not formally take office until 1608; the post was worth £1,600 a year.[3]
In 1588 he became MP for Liverpool and then for Middlesex in
1593. He later sat three times for Ipswich (1597, 1601, 1604) and once for
Cambridge University (1614).[13]
He became known as a liberal-minded reformer, eager to amend
and simplify the law. Though a friend of the crown, he opposed feudal
privileges and dictatorial powers. He spoke against religious persecution. He
struck at the House of Lords in its usurpation of the Money Bills. He advocated
for the union of England and Scotland, which made him a significant influence
toward the consolidation of the United Kingdom; and he later would advocate for
the integration of Ireland into the Union. Closer constitutional ties, he
believed, would bring greater peace and strength to these countries.[14][15]
Attorney General[edit]
Memorial to Francis Bacon, in the chapel of Trinity College,
Cambridge
Bacon soon became acquainted with Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl
of Essex, Queen Elizabeth's favourite.[16] By 1591 he acted as the earl's
confidential adviser.[16]
In 1592 he was commissioned to write a tract in response to
the Jesuit Robert Parson's anti-government polemic, which he titled Certain
observations made upon a libel, identifying England with the ideals of
democratic Athens against the belligerence of Spain.[17]
Bacon took his third parliamentary seat for Middlesex when
in February 1593 Elizabeth summoned Parliament to investigate a Roman Catholic
plot against her. Bacon's opposition to a bill that would levy triple subsidies
in half the usual time offended the Queen: opponents accused him of seeking
popularity, and for a time the Court excluded him from favour.[18]
When the office of Attorney General fell vacant in 1594,
Lord Essex's influence was not enough to secure the position for Bacon and it
was given to Sir Edward Coke. Likewise, Bacon failed to secure the lesser
office of Solicitor General in 1595, the Queen pointedly snubbing him by
appointing Sir Thomas Fleming instead.[3] To console him for these
disappointments, Essex presented him with a property at Twickenham, which Bacon
subsequently sold for £1,800.[19]
In 1596 Bacon became Queen's Counsel, but missed the
appointment of Master of the Rolls. During the next few years, his financial
situation remained embarrassing. His friends could find no public office for
him, and a scheme for retrieving his position by a marriage with the wealthy
and young widow Lady Elizabeth Hatton failed after she broke off their
relationship upon accepting marriage to Sir Edward Coke, a further spark of
enmity between the men. In 1598 Bacon was arrested for debt. Afterward,
however, his standing in the Queen's eyes improved. Gradually, Bacon earned the
standing of one of the learned counsels, though he had no commission or
warrant, and received no salary. His relationship with the Queen further
improved when he severed ties with Essex—a shrewd move, as Essex would be
executed for treason in 1601.[20]
With others, Bacon was appointed to investigate the charges
against Essex. A number of Essex's followers confessed that Essex had planned a
rebellion against the Queen.[21] Bacon was subsequently a part of the legal
team headed by the Attorney General Sir Edward Coke at Essex's treason
trial.[21] After the execution, the Queen ordered Bacon to write the official
government account of the trial, which was later published as A DECLARATION of
the Practices and Treasons attempted and committed by Robert late Earle of
Essex and his Complices, against her Majestie and her Kingdoms ... after
Bacon's first draft was heavily edited by the Queen and her ministers.[22]
According to his personal secretary and chaplain William
Rawley, as a judge Bacon was always tender-hearted, "looking upon the
examples with the eye of severity, but upon the person with the eye of pity and
compassion". And also that "he was free from malice", "no
revenger of injuries", and "no defamer of any man".[23]
James I comes to the throne[edit]
The succession of James I brought Bacon into greater favour.
He was knighted in 1603. In another shrewd move, Bacon wrote his Apologies in
defence of his proceedings in the case of Essex, as Essex had favoured James to
succeed to the throne.
The following year, during the course of the uneventful
first parliament session, Bacon married Alice Barnham. In June 1607 he was at
last rewarded with the office of solicitor general.[3] The following year, he
began working as the Clerkship of the Star Chamber. Despite a generous income,
old debts still could not be paid. He sought further promotion and wealth by
supporting King James and his arbitrary policies.
Portrait of Sir Francis Bacon
Sir Francis Bacon, c. 1618
In 1610 the fourth session of James's first parliament met.
