Robert Bacon

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ¹³⁸²
Grimbald was the ancestor of the family of the Bacons in the town know as Baconsthrop. He is said to be a Norman, related to William de Warrenna, or Warren, Earl of Surry, and came into England with him at the conquest, and was founder of the church of Letheringsete, in Norfolk, [Lib. Prioratus de Binham MSS. nuper in custodiâ Tho Witherington, militis] where he resided. He had 3 sons; Ralph, lord of Letheringsete; Reynold, or Ranulf, lord of this town; and Edmund, rector of Letheringsete. Ranulf took the surname of Bacon, George Bacon was his son, who gave lands at Lodne to Maud, widow of Sir Roger de Hales, [Regist. Abbat. de Langley, fol. 90.] and had Thomas Bacon, his eldest son, who married Agnes. Thomas, by the inquisitions in the reign of Henry the III. was found to hold in this town of Baconsthorp, half a knight's fee of Robert Fitz Roger, and he of the Earl of Cornwall, as of the honour of Eye. Having no issue, Roger his brother succeeded him, who was sued by Agnes, his brother's widow, for distraining her tenants in Baconsthorp and Lodne, and breaking her park, [Assis. apud Norw. in septimana Pasche anno 5 Hen. 3. Rot. 4, coram Rege] her jointure being in the said towns, and in Hardle and Dalling. He released to his own sister Agnes, all the lands of his family in Normandy, and was in the arms with the barons against King John, had his estates seized, [Fin. 2 Joh. Rot. 13.--Claus. i. Hen. 3 part 2d. m. 1] but was restored to favour by King Henry III. and had his lands again in 1216. Roger left them to his son, Robert Bacun, or de Bacunsthorp, who was lord, and in 1227 settled a part of this lordship upon his brother, Roger de Baconsthorp, alias de Hingham, and his heirs.

Reginald, son of Robert succeeded, and is often wrote de Baconsthorp. Reginald gave to the church or priory of St. Mary at Binham, a rent of 8d. per ann. issuing out of his lands in Letheringsete, and a moiety of that advowson in 1261. [Mon. Angl. v. i. 514] Richard Bacon of Lodne was his son and heir, and married Alice, daughter of Conan, son of Elias de Moulton. Richard bore gules, on a chief argent two mullets sable; and she sable three barrulets, and in chief as many annulets, or, as appears from the pedigree of the Bacon family, in the possession of St. Edmund Bacon Bart.

~An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, Volume VI, pp. 502-513