Verulam House, St Albans (17th century)
Verulam House was a building in central St Albans, built by Francis Bacon to supplement his family home of Gorhambury.[1] It is named after Verulamium, the ancient Roman city of St Albans, though was not sited within its walls as John Aubrey asserted.[2]
Bacon completed it around 1617, partly motivated by a drought which starved the advanced plumbing system built at Gorhambury by his father - Bacon stated that "since he could not carry the water to his house, he would carry his house to the water".[3] He picked a site next to water gardens he had already constructed.[4] and was assisted in the designs by the father of the painter William Dobson.[2]
The main source on the house is Aubrey's Brief Lives (1669-1696)[5] It cost £9000-£10,000 and included underground larders, an underground kitchen and two rooms for Turkish baths.[5] Bacon died childless and so Gorhambury and Verulam House were both inherited by Thomas Meautys then passed to his widow Anne's second husband Sir Harbottle Grimston, who assigned it to his son George upon the latter's marriage.[2] It was occupied by George's widow after his death without issue.[2] Neglected during the English Civil War, it was demolished in 1663 or 1665-1666 and the materials sold off to two carpenters for £400, who then sold it on for double the price they had paid for it.[1][5]
References
- ^ a b Lawrence Gerald (1997). "Gorhambury, the Bacon Family and the Eight Shakespeare Quartos".
- ^ a b c d J C Rogers (1933). "The Manor and Houses of Gorhambury" (PDF). pp. 52, 57, 60–67.
- ^ "Apophthegms Contained in the Second Edition of the Resuscitatio (1661), and Not in the Original Collection".
- ^ "The Pondyards, Gorhambury". Historic England.
- ^ a b c "'Brief Lives,' chiefly of Contemporaries, set down by John Aubrey, between the Years 1669 & 1696 EDITED FROM THE AUTHOR'S MSS. BY ANDREW CLARK M.A., LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD; M.A. AND LL.D., ST. ANDREWS WITH FACSIMILES - VOLUME I. (A-H)". Oxford. 1898.