HOME



picture info

Gorhambury
Old Gorhambury House located near St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, is a ruined Elizabethan mansion, a leading and early example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. History The old house It was built in 1563–68 by Nicholas Bacon (courtier), Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, Lord Keeper, and was visited a number of times by Queen Elizabeth I of England, Queen Elizabeth I. It is a Grade I listed building. The house was built partly from bricks taken from the old St Albans Abbey, Abbey buildings at St Albans, then in process of demolition following the Benedictine priory's Dissolution of the Monasteries, dissolution some 25 years earlier. It was used as a residence by his youngest son, the polymath (scientist, philosopher, politician, statesman and essayist) Sir Francis Bacon, before being bequeathed by him to his former secretary, Sir Thomas Meautys, who married Anne Bacon, the great-granddaughter of Sir Nicholas. The estate passed in 1652 to Anne's second hu ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Gorhambury House
Gorhambury House is a Palladian architecture, Palladian-style house near St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. It was built between 1777 and 1784 to replace Old Gorhambury House, which was left to fall into ruin. It was designed by Sir Robert Taylor (architect), Robert Taylor and commissioned by James Grimston, 3rd Viscount Grimston. Grimston's son was made Earl of Verulam, and the building is currently the home of the John Grimston, 7th Earl of Verulam, 7th Earl of Verulam. Features of interest inside include a fireplace designed by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Piranesi. The house is Grade II* listed. It is a member of Historic Houses Association and is open for tours at certain times. The surrounding estate includes much of the site of the Roman city of Verulamium. References External links The Gorhambury Estate
Country houses in Hertfordshire Grade II* listed buildings in Hertfordshire Neoclassical architecture in Hertfordshire Robert Taylor buildings {{UK-lis ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Earl Of Verulam
Earl of Verulam is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1815 for James Grimston, 4th Viscount Grimston. He was made Viscount Grimston (in the peerage of the United Kingdom) at the same time. Verulam had previously represented St Albans (Roman Verulamium) in the House of Commons. In 1808 he had also succeeded his maternal cousin as tenth Lord Forrester (in the Peerage of Scotland). He was succeeded by his son, the second Earl. Grimston was a Tory politician and held minor office in the first two governments of the Earl of Derby. His son, the third Earl, represented St Albans in Parliament as a Conservative. His grandson, the sixth Earl (who succeeded his elder brother) was nominated to the traditionally safe seat of St Albans for the party. the titles are held by his son, the seventh Earl, who succeeded in 1973. The titles of Viscount Grimston and Baron Dunboyne had been created in 1719 in the Peerage of Ireland for William Grimston, Member ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Nicholas Bacon (courtier)
Sir Nicholas Bacon (28 December 1510 – 20 February 1579) was Lord Keeper of the Great Seal during the first half of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. He was the father of the philosopher and statesman Sir Francis Bacon. Life He was born at Chislehurst, Kent, the second son of Robert Bacon (1479–1548) of Drinkstone, Suffolk, by his wife Eleanor (Isabel) Cage. He graduated from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1527. The college law society at Corpus, the Nicholas Bacon Law Society, founded in 1972, is named after him. There is a story that he evaded ordination by going into hiding "with the help of a rich uncle", and he seems to have entered an Inn of Chancery before being admitted to Gray's Inn five years later after a period in Paris; he was called to the Bar in 1533. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII gave him a grant of the manors of Redgrave, Botesdale and Gislingham in Suffolk, and Gorhambury, Hertfordshire. Gorhambury be ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Robert Taylor (architect)
Sir Robert Taylor (1714 – 27 September 1788) was an English architect and sculptor who worked in London and the south of England. Early life Born at Woodford, Essex, Taylor followed in his father's footsteps and started working as a stonemason and sculptor, spending time as a pupil of Sir Henry Cheere. Despite some important commissions, including a bust of London merchant Christopher Emmott (died 1745) today held in the church of St Bartholomew, Colne, Lancashire, and another of William Phipps (died 1748), now in the parish church of Westbury, Wiltshire, he enjoyed little success and turned instead to architecture. Career Among Taylor's earliest projects was Asgill House (known then as Richmond Place), built for a wealthy banker, Sir Charles Asgill, in Richmond upon Thames (c. 1760), and nearby Oak House. Through such connections, he came to be appointed as architect to the Bank of England until his death, when he was succeeded by Sir John Soane. In 1769 he succeeded ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Prodigy House
Prodigy houses are large and showy English country houses built by courtiers and other wealthy families, either "noble palaces of an awesome scale" or "proud, ambitious heaps" according to taste. The prodigy houses stretch over the periods of Tudor architecture, Tudor, Elizabethan architecture, Elizabethan, and Jacobean architecture, though the term may be restricted to a core period of roughly 1570 to 1620. Many of the grandest were built with a view to housing Elizabeth I and her large retinue as they made their annual royal progress around her realm. Many are therefore close to major roads, often in the English Midlands. The term originates with the architectural historian Sir John Summerson, and has been generally adopted. He called them "... the most daring of all English buildings." The houses fall within the broad style of Renaissance architecture, but represent a distinctive English take on the style, mainly reliant on books for their knowledge of developments o ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


