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The estate has had a colourful history and been owned by many notable figures. Under Edward the Confessor, the estate of Peper Harow was held by Alward and was assessed at about 600 acres.
Peper Harow lay at the distant edge of Windsor Forest and early owners were knights of Windsor Castle.
The Domesday survey of 1086 contains the record of 'Pipere-herge' as an estate of 300 acres, held by Walter Fitz Other, Castellan of Windsor, and under him again by one Gerard.
Fitz Other's grandson, Walter de Windsor, left no male heir and the estate was divided between his daughters, Christian married to Duncan de Lascelles, and Gunnora, the wife of Ralph de Hesdeng. This was in the reign of King John.
In the time of Henry the Third it was held by William Branche, with whose wife Joan it remained until her re-marriage with Peter de Bosted, in the seventh year of the reign of Edward 1. The estate appears to have been mortgaged, for it was recovered from the son of the above-named, Sir Nicholas Branche, by Henry de Gueldeford by a writ of Novel Disseisin.
From 1369-1400 the estate was held by Sir Bernard Brocus who was lord in the forty-third of Edward the Third. As Chamberlain to King Richard II's first consort, Queen Anne of Bohemia, he fought in the later Crusades and distinguished himself by cutting off the King of Morocco's head. He was also Master of the Buckhounds, an office hereditary in his family. Sir Bernard died in 1396 and his tomb lies in Westminster Abbey.
His son, also Bernard, succeeded him. However he engaged in a conspiracy against Henry IV with the Dukes of Exeter and Surrey and the Earls of Salisbury and Gloucester. He was arrested at Cirencester and beheaded for treason on Tower Hill in January 1400. The estate was then forfeited to the crown until his son, William Brocus, was able to regain ownership and Peper Harow remained in his family for several generations.
The Civil War 1642 - 9 saw the country divided. Support for Charles 1 (the Cavaliers) was centred mainly in the north and west, and the Parliamentarian cause (the Roundheads) in the south and east. The crisis had been brought to a head on 4 January 1642 when Charles, having failed to persuade the House of Lords to impeach five Members of Parliament for treason, went with 300 armed men to the House of Commons to arrest them himself. The five, one of whom was Denzill Holles, escaped and Charles 1 withdrew from Whitehall, and entered it again only for his trial. Denzill Holles, later Lord Holles, married the widow of Sir Walter Covert and therefore Peper Harow came to him in 1655.
Eventually passing to Francis, Lord Holles, the manor and estate of Peper Harow was sold in 1699 under a private Act passed three years earlier to provide for the payment of Holles' debts. The new owner was Philip Froude or Frowde, Queen Anne's Deputy Postmaster General.
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