 Hengrave eventually passed down the female Kitson line, and on the death of Elizabeth Kitson in 1625 the house was inherited by her daughter Mary Kitson, who had married Thomas Darcy, 1st Earl Rivers.By her granddaughter Penelope Darcy’s marriage to Sir John Gage, 1st Baronet, the house passed into the Gage family.The house was used as a refuge by the English Augustinian Canonesses of Bruges from 1794–1802, led by their Prioress Mother Mary More.