James Bucknall Grimston, 3rd Viscount Grimston
James Bucknall Grimston, 3rd Viscount Grimston (9 May 1747 – 30 December 1808) was a British peer, born the heir to his Irish peerage, and Member of Parliament whose service in Parliament for seven years led to his, and his male descendants', ennoblement into the Peerage of Great Britain. Grimston was the son of James Grimston, 2nd Viscount Grimston, and Mary Bucknall. He was educated at Eton and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He succeeded his father in the viscountcy in 1773 but as this was an Irish peerage it did not entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords. He was instead elected to the House of Commons for St Albans in 1783, a seat he held until the next year's election, where he instead stood for and represented the larger, county-level seat of Hertfordshire from 1784 to 1790. In 1790 he was created Baron Verulam, of Gorhambury in the County of Hertford, in the Peerage of Great Britain, which gave him a seat in the House of Lords. Lord Grimston married Harriot Walter (1756 ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Sir Harbottle Grimston, 2nd Baronet
Sir Harbottle Grimston, 2nd Baronet (27 January 1603 – 2 January 1685) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1685 and was Speaker in 1660. During the English Civil War he remained a Parliamentarian but was sympathetic to the Royalists. Life Grimston was born at Bradfield Hall, near Manningtree, the son of Sir Harbottle Grimston, 1st Baronet (d. 1648). He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and became a barrister of Lincoln's Inn. He was recorder of Harwich and recorder of Colchester and elected MP for Harwich in 1628. As member for Colchester, Grimston sat in the Short Parliament of 1640, and he represented the same borough during the Long Parliament, speedily becoming a leading member of the popular party. He attacked Archbishop Laud with great vigour and was a member of the important committees of the parliament, including the one appointed in consequence of the attempted seizure of the five member ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Thomas Meautys
Sir Thomas Meautys (1592–1649) was an English civil servant and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1621 and 1640. Biography Meautys was the son of Thomas Meautys of West Ham and of St Julian's Hospital, Hertfordshire, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Coningsby of North Mimms. His elder brother, Henry, was also a Member of Parliament. He became the private secretary to Francis Bacon. In 1619, he was made clerk to His Majesty's Council. He is credited, with William Rawley, as being one of two key clients of Bacon who remained loyal to the former Lord Chancellor in his disgrace. Meautys eventually paid for a funerary monument to Bacon at his gravesite in St. Albans. After Bacon's fall, Meautys became a protégé of Lord Keeper Coventry, High Steward of Cambridge from 1626 to 1640. In 1621, Meautys was made a freeman and elected an alderman of Cambridge. On the same day, he was elected Member of Parliament for Cambridge. He was a clerk of the Priv ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Cornelius Cure
Cornelius Cure (died 1607) was an English-born sculptor of Dutch parentage, being the son of the sculptor, William Cure I. His father made and installed a fountain for Nicholas Bacon at Gorhambury in September 1568. Cure lived and worked in Southwark in Surrey (now London). William Cecil, Lord Burghley recommended his appointment to replace Edward Young as royal master mason to the courtier William Killigrew, praising his skill, honesty, and knowledge of work in foreign places. Cure was appointed Master Mason of the Tower of London and the Queen's other residences on 28 June 1596. He held the office of Master Mason to both Queen Elizabeth I and King James I, originally jointly with his father. He was a popular sculptor of church monuments, such as those to Sirs Philip and Thomas Hoby, Thomas' widow, Elizabeth, Lady Russell, at Bisham in Berkshire, and Sir William Cordell at Long Melford in Suffolk. In 1606, he was commissioned to produce the great monument to Mary, Queen ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

John Grimston, 7th Earl Of Verulam
John Duncan Grimston, 7th Earl of Verulam (born 21 April 1951), styled Viscount Grimston between 1960 and 1973, is a British peer. Early life and education Grimston was born in 1951, the only son of John Grimston, 6th Earl of Verulam. He succeeded in the earldom in 1973 on the death of his father. He was educated at West Downs School and Eton. Business career For 14 years until 1996 he was a director of corporate finance at Barings Bank. He was a Managing Director of ABN-AMRO Bank from 1996 to 2000. He was a Director and Vice-Chairman of Kleinwort Benson Private Bank from 2001 to 2008. He is currently Chairman of Grimston Trust Ltd and founding partner of the Verulam Consulting group. Grimston has founded two registered charities: The Friends of St Michael's Church, and The West Herts Environmental Foundation. Marriage and children Lord Verulam married Dione Smith in 1976. They have four children:Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

St Albans
St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman Britain, Roman road of Watling Street for travellers heading north and became the city of Verulamium. It is within the London commuter belt and the Greater London Built-up Area. Name St Albans takes its name from the first British saint, Saint Alban, Alban. The most elaborate version of his story, in Bede's ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'', relates that he lived in Verulamium, sometime during the 3rd or 4th century, when Christians were suffering persecution. Alban met a Christian priest fleeing from his persecutors and sheltered him in his house, where he became so impressed with the priest's piety that he converted to Christianity. When the authorities searched Alban's house, he put on the priest's ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of natural philosophy, guided by the scientific method, and his works remained influential throughout the Scientific Revolution. Bacon has been called the father of empiricism. He argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and careful observation of events in nature. He believed that science could be achieved by the use of a sceptical and methodical approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves. Although his most specific proposals about such a method, the Baconian method, did not have long-lasting influence, the general idea of the importance and possibility of a sceptical methodology makes Bacon one of the later founders of the scientific method. His portion of the method based in ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]