Houghton Manor House up to 1740

Henry Brandreth, probably a wealthy City merchant, purchased the Manor of Sewell in the parish of Houghton Regis in 1652. To this he added a couple of years later the main Manor of Houghton Regis, almost certainly including the site of the Manor House. Two views of 1775 show the entrance and one side elevation to the house, which contained three storeys and had three gables. The entrance elevation had six sash windows on each of the two top floors. The ground floor had a pedimented front door with four sash windows. The side elevation illustrated had three sash windows on each floor but otherwise was plain. The other side elevation and the other main front were not included in the drawings, so we can not be sure what they looked like.

It is possible that Brandreth had the house built himself but it is more likely that he had an older house refenestrated and added the pediment to the front door to give the house a more modern, classical feel.

Other details from the views show that to the right of the main elevation was a long lower building, probably containing service rooms, and further on a dovehouse and some stables. In front of the main facade was a walled garden with a fine pair of late seventeenth/early eighteenth-century gates. The house was sited opposite the north east end of the Green, on the north side of the High Street. The coach house was on the other side of the road, on the Green itself.

Henry Brandreth (1610-1672) had three children: Solomon, who was simple and so did not inherit Houghton, Nehemiah (1652-1719), who did, and Alice, who married Sir William Milard and built Houghton Hall by 1700. Nehemiah left a son Henry (1685-1739). Henry left a son, also called Henry (1723-1752), and three daughters. All were under age at their father's death. The inventory published below relates to the estate of Henry Brandreth (died 1739).

The house, as it is described in the inventory, seems to have had its only entrance on the grander south side with the best parlour occupying the south-west corner of the house with two windows facing south and one window west. The common parlour occupied the south-east corner with a similar arrangement of windows.