session 1904-1905. 
lxix 
expressed on behalf of the three Societies the indebtedness to his 
Lordship of all who were present for the privilege which he had 
accorded to them, and Lord Verulam replied that he was not 
certain that he was really the person to be thanked, for his visitors 
had given him a very pleasant afternoon. 
Mr. Ashdown then conducted the party to the site of the former 
mansion, where he gave a history of the estate and of the residences 
which had been erected at Gorhambury, which he stated were four. 
In the reign of Henry III, the Park, he said, was in the possession 
of William de Gorham, then of his widow Cicely, and afterwards of 
John de Gorham and of Laurence de Broke, whose name was per¬ 
petuated in a clump of trees known as Broke Wood. From 1395 
to the Beformation it was possessed by the Abbots of St. Albans, 
thus being closely connected with the history of the Abbey. 
At the Beformation the estate passed into the hands of the King 
(Henry VIII), who gave it to Balph Bowlatt in 1541. In 1561 it 
was sold by Balph Maynard, who married one of Bowlatt’s 
daughters, to Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. 
His son, Sir Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Alban, who also held the 
title of Lord Verulam but never of Lord Bacon, conveyed it to 
trustees, to the use, after his death, of Sir Thomas Meautys, who 
had married Sir Nathaniel Bacon’s daughter, and from whom it 
devolved upon his brother Henry who sold it to Sir Harbottle 
Grimston who had married the widow of Sir Thomas Meautys. 
Sir Harbottle’s son, Sir Samuel Grimston, bequeathed the manor 
and estate to his grand-nephew, William Luckyn, on condition of 
his taking the name and Arms of Grimston, and from him they 
have passed by descent to their present possessor. 
The first mansion of Gorhambury was built, Mr. Ashdown said, 
by Bobert de Gorham, an Abbot of St. Albans, in the reign of King 
Stephen. It was near the present lower gate lodge, and when, in 
1826, the Hon. Charlotte Grimston wrote her history of Gorhambury, 
distinct traces were visible of a circular tower and a large 
quadrangle. The mansion around the ruins of which the party 
were assembled was built by Sir Nicholas Bacon between 1563 and 
1568. The present ruins constituted only a small portion of the 
original house, for in front of them there had been a large 
courtyard with apartments on three sides of it of which not 
a vestage remains. Queen Elizabeth visited Sir Nicholas here in 
1571, 1573, and 1577. Upon the death of his widow, Lady Ann 
Bacon, Gorhambury passed to Francis. It was then partly in ruins, 
and when Sir Francis Bacon became Lord Chancellor, in 1618, it 
was uninhabited. The water-supply failing, Sir Francis built a 
house near the Pondyards, which he called Verulam House, but he 
seldom resided there, preferring his London residence. 
The Pondyards were then visited, and Mr. Ashdown pointed out 
what he believed to be the site of Verulam House. 
