b. estimated 1055-1138 -- Normandy, France
The Bacon clan originated with a Norman knight named Grimbaldus, a relative (relationship not documented) of William the Conqueror (possibly in the clan of Ranulf, to whom William's illegitimate cousin, Alix of Normandy married. This is a guess based only upon a commonality of given names in subsequent generations with those in Ranulf's ancestry). Grimbaldus settled near Letheringsett in Norfolk, England after the Battle of Hastings in A.D 1066. Letheringsett means literally "Leather settlement", and there is some indication that Grimbaldus was a tanner, as were, coincidentally, members of William the Conqueror's Mother's (Arletta's) family.
The family adopted the name "de Beccen Thorpe", later "Beccen" and finally "Bacon" in a few generations. The beccen thorpe (literally: "Beech Tree Village") was founded near Letheringsett as a resettlement of displaced Saxons who were burned out of their homes when William Rufus (the Conqueror's son) had the first 2 miles of coastline burned, to discourage the expected Danish invasion in 1087, which never came. The Normans who administered the region owed a knight service to organize and administer the new village's affairs, and Ranulf (Grimbaldus' third son) took that duty. His son, Roger, assumed the title: Roger de Beccen Thorpe.
Grimbaldus 