Pistols at the ready, Jane Ingilby sat in the hush of the castle’s library, careful not to drop her guard. All night she watched her captive: a cavalry commander of growing acclaim named Oliver Cromwell. “I imagine Cromwell, who had just won the greatest military victory of his career, was stunned to find himself effectively held prisoner by a woman,” says Sir Thomas Ingilby, the 27th generation of his family to live at Ripley Castle in Yorkshire, England. For centuries, his family has preserved the story of “Trooper Jane” and…