Despite Bacon's advice to him, James and the Commons found themselves at odds
over royal prerogatives and the king's embarrassing extravagance. The House was
finally dissolved in February 1611. Throughout this period Bacon managed to
stay in the favour of the king while retaining the confidence of the Commons.
In 1613 Bacon was finally appointed attorney general, after
advising the king to shuffle judicial appointments. As attorney general, Bacon,
by his zealous efforts—which included torture—to obtain the conviction of
Edmund Peacham for treason, raised legal controversies of high constitutional
importance;[24] and successfully prosecuted Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset,
and his wife, Frances Howard, Countess of Somerset, for murder in 1616. The
so-called Prince's Parliament of April 1614 objected to Bacon's presence in the
seat for Cambridge and to the various royal plans that Bacon had supported.
Although he was allowed to stay, parliament passed a law that forbade the
attorney general to sit in parliament. His influence over the king had
evidently inspired resentment or apprehension in many of his peers. Bacon,
however, continued to receive the King's favour, which led to his appointment
in March 1617 as temporary Regent of England (for a period of a month), and in
1618 as Lord Chancellor. On 12 July 1618 the king created Bacon Baron Verulam,
of Verulam, in the Peerage of England; he then became known as Francis, Lord
Verulam.[3]
Bacon continued to use his influence with the king to
mediate between the throne and Parliament, and in this capacity he was further
elevated in the same peerage, as Viscount St Alban, on 27 January 1621.
Lord Chancellor and public disgrace[edit]
Francis Bacon and the members of the Parliament in the day
of his political fall
Bacon's public career ended in disgrace in 1621. After he
fell into debt, a parliamentary committee on the administration of the law
charged him with 23 separate counts of corruption. His lifelong enemy, Sir
Edward Coke, who had instigated these accusations,[25] was one of those
appointed to prepare the charges against the chancellor.[26] To the lords, who
sent a committee to enquire whether a confession was really his, he replied,
"My lords, it is my act, my hand, and my heart; I beseech your lordships
to be merciful to a broken reed." He was sentenced to a fine of £40,000
and committed to the Tower of London at the king's pleasure; the imprisonment
lasted only a few days and the fine was remitted by the king.[27] More
seriously, parliament declared Bacon incapable of holding future office or
sitting in parliament. He narrowly escaped undergoing degradation, which would
have stripped him of his titles of nobility. Subsequently, the disgraced
viscount devoted himself to study and writing.
There seems little doubt that Bacon had accepted gifts from
litigants, but this was an accepted custom of the time and not necessarily
evidence of deeply corrupt behaviour.[28] While acknowledging that his conduct
had been lax, he countered that he had never allowed gifts to influence his
judgement and, indeed, he had on occasion given a verdict against those who had
paid him. He even had an interview with King James in which he assured:
The law of nature teaches me to speak in my own defence:
With respect to this charge of bribery I am as innocent as any man born on St.
Innocents Day. I never had a bribe or reward in my eye or thought when
pronouncing judgment or order... I am ready to make an oblation of myself to
the King
— 17 April 1621[29]
He also wrote the following to Buckingham:
My mind is calm, for my fortune is not my felicity. I know I
have clean hands and a clean heart, and I hope a clean house for friends or
servants; but Job himself, or whoever was the justest judge, by such hunting
for matters against him as hath been used against me, may for a time seem foul,
especially in a time when greatness is the mark and accusation is the game.[30]
The true reason for his acknowledgement of guilt is the
subject of debate, but some authors speculate that it may have been prompted by
his sickness, or by a view that through his fame and the greatness of his
office he would be spared harsh punishment. He may even have been blackmailed,
with a threat to charge him with sodomy, into confession.[28][31]
The British jurist Basil Montagu wrote in Bacon's defence,
concerning the episode of his public disgrace:
Bacon has been accused of servility, of dissimulation, of
various base motives, and their filthy brood of base actions, all unworthy of
his high birth, and incompatible with his great wisdom, and the estimation in
which he was held by the noblest spirits of the age. It is true that there were
men in his own time, and will be men in all times, who are better pleased to
count spots in the sun than to rejoice in its glorious brightness. Such men
have openly libelled him, like Dewes and Weldon, whose falsehoods were detected
as soon as uttered, or have fastened upon certain ceremonious compliments and
dedications, the fashion of his day, as a sample of his servility, passing over
his noble letters to the Queen, his lofty contempt for the Lord Keeper
Puckering, his open dealing with Sir Robert Cecil, and with others, who,
powerful when he was nothing, might have blighted his opening fortunes for
ever, forgetting his advocacy of the rights of the people in the face of the
court, and the true and honest counsels, always given by him, in times of great
difficulty, both to Elizabeth and her successor. When was a "base
sycophant" loved and honoured by piety such as that of Herbert, Tennison,
and Rawley, by noble spirits like Hobbes, Ben Jonson, and Selden, or followed
to the grave, and beyond it, with devoted affection such as that of Sir Thomas
Meautys.[32]
Personal life[edit]
When he was 36, Bacon courted 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.[33]
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, 10 May 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 had been accustomed to.
