R.BaconArticle

The planemaker “R. BACON” is Richard Bacon, born Oct. 3, 1733 in Wrentham, MA. He married in Providence, RI in April, 1760, but was probably living there for several years before his marriage. Richard Bacon is called a “chaisemaker” in Providence land deeds from 1762 and 1763. During his stay in Providence, he also made wooden planes for sale.

I have in my collection two R. BACON molding planes that have an owner’s name written in early inked script. The name on the planes is “E. Eddy.” This is Esek Eddy, a shipwright who worked in Providence from 1752 through 1780. Esek Eddy and Richard Bacon were neighbors, both living in the west side neighborhood around Pastor Snow’s church. My research into Eddy family genealogy shows no Eddys other than Esek who could have signed the Bacon planes. Also, I compared the “E. Eddy” signature on the planes with the Providence shipwright’s signature on two original Petitions to the Rhode Island General Assembly. The signatures on the two planes and on the petitions are the same. Because of Eddy’s early working dates (1752-1780) and because he worked only in Providence, he was the first owner of my two Bacon planes; and the maker of the planes had to be Richard Bacon, born 1733, because there were no other Bacons in Providence before 1863 with a first name beginning with the letter R.

Emil Pollak in his “Plane Talk” journal [Vol. XI, No. 4, 1987] reports a group of seven R. BACON molding planes that were found together with three JO, FULLER planes (the D1 imprint). He describes the Bacon planes as “10 inches long, made of birch, with flat chamfers, unmarked irons, and slightly relieved wedges.” I have not seen these planes, but Pollak’s description matches eleven other R. BACON planes I have either examined or seen pictures of. It is my conclusion that most, if not all, of the R. BACON planes that have been found were made before 1763. If R. BACON planes are earlier than Fuller planes, Pollak’s 1987 report is yet more evidence that the plane maker Bacon was working in Providence. The seven R. BACON molding planes reported by Pollak would have first been purchased by a Providence tradesman, and then passed on to another local user who added the Fuller planes.

Information on Richard Bacon’s life in the Town of Providence is sparse. He was married at the age of 26 on April 3, 1760 to Margaret Chipman, a marriage performed by the Rev. Joseph Snow in his west side church. Margaret died a year later, followed shortly by the death of their child. Land deed evidence shows Bacon working in Providence in 1762-3 as a “chaisemaker,” a maker of light horse drawn carriages. His house and shop were across the street from Pastor Snow’s west side church which was the focal point of a neighborhood bustling with tradesman activity. He was literate, because in 1762 when the Providence Library Society reopened after a 1758 fire, he was one of 61 new proprietors who joined with the original proprietors. His surviving planes are consistent in their detailing and show a refinement that is lacking in the work of Jonathan Ballou, a contemporary Providence planemaker. Ballou, self-described as a “shop joiner,” had his shop on the west side of Providence, near the “Great Bridge” that divided the town, but he lived on the east side of the town and was not part of Pastor Snow’s west side church or the close knit neighborhood that surrounded it. Richard Bacon was an integral part of this neighborhood and the many carpenters and housewrights who lived there would surely have availed themselves of the quality wooden planes that he could offer.

Richard Bacon’s parents were James and Mercy Bacon, both born in Wrentham, MA, James on Oct. 28, 1700 and Mercy on June 2, 1706. Mercy was born Mercy Man, the daughter of Samuel and Zipporah (Billings) Man. Mercy’s twin brother, Samuel Man, was married in Wrentham on Dec. 1, 1736 to Mehitabel Nicholson, the daughter of the planemaker Francis Nicholson. Mehitabel Nicholson, born in 1710, was two years older than her brother, the planemaker John Nicholson, who was born in 1712. When Francis Nicholson made out his Will in April, 1752, he left part of his estate to “my dearly beloved daughter, Mehitable Man.” Another of Mercy’s brothers is Beriah Man, born in 1708. Beriah Mann married Kezia Ware in 1732-3. Kezia Ware is the first cousin of both Sarah Ware, Francis Nicholson’s second wife, and Mary Ware, his third wife. And Kezia Ware is the second cousin once removed of Mercy Ware, John Nicholson’s second wife. Beriah Mann is most likely the “B. MAN” who stamped his name prominently on the toe of both an F. NICHOLSON and an I. NICHOLSON plow plane. Richard DeAvila in a 1983 issue of “Plane Talk” [Vol. VIII, No. 3] was the first to suggest that the “B. MAN” mark on his I. NICHOLSON plow plane might be more than just an owner’s mark; that it might in fact signify that Beriah Man worked for John Nicholson.

