Her mother, Dorothy, or Dorothea (d. 1639), was the daughter of Humphrey Ambrose Smith, an important Cheapside mercer and the official purveyor of silks and velvets to Queen Elizabeth.

And if it happen that the same Alice doe die and unmarried then I give the same lease to Elizabeth my eldest daughter, etc.Her mother was also left well off, with legacies of land and plate, and quickly remarried, to Sir John Pakington of Worcestershire, 22 November 1598.

He owned several estates that hosted royalty, including King James I of England on his way from Scotland to take possession of the English throne in 1603.

Bacon's letters begin mention of Alice Barnham, 3 July 1603, an Alderman's daughter, an handsome maiden to my liking, when she was only eleven.

They were engaged three years, and married 10 May 1606, before Alice turned fourteen, at St Marylebone's Chapel, a suburb to the North of London, with the reception at the Strand estate.

However, early in the marriage, Bacon had money to spare, "pouring jewels in her lap", and spending large sums on decorations.

In 1621, Bacon, by now styled as Viscount St Albans, was accused of taking bribes, heavily fined, and removed from Parliament and all offices.

Reports of increasing friction in the marriage appeared, with speculation that some of this may have also been due to financial resources not being as abundantly available to Alice as she was accustomed to in the past.

Their petition to court stated that Bacon had tricked Underhill "who was an almost totally deaf man, and by reason of the weakness of his eyes and the infirmity in his head, could not read writings of that nature without much pain," to sign a paper not knowing what it contained.