it belonged to an extremely important erm civic family, thomas and john smith, who are the two important ones during the civil war, thomas was mayor just before the war, john smith was a member of parliament in the long parliament, and erm there's a slightly complicated story to the house, thomas moved out of it just before the war and built another one  way up the street, but john stayed there, and another important landowner in marston, umpton croak, owned the other half of it.