Orville Ward Owen

Owen's "cipher wheel" was a device for quickly collating printed pages from the works of Shakespeare, Francis Bacon, and other authors, combining passages that appeared to have some connection with key words or phrases.

When the queen discovered that her son had written Hamlet, Bacon's movements were restricted "circumscribing the free scope of that mighty intellect, and forcing the hiding of its best work under masks and cipher, only to be revealed three hundred years later".

Owen also uncovered two new plays by Bacon, The tragical historie of our late brother Robert, earl of Essex and The historical tragedy of Mary queen of Scots.

Owen was led to the belief that original manuscripts were hidden in iron boxes buried beneath or close to the River Wye at Chepstow Castle.

Although Owen failed to find any evidence of the vault or boxes, he did discover the remains of a Roman bridge near the castle, and a previously unrecorded medieval water cistern.

[7][8] Owen died a "bedridden almost penniless invalid", full of regret for sacrificing his career, reputation and health on the "Baconian controversy" and warning admirers to learn by his example and avoid it.