The Blagrave family were wealthy landowners around Reading, and the manor passed down through the family (which included mathematician John Blagrave, who built a new house at Southcote); a lease document dated from 1596 suggests that the manor was divided between three Blagrave brothers. Daniel Blagrave, a cousin of John, inherited the manor on the latter's death in 1611. At the time of the English Civil War, during the Siege of Reading in 1643, the Blagraves allowed Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex to use the manor as his headquarters. The Blagrave family, who were sympathetic to the Roundheads, are said to have hosted Oliver Cromwell, John Hampden and Robert Blake for a council of war in one of the house's oak panelled rooms. In January 1649, Daniel was one of the signatories of Charles I's death warrant.