Brocket Hall early held variously of Hatfield Manor and the Bishop of Ely. Sir Matthew Lamb's son was Peniston Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne and he was often visited at Brocket Hall by the Prince Regent, who had a liaison with Lady Melbourne. The next owner was William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, who was Queen Victoria's first Prime Minister from 1835–41, when she regularly visited. His wife, Lady Caroline, infamously had an affair with Lord Byron causing Lord Melbourne much embarrassment. For one of his birthdays she held a state banquet in the Saloon, at which she had herself served from a large
Lamb baronets 1st Viscount Wentworth and Judith Lamb, daughter of William Lamb. In 1821 he assumed by Royal licence the surname of Lamb in lieu of his patronymic. He was succeeded by his son by his second wife Anne Montolieu, Charles, the second Baronet. He was Knight Marshal of the Royal Household between 1824 and 1864. The title became extinct on the death of the fourth Baronet in 1948. The Burges family settled near Reading during the reign of Henry VIII; the surname is claimed to derive from Bruges in Flanders. Colonel Roger Burges held the town of Faringdon for the king