At this trial the principal witness was that Brown, who having been Major-General in the service of the Parliament, and mentioned . . . to be a mercenary spirit, was now brought to betray a private conversation; and to depose, that talking one day with Colonel Adrian Scroop in the Speaker's chamber, and telling him that the condition of the nation was sad since the murder of the King, the Colonel had answered, that men had different opinions touching that matter; and being desired by the said Brown to explain himself, he told him, he should not make him his confessor.
32.
In 1665 Sir Thomas Hyde, whose family had held the main manor for more than 100 years, died leaving only Bridget, his daughter with the estate, who married Peregrine Osborne, 2nd Duke of Leeds, whose family held the estate until Thomas Osborne, 4th Duke of Leeds sold it to Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater, after further subdivision the remaining manor descended to Francis Henry, ninth and last earl of Bridgewater, whose widow held it for life, and at her death it passed to John Hume Cust, Viscount Alford, son of the first Earl Brownlow, and from him to the Earl as of 1908.
