The Underhill and Bacon
families were closely linked though the Chapel of St. Thomas a Becket at
Ettington. Members of the two families are interred closely together there. One
tablet on the tower has a long description of Thomas Underhill (1521-1603) and
his wife Elizabeth who lived together 65 years, had 20 children, and died a few
months of each other in 1603.[i]
Next to this is a memorial for the Bacon family. Members of the Bacon family
were well established in Warwickshire at that time.
Thomas Underhill who died in
1603 would be remembered also for an epitaph which hung on the north wall of
the north aisle of the church of Ettington, in honor of his deceased son Anthony
Underhill who died July 16, 1587. This epitaph was ascribed to Shakespeare by
some sources:
As dreams doe slide, as bubbles rise and
fall;
As
flowers doe fade and flourish in an houer;
As smoke doth rise, and vapours vanish all
Beyond
the witt or reach of human power;
As somer’s heat doth parch the withered
grasse,
Such is our stay, soe lyfe of man doth
passe.
John Underhill was born at
Ettington[ii]
in 1574. John Underhill was the son of
Thomas Underhill (1516-1571) and Ann Wood, and grandson of Thomas Underhill
(1485-1520) and Anne Wynter (1485-1545). Later he served as a gentleman usher
for Sir Francis Bacon in 1617 at York House, which was the resident of the
Keeper of the Seals while King James’ was on his Northern tour. [iii]
Sir Francis Bacon was one of
the leading thinkers and writers of his day. Some sources suggest he was
influential in production of the King James Bible. Lincoln College, that Dr.
John Underhill had served as rector through 1590, and where William Davenant
later studied, played an important role in production of the King James’ Bible
in 1611.[iv]
Later yet, religious and political dissent would present numerous challenges in
the 17th century. One time rector Paul Hood, who was a Puritan,
found himself at odd with loyalists to the Crown. When Charles I left Oxford,
the college was forced to accept Parliamentary visitors and men of Puritan
politics and religious sympathies.[v]
The death of Bacon as it has
been recounted is bizarre. He had the idea that snow might be used to preserve
meat. After buying a gutted chicken in Highgate Hill he became cold and
feverish before being able to find shelter. He took refuge at the Earl of
Arundel’s house in Highgate and remained in bed there for two or three days.
Subsequently he died either from pneumonia or infection caused by the raw
chicken meat.[vi]
John Underhill would go on
to marry the Viscountess of St. Alban (1592-1650), the recent widow of Sir
Francis Bacon (1561-1626). They married each other on April 10, 1626 at St.
Martin’s-in-the-Fields, a scarce eleven days after Sir Francis’ death. [vii]
This is also the same place Francis Bacon had been baptized sixty-five years
previously.[viii]
The two are reputed to have maintained a relationship for some time. Underhill
was later knighted for unknown services only two months later. [ix]
The Viscountess separated from Underhill a few short years later in 1639 and
lived the rest of her life mainly with her mother who had been married four
times herself. [x]
She died on June 29, 1650. Sir John Underhill was laid to rest on April 14,
1679, at St. Gile’s-in-the-Fields Church in London.
[i]
Thomas Underhill Edward Underhill John
Underhill
[iii]
Life of Alice Barnham Wife of Sir Francis Bacon By Alice Chambers Bunten,
(2003, Kessinger Publishing)
[vii]
G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday,
Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland,
Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new
ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester,
U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XI, page 285. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
[ix]
Daniel R. Coquillette, Francis Bacon (Stanford University Press, 1992)
[x]
Who's who in Shakespeare's England By Veronica Palmer (1999, Palgrave
Macmillan). p.8.
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