 In 1624, King James I granted Houghton House to Thomas Bruce, near Ampthill, Bedfordshire.The house was built by architects, John Thorpe and Inigo Jones, in the Jacobean and Classical style for Mary Herbert, Dowager Countess of Pembroke; it had been reverted to the King by Mary's brother, two years after the Countess' death in 1621.It became the principal residence for the Bruce family for over a century.