On this day in history, 27th August 1610, Lady Anne Bacon (née Cooke), mother of Sir Francis Bacon, was laid to rest at St Michael’s Church, near St Albans. She was in her early eighties when she died.

Anne was the second daughter of the humanist scholar Sir Anthony Cooke, and the wife of Sir Nicholas Bacon, who served Elizabeth I as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. The couple had two children together, Tudor spy Anthony Bacon and politician, philosopher, author and scientist Francis Bacon, Viscount St Alban.