Wormleybury is an 18th-century house surrounded by a landscaped park of 57 ha (140 acres) near Wormley in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, England, a few miles north of Greater London. The house was rebuilt in the 1770s from an earlier house built in 1734. The house is a Grade I listed building. The garden is well known for its historic rare plant collection. History The estate of Wormleybury, originally known as Wormley Bury, was one of several estates which King Harold endowed and granted to the Canons of Waltham Abbey (Waltham Holy Cross). In 1220 the Canons of Waltham constructed a conduit for carrying water from Wormley to the monastery. A house was built on the site in 1525, just north of the present building. The first house's owner was Edward Sharnebrook. Wormley Bury was in the Abbey's possession until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, between 1536 and 1541. Afterwards, the estate was granted to Edward North and his heirs. North, Treasurer of the Court of Augmentations, at once alienated it to William Woodliffe or Woodcliffe, mercer of London. He died in 1548, and one half came to one of his two daughters, Ann, who married John Purvey. North sold the other half of the manor to Elizabeth Woodcliffe. The house was subsequently bequeathed to William Woodcliffe. John Purvey was succeeded by a son, William Purvey, who appears to have been in possession of the reunited manor in 1597. It then passed to the Tookes, descendants of the other sister, until it was sold to Richard Woollaston, who died in 1691. Richard Woollaston conveyed the manor to William Fellowes, whose eldest son, Coulston Fellowes, was the possessor in 1728. From the latter, the manor passed in 1733 by sale to John Deane.. The sixteenth century house was replaced by a new house built in 1734 by John Deane who sold it in 1739 to Alexander Hume (1693–1765). Sir Abraham Hume, 1st Baronet (1703–1772), inherited the estate from his brother Alexander when he died in 1765. Architect, Robert Mylne supervised the house remodel from 1767 to 1769, and from 1781 to 1782, after Abraham's son, Sir Abraham Hume, 2nd Baronet (1749–1838) inherited the estate after his father's death in 1772. The interior decoration of the house was supervised by Robert Adam from 1777 to 1779. Adam also designed the garden buildings for the estate. The drawing room has painted roundels by Angelica Kauffman.