Richard Bacon was the third son of James and Mercy Bacon. An older brother, Elijah, born 1730 in Wrentham, learned the carpentry trade there and then moved to Providence, RI by 1752, when he is described in a land deed as a housewright. Richard Bacon must also have learned his trade in Wrentham, starting sometime around 1747, when he would have been 14 years old. Whether his training was at the hands of a shop joiner or a toolmaker, he learned well enough to pursue the challenging trade of chaisemaking when he settled in Providence. As for his toolmaking, the evidence of the wooden planes he made in Providence is that during his upbringing in Wrentham he had a great deal of exposure to a settled tradition of successful plane making. He may have been directly connected to this tradition through a work relationship with the planemaker John Nicholson, who was 35 years old in 1747. Or perhaps he worked with an uncle or a neighbor who had worked for either Francis or John Nicholson. With close family ties between the Nicholsons and the Bacons, a young Richard Bacon had plenty of opportunity to learn the secrets of plane making.

I have either examined, or seen close up pictures of, eleven R. BACON planes. They all are carefully made, with workmanship that shows a practiced hand. Nothing about them suggests the maker was improvising as the tool was being made. Of the eleven planes, eight are 10 inch molding planes, all but one birch, the one exception being beech. They all have 1/4 inch flat chamfering along the top edge, the chamfering slightly more on the sides than the top. The flat chamfering continues onto the ends of the plane, not quite reaching the mid point before ending with a shallow step out, that starts a tapered gouge cut below. The length of the tapered gouge cut varies from 5/16 inches to 3/4 inches, with most of the planes showing a 1/2 inch taper. The step out is slightly tipped down on two of the planes, but straight on all the others. Seven of the molding planes and a rabbet plane have original wedges that are identical, the oval shaped finial being of average size and with a slight relief to the back. The three planes that are not molding planes are a 12 1/2 inch rabbet plane, a 14 inch tongue plane, and an 8 inch coffin shaped smoothing plane. All three are birch, and two of the three (the coffin shaped smoother is worn on the ends) have chamfering and gouge cuts similar to that on the molding planes. The wedges on the tongue plane and the coffin shaped smoother have round tops, nicely chamfered, and the handle on the tongue plane is an open handle with vertical grain and a thick waist.

The style and detailing of the Bacon planes is close to what is seen on some of John Nicholson’s IN CUMBERLAND planes and on most of his later planes marked I. NICHOLSON / IN / WRENTHAM. The detailing on John Nicholson’s planes evolved over time, from the classic Wrentham style featuring very wide chamfers, elongated lamb’s tongue chamfer ends and small rounded wedge finials to a style that is both more restrained and less consistent. More restrained in that the chamfer widths narrow and the chamfer end gouge cuts are now shorter and more symmetrical, and with wedge finials that are better proportioned, showing a slight relief on the back side; less consistent in that there is often variation in detailing from one plane to the next, suggesting that different hands may have been involved in making John Nicholson’s later planes.

Richard Bacon probably moved from Wrentham to Providence shortly after he turned 21 in 1754. There he would have joined his older brother Elijah who had just married in Providence and was working there as a successful housewright. It may have taken Richard Bacon a couple of years after arriving in Providence to find solid footing as a toolmaker and a chaisemaker, but there are enough R. BACON planes that survive today to suggest that the art of plane making was something Bacon brought to Providence, not something that he learned there. Bacon lived in Providence for perhaps 7 or 8 years and I believe his plane making extended over all those years.

By December, 1762, Richard Bacon, age 29, had left Providence and the Rhode Island Colony. This is made clear by a Town of Providence property transfer deed dated July 17, 1763. The deed says that Bacon’s property has been sold at public auction by authority of an “Act for making the real estates, of persons that have left this Colony or conceal themselves therein _ _ _, liable to the payments of debts.” Richard Bacon lost his property because of a suit brought in the Providence County Inferior Court of Common Pleas by Adam DeChezeau of Boston, tin plate worker, against Bacon for non payment of debt. Bacon being in debt may have been a contributing factor to his leaving town, but it may not have been the only reason or even the main reason. He had a trade and had integrated himself into the close knit west side neighborhood of Providence, both of which could have helped him with money problems. Despite countless hours trying to discover the reason for his leaving, I don’t have an answer. Nor do I know where Bacon went when he left Providence; and his life from 1763 to 1767 remains a mystery.

