page_title: Lilford Hall
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Lilford Hall / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Coat of Arms
context_page_description: Lilford Hall is a Grade I listed stately home in Northamptonshire in the United Kingdom. The 100-room house is located in the eastern part of the county, south of Oundle and north of Thrapston. A Grade I listed building is considered by the UK government as of outstanding architectural and historic interest.
context_section_description: It was started in 1495 as a Tudor building, with a major Jacobean exterior extension added in 1635 and a Georgian interior adopted in the 1740s, having a 55,000 sq ft (5,100 m²) floor area. 
  The Hall was originally part of Lord Burghley's estate, then the Powys family (Baron Lilford) from 1711 to 1990. Lilford Hall is now the seat of the Micklewright family, only the third family in over 500 years to live permanently at the Hall. Lilford Hall and the associated parkland of 350 acres (1.4 km²) is specifically located along the River Nene for around a mile, and north-west of the village of Lilford, part of the parish of Lilford-cum-Wigsthorpe and Thorpe Achurch. The land which was turned into the parkland was mentioned in the Domesday Book, and owned by King David I of Scotland at that time.
  The Manor of Lilford was acquired in 1473 by William Browne a wealthy wool merchant and landowner from Stamford, from the estate of Baron Welles who was beheaded by King Edward IV for treason. William Browne passed on the Manor of Lilford to his only child Elizabeth in 1489, and the Hall in a Tudor style was built in 1495 by William Elmes (the elder) who was Elizabeth's son.
  Robert Browne (1550–1633), the founder of the Brownists, early Separatists from the Church of England, lived at Lilford Hall between 1616 and 1631 after he had returned to the Church of England. He held the benefice of Achurch Church from 1591 to 1631. Robert Browne is known as 'The Father of the Pilgrims" and also "The Grandfather of the Nation" (USA) due to his teachings of the separation of the Church from the State, and the adoption of the first step in American democracy, namely the election by the congregation of each church in his Brownist movement of their own preacher.
  The Hall was thereafter acquired for the Powys family in 1711 by Sir Thomas Powys who was Attorney General to King James II, and the chief prosecutor at the famous trial of the Seven Bishops. Alterations were made in the 18th century by the architect Henry Flitcroft for his grandson Thomas Powys. His son, Thomas Powys, was created the first Baron Lilford by the Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger.
  The main exterior of Lilford Hall is a Jacobean-style gentry house of the 1630s built by William Elmes (the younger) in 1635, related closely with Thorpe masons through its parallels with other neighbouring houses such as Kirby Hall and Apethorpe Hall. Its plan is traditional and arranged around a 'U-shaped' court with the hall entered by a screens passage, the Great Chamber placed over the hall, leading to the principal apartment that terminated with the Great Bed-chamber.
  Its development by successive generations of the Powys family, who acquired the property in 1711, respected the old house, but each stage has a clarity that is clearly legible and contributes to the whole. Apart from the construction of the pair of balancing stable wings by Henry Flitcroft and the successive addition of small-scale extensions in the form of additional storeys to the east end of the two wings, works were confined to alterations within the house and remodelling.
  The Jacobean house is considered as of considerable significance, and Flitcroft's Georgian alterations in the 1740s are of a similar status. The outstanding contribution is that of Flitcroft in the c 1740s with his insertion of a comprehensive set of 18C interiors that not only transformed the principal rooms into a sequence of Palladian spaces, but brought light into the heart of the building. The play of the sequence of 18C rooms within the structure of the Jacobean house is one of the most notable features of the house.
  The play between these 18th-century interiors and the Jacobean exterior is a major feature of Lilford Hall. The alterations of the early 19th century are of some significance as are William Gilbee Habershon's work in the 1840s. However, the latter was primarily concerned with the exterior and the integration of the garden with the house. Of more significance is the extension of the house in 1909 by William Dunn and Robert Watson of 
caption: Sir Thomas Powys' coat of arms over front porch
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