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[34] 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 Alice and which "she wore unto her dying day, being twenty years
and more after his death".[23]
Engraving of Alice Barnham
The well-connected antiquary John Aubrey noted in his Brief
Lives concerning Bacon, "He was a Pederast. His Ganimeds and Favourites
tooke Bribes",[35] biographers continue to debate Bacon's sexual
inclinations and the precise nature of his personal relationships.[c] Some
authors[36][37] believe that despite his marriage, Bacon was primarily
attracted to men. Forker,[38] 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."[39] The Jacobean
antiquarian Sir Simonds D'Ewes implied there had been a question of bringing
him to trial for buggery,[40] which his brother Anthony Bacon had also been
charged with.[41]
This conclusion has been disputed by others,[21][42][43][44][45]
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".[46]
Death[edit]
On 9 April 1626, Bacon died of pneumonia while at Arundel
mansion at Highgate outside London.[47] An influential account of the
circumstances of his death was given by John Aubrey's Brief Lives, with Aubrey
stating he contracted pneumonia while studying the effects of freezing on the
preservation of meat.[47] Aubrey has been criticised for his evident
credulousness in this and other works; on the other hand, he knew Thomas
Hobbes, Bacon's fellow-philosopher and friend. Aubrey's vivid account, which
portrays Bacon as a martyr to experimental scientific method, had him
journeying to Highgate through the snow with the King's physician when he is
suddenly inspired by the possibility of using the snow to preserve meat:
"They were resolved they would try the experiment presently. They alighted
out of the coach and went into a poor woman's house at the bottom of Highgate
hill, and bought a fowl, and made the woman exenterate it."
Monument to Bacon at his burial place, St Michael's Church
in St Albans
After stuffing the fowl with snow, Bacon contracted a fatal
case of pneumonia. Some people, including Aubrey, consider these two
contiguous, possibly coincidental events as related and causative of his death:
"The Snow so chilled him that he immediately fell so extremely ill, that
he could not return to his Lodging ... but went to the Earle of Arundel's house
at Highgate, where they put him into ... a damp bed that had not been layn-in
... which gave him such a cold that in 2 or 3 days as I remember Mr Hobbes told
me, he died of Suffocation."[48]
Being unwittingly on his deathbed, the philosopher wrote his
last letter to his absent host and friend Lord Arundel:
My very good Lord,—I was likely to have had the fortune of
Caius Plinius the elder, who lost his life by trying an experiment about the
burning of Mount Vesuvius; for I was also desirous to try an experiment or two
touching the conservation and induration of bodies. As for the experiment
itself, it succeeded excellently well; but in the journey between London and
Highgate, I was taken with such a fit of casting as I know not whether it were
the Stone, or some surfeit or cold, or indeed a touch of them all three. But
when I came to your Lordship's House, I was not able to go back, and therefore
was forced to take up my lodging here, where your housekeeper is very careful
and diligent about me, which I assure myself your Lordship will not only pardon
towards him, but think the better of him for it. For indeed your Lordship's
House was happy to me, and I kiss your noble hands for the welcome which I am
sure you give me to it. I know how unfit it is for me to write with any other
hand than mine own, but by my troth my fingers are so disjointed with sickness
that I cannot steadily hold a pen.[49]
Another account appears in a biography by William Rawley,
Bacon's personal secretary and chaplain:
He died on the ninth day of April in the year 1626, in the
early morning of the day then celebrated for our Saviour's resurrection, in the
sixty-sixth year of his age, at the Earl of Arundel's house in Highgate, near
London, to which place he casually repaired about a week before; God so
ordaining that he should die there of a gentle fever, accidentally accompanied
with a great cold, whereby the defluxion of rheum fell so plentifully upon his
breast, that he died by suffocation.[50]
At the news of his death, over 30 great minds collected
together their eulogies of him, which were then later published in Latin.[51]
He left personal assets of about £7,000 and lands that
realised £6,000 when sold.[52] His debts amounted to more than £23,000,
equivalent to more than £3m at current value.[52][53]
Philosophy and works[edit]
Main article: Works by Francis Bacon
Bacon, Sylva sylvarum
Francis Bacon's philosophy is displayed in the vast and
varied writings he left, which might be divided into three great branches:
Scientific works – in which his ideas for an universal
reform of knowledge into scientific methodology and the improvement of
mankind's state using the Scientific method are presented.