In March, 1768, Richrd Bacon shows up living in the Illinois Country, the area between the Wabash River and the Mississippi River that was ceded to the British by the French at the conclusion of the French and Indian War in 1763. The Illinois Country in 1768 was a wide open frontier area, with a predominantly French speaking people and a strong Indian presence. After the British took control of the area, the first important American merchant to establish himself there was George Morgan, from Philadelphia. He came to the area because of the promise of profitable trade, but he soon took up farming after acquiring 14 acres of land in payment for a debt owned him by a local French inhabitant. In setting up his 14 acre farm, Morgan formed a Copartnership with Richard Bacon, who was to manage the farm for Morgan. For his part, Bacon would erect a log house on the farm, and would build barns, fencing, and other needed structures and he would manage the livestock and oversee the planting and harvesting of the crops. Morgan for his part would furnish the land, the livestock, and the seeds. The two men would share in the annual profits of the farm. [authors note: I would like to thank the plane researcher Will Steere who found Richard Bacon in the Illinois Country and steered me to a trial transcript which I describe below.]

The Copartnership agreement was signed on March 21, 1768 and includes language that reads: “Richard Bacon late of Providence in New England now residing in the Illinois.” The copartnership lasted through the latter part of 1770, when there was a falling out between the partners, resulting in a trial before a local military Court of Inquiry, with Richard Bacon bringing charges against Morgan, claiming that he had violated the terms of their agreement. The Court ruled against Richard Bacon, but the trial transcript, which survives today, provides a fascinating look into the frontier life of the two partners, men so very different, yet both intelligent, strong willed individuals.

George Morgan, in a 1769 letter home to his wife in Philadelphia, talks about the prospects for his Illinois farm and refers to his partner, Richard Bacon, as a “former batteauman.” The term batteauman or boatman was familiar to Morgan because he had organized the shipping by boat of trading goods from Fort Pitt (today’s Pittsburgh) to the Illinois Country. The route was down the Ohio river and then up the Mississippi to the Illinois Country and the goods were carried in flat bottomed square ended boats that were built for river traffic. If we are to believe Morgan, Richard Bacon was working on one of these small river boats before he entered into the farm partnership.

Richard Bacon was 37 years old when he had his falling out with Morgan in late 1770. He was still young and had acquired valuable knowledge of farming. Also, the trial transcript shows him to be a highly capable and self confident individual, the type of man best able to succeed in the wide open world of the frontier. I do not know if Bacon stayed in the Illinois Country, or if he moved to another part of the frontier to seek his fortune. Frontier record keeping is almost nonexistent and without land or probate deed evidence, it is difficult to track him.

A couple of things hint at the possibility that Richard Bacon may have moved back to New England at some point after 1770 and resumed his plane making activity. Tom Elliott’s book, AWP4 [2001], says that several R. BACON “planes came out of the Windham Co., CT area,” bordering on western RI. And the same book reports a R. BACON “24 inch birch jointer with centered handle and heavy round chamfers.” As for a possible Windham Co. connection, I have found no records that place Richard Bacon (born 1733) in Windham Co. There were lots of Bacons living in Windham Co. in the late 18th century, but they were from a different branch of the Bacon family tree. It is not surprising that R. BACON planes would be found in Windham Co., CT. There was a lively commerce between Windham Co. and the Providence area in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with many people moving back and forth between the two areas. The plane maker Joseph Fuller made the move c1772, and the three Bacon brothers, Henry and David, chairmakers, and Abner, a “joiner’s toolmaker,” had all settled in Providence, Henry coming before 1761, David before 1767, and Abner before 1790. When Richard Bacon (born 1733) was living in Providence, he lived and worked in the same neighborhood as the chairmaker Henry Bacon (born 1722) who came from Canterbury, CT.   Richard Bacon left Providence before Joseph Fuller arrived, but Richard Bacon’s tool making footprint was all over the west side Providence neighborhood where Joseph Fuller set up shop. Everywhere Fuller turned when he first arrived in Providence, he would have seen planes that had been made by Richard Bacon. Not finding any evidence that Richard Bacon (born 1733) ever lived in Windham Co., CT, I have to conclude that any R. BACON planes found there result from the early back and forth migration of people (especially craftsmen) between the two areas. As for the reported “24 inch birch jointer,” with the R. BACON mark, I have not seen this plane, nor do I know where it was found. If the report is accurate and this plane has a centered handle and heavy round chamfers, this would mean that either Richard Bacon had resumed his plane making activity sometime after 1790 or that someone else had acquired and used his plane maker stamp. I have found no evidence that Bacon resumed his plane making in the 1790s, but its possible. I keep an open mind, because in truth, after 1770 I don’t have any idea what happened to Richard Bacon.