Verulamium

Verulamium is the Latinized version of the name of an iron age British oppidum (large fortified settlement) Verlamio(n), the capital of Tasciovanus, the king of the Catuvellauni. The Roman Emperor Claudius's invasion of 43CE constructed a settlement of its own near Verlamio, calling it Verlamium, by 50. This was sacked and burnt by Boadicea in the revolt of 6o/61 CE

Etymological note: the etymology of Verlamio is not clear. Graham Isaac, in Place-Names in Ptolemy's Geography: An Electronic Data Base with Etymological Analysis of the Celtic Name-elements, Aberystwyth, 2004, reconstructs the origin of Verlamion as *Uerulāmion, which would have a meaning like "[the tribe or settlement] of the broad hand" (Uerulāmos) in Brittonic. www.romaneranames.uk disputes this 'bizarre' reconstruction, and gives the proto-Indo-European *per- ('to lead, pass over') (the origin of modern fare), plus *lama- ('swamp, puddle') (hence Latin lama), but also speculates about Ver- (meaning 'causeway') and –lamium (meaning the river now called the Ver.

• In 1618, Francis Bacon, then Lord Chancellor, was created Baron Verulam; in 1621 he was raised higher, as Viscount St Alban. His family home was Gorhambury (now Old Gorhambury House), near St Albans, which his father, Nicholas Bacon (1510-1579), bought in 1557, building a new house there between 1563 and 1568, with a further extension in the 1570s. Francis Bacon built Verulam House nearby later in his life. (The name Verulam House is now applied to a Nursing Home, Verulam House Health Care. It was a a coaching inn on Verulam Road, St Albans, The Verulam Arms, built in 1826; it later became a private house, taken over by the diocese of St Albans as the Bishop's Palace in 1908. It then became known as Diocesan House, before becoming the Nuirsing Home.)