 Before this, Fitzwilliam Coningsby the Royalist High Sheriff of Herefordshire had restricted himself to ordering the Harley tenants to pay their rents directly to him and those that refused were sent to jail.Subsequently, attacks were made on the property and livestock stolen.The Harley family's support for Parliament can be seen in a number of Lady Brilliana's letters to her son, Sir Edward Harley — writing in December 1642, Lady Harley writes; "They [my neighbours] are in mighty violence against me."