Religious and literary works – in which he presents his
moral philosophy and theological meditations.
Juridical works – in which his reforms in English Law are
proposed.
Influence[edit]
Frontispiece to 'The History of Royal-Society of London',
picturing Bacon (in the right) among the founding influences of the Society.
National Portrait Gallery, London
Science[edit]
Bacon's ideas were influential in the 1630s and 1650s among
scholars, in particular Sir Thomas Browne, who in his encyclopaedia Pseudodoxia
Epidemica (1646–72) frequently adheres to a Baconian approach to his scientific
enquiries. During the Restoration, Bacon was commonly invoked as a guiding
spirit of the Royal Society founded under Charles II in 1660.[54][55] During
the 18th-century French Enlightenment, Bacon's non-metaphysical approach to
science became more influential than the dualism of his French contemporary
Descartes, and was associated with criticism of the ancien regime. In 1733
Voltaire introduced him to a French audience as the "father" of the
scientific method, an understanding which had become widespread by the
1750s.[56] In the 19th century his emphasis on induction was revived and
developed by William Whewell, among others. He has been reputed as the
"Father of Experimental Philosophy".[57]
He also wrote a long treatise on Medicine, History of Life
and Death,[58] with natural and experimental observations for the prolongation
of life.
One of his biographers, the historian William Hepworth
Dixon, states: "Bacon's influence in the modern world is so great that
every man who rides in a train, sends a telegram, follows a steam plough, sits
in an easy chair, crosses the channel or the Atlantic, eats a good dinner,
enjoys a beautiful garden, or undergoes a painless surgical operation, owes him
something."[59]
In 1902 Hugo von Hofmannsthal published a fictional letter
addressed to Bacon and dated 1603, about a writer who is experiencing a crisis
of language. Known as The Lord Chandos Letter, it has been proposed that Bacon
was identified as its recipient as having laid the foundation for the work of
scientists such as Ernst Mach, notable both for his academic distinction in the
history and philosophy of the inductive sciences, and for his own contributions
to physics.[60]
North America[edit]
A Newfoundland stamp which reads "Lord Bacon – the
guiding spirit in colonization scheme"
Bacon played a leading role in establishing the British
colonies in North America, especially in Virginia, the Carolinas and
Newfoundland in northeastern Canada. His government report on "The
Virginia Colony" was submitted in 1609. In 1610 Bacon and his associates
received a charter from the king to form the Tresurer and the Companye of
Adventurers and planter of the Cittye of London and Bristoll for the Collonye
or plantacon in Newfoundland, and sent John Guy to found a colony there.[61]
Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, wrote: "Bacon,
Locke and Newton. I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever
lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of those
superstructures which have been raised in the Physical and Moral
sciences".[62]
In 1910 Newfoundland issued a postage stamp to commemorate
Bacon's role in establishing the colony. The stamp describes Bacon as "the
guiding spirit in Colonization Schemes in 1610".[33] Moreover, some scholars
believe he was largely responsible for the drafting, in 1609 and 1612, of two
charters of government for the Virginia Colony.[63] William Hepworth Dixon
considered that Bacon's name could be included in the list of Founders of the
United States.