DR. RAWLEY'S LIFE OF BACON. 5 



have heard of knowing persons) a considerable sum of money, 

 which he had separated, with intention to have made a compe- 

 tent purchase of land for the livelihood of this his youngest son 

 (who was only unprovided for ; and though he was the youngest 

 in years, yet he was not the lowest in his father's affection) ; but 

 the said purchase being unaccomplished at his father's death, 

 there came no greater share to him than his single part and 

 portion of the money dividable amongst five brethren; by 

 which means he lived in some straits and necessities in his 

 younger years. For as for that pleasant site and manor of Gor- 

 hambury, he came not to it till many years after, by the death of 

 his dearest brother, Mr. Anthony Bacon *, a gentleman equal to 

 him in height of wit, though inferior to him in the endowments 



o o 



of learning and knowledge; unto whom he was most nearly 

 conjoined in affection, they two being the sole male issue of a 

 second venter. 



Being returned from travel, he applied himself to the study 

 of the common law, which he took upon him to be his pro- 

 fession 2 ; in which he obtained to great excellency, though he 

 made that (as himself said) but as an accessary, and not his 

 principal study. He wrote several tractates upon that sub- 

 ject: wherein, though some great masters of the law did out-go 

 him in bulk, and particularities of cases, yet in the science of 

 the grounds and mysteries of the law he was exceeded by none. 

 In this w r ay he was after awhile sworn of the queen's council 

 learned, extraordinary ; a grace (if I err not) scarce known be- 

 fore. 3 He seated himself, for the commodity of his studies and 



1 Anthony Bacon died in the spring of 1601. See a letter from Mr. John Cham- 

 berlain to Sir Dudley Carlton, in the State Paper Office, dated 27th May 1601. 



2 He had been admitted de societate mtrorum of Gray's Inn on June 27, 1576 ; 

 commenced his regular career as a student in 1579 ; became "utter barrister" on the 

 27th of June 1582; bencher in 1586; reader in 188; and double reader in 1600. 

 See Harl. MSS. 1912, and Book of Orders, p. 56. 



3 In the Latin version of this memoir, for " after a while " Rawley substitutes 

 nondum tyrocinium in lege egressus, by which he seems to assign a very early period 

 as the date of this appointment. But I suspect he was mistaken, both as to the date 

 and the nature of it. The title he got no doubt from a letter addressed by Bacon to 

 King James, about the end of January 1620-1. "You found me of the Learned 

 Council, Extraordinary, without patent or fee, a kind of individuum vugum. You 

 established me and brought me into Ordinary." Coupling this probably with an 

 early but undated letter to Burghley, in which Bacon thanks the queen for " ap- 

 propriating him to her service," he imagined that the thanks were for the appoint- 

 ment in question. This however is incredible. A copy of this letter in the Lands- 

 downe Collection gives the date, 18 October 1580; at which time Bacon had not 

 been even a student of law for more than a year and a half, and could not therefore 

 have been qualified for such a place ; still les could such a distinction have been 

 conferred upon him without being much talked of at the time and continually re- 

 ferred to afterwards. Moreover, we have another letter of ^ '" *>*r 



