have been overlooked by Manning, who cites that of the sixth year of Henry VI., as containing the last notice of the Windsors' connection with Peper Harow. In that inqusition, as well as in that of the 22nd year of Richard II., the fact of Peper Harow being held by the Brocas family is recorded. Sir Bernard Brocas, son of the first Bernard, was executed for treason in 1400, on Tower Hill, but his estates were restored to his son William; and Joan, the wife of this William, is the subject of two small monumental brasses in Peper Harow Church. Having descended through females and undergone partition, the estate was ultimately reunited by purchase in the possession of Mr. Henry Smith, who died in 1626, having been married forty-eight years to Jane Covert, of Slaugham, in Sussex, a member of that great Surrey and Sussex family, "whose contiguous manors are said to have extended from Southwark to the English Channel." Though Mr. Smith and his widow were buried at Peper Harow, and are described on a brass tablet in the church as having been "owners of this manor of Peper Harow," yet they had apparently parted with it in 1609 to Sir Walter Covert, of Slaugham, who settled it on his second wife, another Jane Covert. This Lady Covert is called Lady Jane Covert of "Pepper Harrow," by Thomas Fuller, who in 1640 dedicated to her a treatise entitled "Joseph's parti-coloured coat." In March of the following year she was married again to Denzil Holles, who played a leading part during the reign of Charles I., the Commonwealth, and the reign of Charles II. Having purchased the remainders from the Coverts, Denzil Holles resettled the estate on his wife for her life, and, surviving her, left it in fee to his only son, Francis Lord Holles, Francis Lord Holles died in 1689-90, and his only son, Denzil, in 1693-4. In February, 1699-1700, the manor and estate of Peper Harow was sold to Philip Froude, under a private Act, passed three years before, to provide for the payment of Francis Lord Holles' debts. We learn from one of Swift's letters to Stella, that he thought Mrs. Masham, Queen Anne's favourite, might be disposed to buy it
