Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- The rise of the estate steward
- The steward's career
- The whole duty of a steward
- Between lord and tenant
- Returns to London
- The ambassador
- Tending the interest
- The almoner
- Filling the pulpit
- The constable: defending the manor
- The constable: defending the forests
- Exploiting the estate
- The clerk of works
- Master and man
- A note on the manuscript sources
- Index
- Title in the series
The whole duty of a steward
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- The rise of the estate steward
- The steward's career
- The whole duty of a steward
- Between lord and tenant
- Returns to London
- The ambassador
- Tending the interest
- The almoner
- Filling the pulpit
- The constable: defending the manor
- The constable: defending the forests
- Exploiting the estate
- The clerk of works
- Master and man
- A note on the manuscript sources
- Index
- Title in the series
Summary
If I had a thousand eyes, hands and hearts I should use them all in your employment and account them too little to express my engagements to you and to testify myself, sir, your obliged and faithful servant,
William ThynneSince 'tis from you alone that I can have any punctual account of the progress of my work so from you only 'tis that I hope for any life in my business; though I know 'tis not your proper employment … I know how to value service that depends upon punctilios of order. That will never do me nor no master good.
Sir John Lowther of LowtherConsidering the multiplicity of duties and responsibilities which confronted many stewards they might well have thought at times that William Thynne's thousand eyes and hands were hardly extravagant qualifications for their employment. Inevitably, stewards' experience of their employment varied greatly from estate to estate and employer to employer. Some estates were very large, comprising several dozen manors, and required the watchful care of a chief steward with several understewards and a small army of estate servants to carry out his orders. Some consisted of but one small manor and the stewardship could be carried out on a very part-time basis by a country attorney as part of the ordinary business of his legal practice. It was not just a question of size, however, but rather the degree of complexity.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Stewards, Lords and PeopleThe Estate Steward and his World in Later Stuart England, pp. 42 - 47Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992