Anthony Bacon (industrialist)

Anthony Bacon (baptised 24 January 1716 – 21 January 1786) was an English-born merchant and industrialist who was significantly responsible for the emergence of Merthyr Tydfil as the iron-smelting centre of Britain.

Bacon was born at St Bees near Whitehaven in Cumberland, the youngest son of William Bacon, a ship's captain trading in coal from that port to Ireland. His eldest full brother was Thomas and his father also had a son William from his first marriage.

The family claimed descent from Sir Nicholas Bacon (1540–1624); however, since very little is known about his ancestry and upbringing, the connection may be spurious or illegitimate. Nicholas Bacon was Member of Parliament for Beverley (1563–1567) and Suffolk (1572–1583) (as one of the two knights representing the county) and ancestor of the Bacon baronets. Sir Nicholas Bacon was the eldest (half) brother of Sir Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St. Albans and Baron Verulam, and the eldest son of Nicholas Bacon (1509–1579), a prominent Elizabethan politician.

Following the death of both his parents, William Bacon and Elizabeth Richardson, Anthony moved to Talbot County Maryland to live with his maternal uncles, tobacco merchants Thomas and Anthony Richardson. He became a merchant and mariner, expanding the business to include Virginia and the import of Spanish wine. During the Seven Years' War Bacon became a government contractor for shipping and victualling in partnership with London merchant William Biggin, also from Whitehaven.

In 1738, Bacon became master of the ship York, a tobacco trade vessel owned by John Hanbury. In 1740, under contract from Andrew Reid esq. and in accordance with the Transportation Act 1717, Bacon used this ship to transport 115 convicted felons (women, men and children) from Newgate Prison in London to the Province of Maryland where they were sold for a 7 to 14-year penal transportation sentence.

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