Old Gorhambury House

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Old Gorhambury House located near St Albans, Hertfordshire, England is an Elizabethan mansion, built in 1563-8 by Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, and twice visited by Queen Elizabeth.^[1]

The house was built partly from bricks taken from the old Abbey buildings at St Albans, then in process of demolition following the Benedictine priory's dissolution some 25 years earlier.^[2] It was used as a residence by his youngest son, the polymath (scientist, philosopher, 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 the Lord Keeper.

The estate passed in 1652 to Anne's second husband Sir Harbottle Grimston, Master of the Rolls and Speaker in the Convention Parliament of 1660. The estate is owned by the Grimston family to the present day, having been passed via Harbottle Grimston's son Samuel, who died childless in 1700, to his great-nephew William Luckyn, who in turn became the first Viscount Grimston in 1719.^[3]

Towards the end of the 18th century, in 1777-84, a new building was built nearby (the current Palladian-style Gorhambury House, designed by Sir Robert Taylor and commissioned by James Bucknall Grimston, 3rd Viscount Grimston). Old Gorhambury House itself was left to fall into ruin. The surviving remains include a two-storey porch, chapel and clock tower.^[4]