Herbert House

Built in around 1545, the house is named after the Herbert family, a wealth dynasty of merchants and Lord Mayors. In 1557 Christopher Herbert, a member of the Company of Merchant Adventurers, bought the house from the Company for around £54. Lord Mayor of York in 1573, he remodelled the interior to allow for both residential and commercial activity. By 1590 his son was in possession, also serving as Lord Mayor in 1604.

The most famous ‘Herbert’ was the traveller, historian and courtier, Sir Thomas Herbert. Thomas was born in Herbert House in 1606 and, as a young man, joined a mission to the Shah of Persia in 1626, famously writing about his travels and the exotic bird life he encountered. Appointed as a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to King Charles I, Thomas helped entertain the King on his visit to York in 1633. An important figure in the English Civil War (1642 – 1651) Thomas was initially a Parliamentary negotiator before becoming a Royalist sympathiser, keeping company with the King on his walk to the executioner’s block in January 1649.