Edmund Bacon Family

Capt. Izard Bacon of the “Brooke” patented 1,030 acres in Henrico County, Virginia under the name of Uppernum Brooke, originally patented by Mrs. Frances Izard in 1681. In December 1724, John Bacon of New Kent petitioned the Council for a new grant of the same land as having descended to him from Mrs. Frances Izard. In 1727 the land was patented by John Bacon.

In the docket of the General Court preserved in the Ludwell Manuscripts at the Virginia Historical Society appears the title of a suit: “William Clopton the younger and Joyce his wife vs. John Bacon per John Turner, Executor of Frances Izard, deceased.”

Family tradition in one branch of the Bacon family of Virginia states that John Bacon was the son of Nathaniel Bacon “the Rebel,” that he was adopted by Mrs. Frances Izard, and that the Brooke land was willed to him and later descended to Capt. Izard Bacon. While this does not agree with the position of the Virginia Historical Society, it is consistent with traditions held by Bacon families in Virginia, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Georgia.

Older enslaved people brought from Virginia by John Bacon to Kentucky in the latter part of the 18th century reportedly told his children that Nathaniel Bacon the Rebel was their ancestor; that he was poisoned through the treachery of friends of Governor Berkeley; and that, because Berkeley had offered a reward for him dead or alive, when he died his enslaved people buried him at night in the James River, weighting the coffin with stones so the body would be secure from Berkeley’s vengeance.