Bacon was either born on the Isle of Man or at his parents' earlier home in Whitehaven, a port town in Cumberland, after which they moved to the island.

[3] By 1741, Bacon had married and was publishing the biweekly Dublin Mercury, possibly with the help of his wife or his elder half-brother William, as well as auctioning goods and operating a coffeehouse.

Himself a slaveowner, beginning in 1749, Bacon published several sermons lecturing masters about the benefits of extending religion to their slaves, and grave consequences should they fail to fulfill their duties.

[6] Like Alexander Garden and George Whitefield, Bacon reassured slaveowners that religious principles upheld their earthly authority over their slaves.

In 1750, Bacon published a pamphlet and began a subscription to provide a school for free, manual training for children without regard to race, sex, or status.

He solicited subscribers from other colonies, giving several concerts in Maryland and Delaware and even traveling to Williamsburg, Virginia the following year to raise funds.

In 1753, Bacon served as clerk for the gathering of Maryland clergy, and during the following years acted as a moderating influence in several political disputes involving the Rev.

However, in that war, Bacon lost his only son, John, who as a lieutenant commanding troops from Annapolis, was killed and scalped near Fort Cumberland.

After her death, in the mid-1750s, the widower clergyman was involved in a scandal, with a spinster mulatto woman named Beck, who accused him of being the father of her child.

John Belchier, and after the couple moved to Philadelphia, Elizabeth learned that her husband was an adventurer and bigamist (having left a wife in England) so she returned home and married the widower Bacon.

His daughter Elizabeth moved to England to become a servant to his brother Anthony's wife, and both Rachel and Mary ultimately married and remained in the colony.

Like Bacon, Meade attempted to justify both the education of African Americans to slaveowners (who preferred illiteracy) as well as slavery (emphasizing the "organic ties" between rich and poor, powerful and powerless who all were to fulfill the responsibilities associated with their particular station in life).