Bacon

This most interesting surname has two possible interpretations, both of Germanic origin. It may be a metonymic occupational name for someone who prepared and sold cured pork, a pork butcher, from the Old French, Middle English "bacun, bacon", bacon, ham (of Germanic origin). The name, according to another source may derive from the Germanic personal name "Bac(c)o", "Bahho", from the root "bag", to fight, which was common among the Normans in the form "Bacus", "Bacon". Hence, the name was probably introduced into England by the Normans after the Conquest of 1066. "Documents illustrative of the Social and Economic History of the Danelaw", records one Richard Bacun in Lincolnshire in 1150, while Nicholas Bachun was mentioned in Staffordshire in 1226, in the "Abstracts of the Contents of the Burton Chartulary". Interesting namebearers, recorded in the "Dictionary of National Biography", include Lady Ann Bacon (1528 - 1610), who was governess to Edward V1 and mother of Sir Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626), first Baron Verulam, the English philosopher, statesman and essayist, who described the inductive method of reasoning. The Coat of Arms most associated with the name Bacon is a red shield, on a silver chief, three black mullets (knight spurs) pierced. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Bacun, which was dated circa 1150, in the "Chartulary of Staffordshire", during the reign of King Stephen, known as "The Count of Blois", 1135 - 1154. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.