After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540 under King Henry VIII, monastic lands in England reverted to the crown, including lands belonging to Westminster Abbey such as the Convent Garden and seven acres to the north called Long Acre. In 1552 King Edward VI granted it to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford,[1] his late father's trusted adviser. The Russell family, who in 1694 were advanced in the peerage from Earl to Duke of Bedford, held the land until 1918.[15]