During the whole of this period Bacon was in monetary difficulties, and yet there is no evidence that he was living a life of dissipation or even of extravagance. On the contrary, all testimony would point to the conclusion that he was following the path of a strictly moral and studious young man. On his return to England he took lodgings in Coney Court, Grays Inn. There Anthony found him when he returned from abroad.
There are no data upon which to form any reliable opinion as to the amount of his income at this time. Rawley states that Sir Nicholas Bacon had collected a considerable sum of money which he had separated with intention to have made a competent purchase of land for the livelihood of his youngest son, but the purchase being unaccomplished at his death, Francis received only a fifth portion of the money dividable, by which means he lived in some straits and necessities in his younger years. It is not clear whether the "money dividable" was only that separated by Sir Nicholas, or whether he left other sums which went to augment the fund divisible amongst the brothers. His other children were well provided for. Francis was not, however, without income. Sir Nicholas had left certain manors, etc., in Herts to his sons Anthony and Francis in tail male, remainder to himself and his heirs. Lady Ann Bacon had vested an estate called Markes, in Essex, in Francis, and there is a letter, dated 16th April, 1593, from Anthony to his mother urging her to concur in its sale, so that the proceeds might be applied to the relief of his brother's financial position.[21]
Lady Bacon lived at Gorhambury. She was not extravagant, and yet in 1589 she was so impoverished that Captain Allen, in writing to Anthony, speaking of his mother, Lady Bacon, says she "also saith her jewels be spent for you, and that she borrowed the last money of seven several persons." Whatever her resources were, they had by then been exhausted for her sons. Anthony was apparently a man of considerable means. He was master of the manor and priory of Redburn, of the manor of Abbotsbury, Minchinbury and Hores, in the parish of Barley, in the county of Hertford; of the Brightfirth wood, Merydan-meads, and Pinner-Stoke farms, in the county of Middlesex.[22]
But within a few years after his return to England Anthony was borrowing money wherever he could. Mother and brother appear to have exhausted their resources and their borrowing capabilities. There is an account showing that in eighteen months, about 1593, Anthony lent Francis £373, equivalent to nearly £3,000 at to-day's value. In 1597 Francis was arrested by the sheriff for a debt of £300, for which a money-lender had obtained judgment against him, and he was cast into the Tower. Where had all the money gone? There is no adequate explanation.
The first letter of Francis Bacon's which Spedding met with, to which reference has already been made, is dated 11th July, 1580, to Mr. Doylie, and is of little importance. The six letters which follow—all there are between 1580 and 1590[23]—relate to one subject, and are of great significance. The first is dated from Grays Inn, 16th September, 1580, to Lady Burghley. In it young Francis, now 19 years of age, makes this request: "That it would please your Ladyship in your letters wherewith you visit my good Lord to vouchsafe the mention and recommendation of my suit; wherein your Ladyship shall bind me more unto you than I can look ever to be able to sufficiently acknowledge."
The next letter—written on the same day—is addressed to Lord Burghley. Its object is thus set forth:—
"My letter hath no further errand but to commend unto your Lordship the remembrance of my suit which then I moved unto you, whereof it also pleased your Lordship to give me good hearing so far forth as to promise to tender it unto her Majesty, and withal to add in the behalf of it that which I may better deliver by letter than by speech, which is, that although it must be confessed that the request is rare and unaccustomed, yet if it be observed how few there be which fall in with the study of the common laws either being well left or friended, or at their own free election, or forsaking likely success in other studies of more delight and no less preferment, or setting hand thereunto early without waste of years upon such survey made, it may be my case may not seem ordinary, no more than my suit, and so more beseeming unto it. As I force myself to say this in excuse of my motion, lest it should appear unto your Lordship altogether undiscreet and unadvised, so my hope to obtain it resteth only upon your Lordship's good affection towards me and grace with her Majesty, who methinks needeth never to call for the experience of the thing, where she hath so great and so good of the person which recommendeth it."
What was this suit? Spedding cannot suggest any explanation. He says: "What the particular employment was for which he hoped I cannot say; something probably connected with the service of the Crown, to which the memory of his father, an old and valued servant prematurely lost, his near relationship to the Lord Treasurer, and the personal notice which he had himself received from the Queen, would naturally lead him to look.... The proposition, whatever it was, having been explained to Burghley in conversation, is only alluded to in these letters. It seems to have been so far out of the common way as to require an apology, and the terms of the apology imply that it was for some employment as a lawyer. And this is all the light I can throw upon it." Subsequently Spedding says the motion was one[24] "which would in some way have made it unnecessary for him to follow 'a course of practice,' meaning, I presume, ordinary practice at the Bar."