BACON, Joshua Butters (1790-1863) — London
Engraver & printer. For work undertaken as ‘Perkins & Bacon’ and ‘Perkins, Bacon & Petch’, see the entry for Jacob Perkins.
Born at Boston, Massachusetts, 25 Apr 1790, the son of Josiah Bacon (1760?-1831) and his wife Dorothy. He married Sarah Ann Perkins (1793-1859), daughter of Jacob Perkins, with whom he had a number of children, at Boston 2 Apr 1817. Having moved to London, he testified at the Old Bailey 19 Feb 1823, stating that he was employed by Jacob Perkins, Charles Heath, and George Thomas Heath of Fleet Street, concerning the theft of over £200 by an American employee called Joel or Samuel Dutcher. He became a partner in ‘Perkins & Bacon’ in 1829. Granted a patent relating to steam apparatus in Aug 1836. Baptised as an adult at St. Andrew Holborn 5 Dec 1839. He was elected a churchwarden for St. Pancras in 1840. He testified at the Old Bailey again in a banknote forgery case 1 Feb 1841. Despite Bacon’s testimony, an employee named Thomas Munt was acquitted of stealing 100 spoiled prints at another Old Bailey trial 30 Jan 1843. Documents relating to legal cases in which Bacon was among the defendants in 1849 and 1857 in NA. In 1851, he was recorded as a postage stamp engraver, resident with his wife, three children, a brother-in-law, two nephews — one of them, Angier Greenleaf Perkins (1832-1871), his pupil — and two servants. Granted a patent for “improvements in machinery for manufacturing horse-shoe nails” 9 Sep 1857. The 1861 census records him now as a widower employing 116 men and six boys. He died at home 7 Oct 1863 and was buried at Kensal Green, where a monument survives, 13 Oct 1863. His will, declaring effects of under £7,000, was granted probate 25 Oct 1863. His son Jacob Perkins Bacon (1821-1890) was also an engraver, becoming a partner in the business and specialising in banknote work.
— 9 Regent Square, Gray’s Inn Road (home) — 1836-1851
68 Fleet Street — 1829-1863
— 28 Brunswick Square (home) — 1857
— 44 Mecklenburgh Square (home) — 1859-1863
BNA. Census 1841-1861. LG. LHD. NA. OB.