On 1 May 1614, she married
Nathaniel Bacon, of
Culford, Suffolk, seventh (or ninth) son of
Sir Nathaniel Bacon of Culford and
Redgrave, High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk. As the widow of a knight, she continued to be addressed by her title of "Lady Cornwallis" until Bacon himself was made a
Knight of the Bath in February, 1626. Bacon was the nephew of the statesman and philosopher
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, and wealthy, but took his painting very seriously, and is now mainly remembered for this. He died at only forty-two in 1627. The couple lived at Brome Hall in Suffolk (demolished in 1958), a Cornwallis property that Lady Cornwallis held in trust for her minor son, Frederick. and she wrote to Lady Jane Cornwallis, hoping that her father-in-law, Nicholas Bacon of Redgrave might have such pictures. She would pay handsomely, and offered to have faithful copies made as substitutes for the originals.
Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel was a competitor for old paintings. It is not clear from the letters if any old portraits changed hands. Jane's son by her first marriage, Frederick Cornwallis, married Elizabeth Ashburnham, daughter of Sir John Ashburnham and
Elizabeth Villiers, at court in January 1631. His mother did not attend because she was offended by some misdemeanour of his. Ashburnham's cousin,
Susan Feilding, Countess of Denbigh, wrote to Bacon mentioning "her family be unfortunate", meaning their financial difficulty since her father's death in 1620.
Dorothy Randolph, a close friend and Meautys family cousin, had helped to arrange Frederick's marriage by searching for suitable partners. Randolph also sent news from London, and (much quoted) fashion advice for spring 1632;"I have sent you some patterns of stuff such as is worn by many, but not much lace upon those wrought stuffs; but the newest fashion is plain satin, of what colour one will, emboidered all over with 'alcomedes' (jewels and stones), but it is not like to hold past summer. They wear white satin waistcoats, plain, raised, printed, and some embroidered with lace, more than any one thing, and white Holland (linen) ones much". In 1639 her daughter Anne Bacon married
Thomas Meautys, despite the efforts of Philip Wodehouse who wrote poems to her. Anne later married
Harbottle Grimston. Another daughter Jane Bacon died young. She was the grandmother
Charles Cornwallis, 2nd Baron Cornwallis. Jane, Lady Bacon died at Culford on 8 May 1659. In 1657 she had contracted with
Thomas Stanton at
St Andrew Holborn for her marble monument at Culford, agreeing the design with a drawing. A painting in
Government House, Sydney was recently identified as a portrait of Jane Cornwallis, attributed to her husband Nathaniel Bacon. The garden front of Brome Hall appears in the background of the painting. Rather remarkably, the painting had previously been attributed to
Angelica Kauffman, who was painting some 150 years later. She wears a bodice embroidered with flowers, and holds a floral wreath. The portrait appears to celebrate her pregnancy. ==References==