Note 21 — Chapter IX · BACON'S SUIT ON HIS RETURN TO ENGLAND, 1580.

I am indebted to Mr. Harold Hardy for this interesting information. There is an entry in the State Papers, 1608, Jan. 31: Grant at the suit of Sir Francis Bacon to Sir William Cooke, Sir John Constable, and three others, of the King's reversion of the estates in Herts above referred to. Sir Nicholas, to whom it had descended from the Lord Keeper, conveyed the remainder to Queen Elizabeth her heirs and successors "with the condition that if he paid £100 the grant should be void, which was apparently done to prevent the said Sir Francis to dispose of the same land which otherwise by law he might have done." When Lady Anne conveyed the Markes estate to Francis it was subject to a similar condition, namely, that the grant was to be null and void on Lady Ann paying ten shillings to Francis. This condition made it impossible for Francis to dispose of his interest in the estate, hence Anthony's request in the letter above referred to. It is obvious that his relatives considered that Francis was not to be trusted with property which he could turn into money. There was evidently some heavy strain on his resources which caused him to convert everything he could into cash.