The square was developed by 4th Earl of Southampton, in the late 17th century, and was initially known as Southampton Square.
In 1669, the Bloomsbury Estate came into ownership of the Russell family when William, son of William Russell, 1st Duke and 5th Earl of Bedford (1616–1700), married Lady Rachel Vaughan, one of the daughters of Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton (1607–1667).
Thomas Jefferson | Southampton | Thomas Edison | Thomas | Thomas Hardy | Thomas Mann | Thomas Aquinas | Clarence Thomas | Thomas Gainsborough | Dylan Thomas | Thomas Pynchon | Southampton F.C. | James Earl Jones | St. Thomas | Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex | Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma | Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands | Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener | Thomas Carlyle | Thomas the Tank Engine | Thomas Moore | Thomas Cromwell | Thomas Becket | Earl | Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts | Thomas the Apostle | Thomas Merton | Earl of Derby | Earl Warren | Thomas Tallis |
After the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1540s, the manor was acquired by Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton.
Catherine's family play a key role including her sister Anne Parr Herbert, her stepdaughter Elizabeth, niece Jane Grey, doomed friend Anne Askew, rivals Thomas Wriothesley, Stephen Gardiner, Henry Howard, Anne Stanhope, Mary Howard Fitzroy the Dowager Duchess of Richmond and former romantic interest Thomas Seymour.
Southampton is a character in Hilary Mantel's novels on Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, (nicknamed Call-Me Risley for the pronunciation of the family name), and in Margaret George's novel, The Autobiography of Henry VIII