Richard Mackenzie Bacon

Richard Mackenzie Bacon (1775–1844) was an English Whig journalist, musician, and miscellaneous writer.

He was born at Norwich in or about 1775, and educated at the free school there. He became connected with the Norwich Mercury, one of the leading provincial Whig newspapers. opinion, in his eighteenth year. From 1816, when he took over from his father, until his death, he was engaged in editing it, as principal proprietor. He corresponded with the radical Edward Harbord, 3rd Baron Suffield. In 1831 he wrote an open letter supporting a reform bill, but he opposed dividing the Norfolk constituency.

Bacon began as a printer. In partnership with John Gilbert and Francis Noverre (his brother-in-law) from 1807, he installed a Fourdrinier machine to make paper at Taverham mill. The venture was unsuccessful, and the partnership was dissolved in 1812. In 1813 Bacon and Bryan Donkin obtained a patent for improvements in printing, from types, from blocks, or plates. In the Norwich Mercury of 30 November 1814 is a prospectus of Bacon's printing machine, with an account of the progress it had then made. The invention was praised in the article "Printing" in Rees's Cyclopædia (1819).

Bacon was also the proprietor and projector of the Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review, which he began to publish in London in 1818, and continued to edit to 1828. It was mainly owing to his efforts that the Norwich Musical Festival was established. William Chappell remarked on his knowledge of traditional songs.

Bacon died at Costessey, near Norwich, 27 November 1844.

His main works are:

Bacon married Jane Louisa Noverre in 1797. She was the daughter of Augustine Noverre, a French dancer who came to England in 1775. Of their children:

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

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