Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gq7q9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-24T06:20:09.202Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Distant Lands’: The Management of Absentee Estates in Woodland High Suffolk, 1660–1800

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Jonathan Theobald
Jonathan Theobald
Affiliation:
Centre of East Anglian Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were a time when many of the landed classes chose to be absent from their estates. However, this same period also saw the early stages of a so-called ‘revolution’ in agricultural methods and techniques. This article, therefore, evaluates the impact of non-residency on estate management structures and agricultural progress. Specific issues examined here include the role of the steward, leasing policy, the promotion of new farming techniques and estate investment by the landlord. In this context, comparisons will be made between absentee, semi-resident and resident estates for the region of Woodland High Suffolk.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , April 2001 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Beckett, J. V., ‘Absentee Landownership in the Later Seventeenth and Early-Eighteenth Centuries: The Case of Cumbria’, Northern History (1983), 87–107CrossRefGoogle ScholarHainsworth, D. R., Stewards, Lords and People (Cambridge, 1992)CrossRefGoogle ScholarClay, C., ‘Landlords and Estate Management in England’, The Agrarian History of England and Wales, V.ii. (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 119–251Google ScholarRoebuck, P., ‘Absentee Landownership in the Late Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries: A Neglected Factor in English Agrarian History’, Agricultural History Review, 21 (1973), 1–17.Google Scholar

2. Grigg, D., The Agricultural Revolution in South Lincolnshire (Cambridge, 1966), p. 82.Google Scholar

3. Roebuck, ‘Absentee’, 1–17.

4. Clay, ‘Landlords’, 119–251.

5. English, B., ‘Patterns of Estate Management in East Yorkshire c. 1840-c. 1880’, Agricultural History Review, 32 (1984), 29–48.Google Scholar

6. Beckett, ‘Absentee’, 87–107.

7. Shrubland Hall Archives [hereafter SHA], SA/1/2/4.

8. Clemenson, H. A., English Country Houses and Landed Estates (1982), pp. 20–26. A large landowner is differentiated here as someone with 3,000 acres or more.Google Scholar

9. Beckett, ‘Absentee’, 90–91.

10. Glyde, J., Suffolk in the Nineteenth Century (1854), pp. 325–30.Google Scholar

11. Defoe, D., A Tour through the whole Island of Great. Britain (London, 1962), Vol. 1, p. 124.Google Scholar

12. Theobald, J. A., Changing Landscapes, Changing Economies: Holdings in Woodland High Suffolk, unpublished PhD Thesis (UEA), 2000Google ScholarRaynbird, H. W., On the Agriculture of Suffolk (London, 1849), pp. 92–4Google ScholarYoung, A., A General View of the Agriculture of the County of Suffolk (London, 1813), p. 160.Google Scholar

13. Overton, M., Agricultural Revolution in England: The Transformation of the Agrarian Economy 1500–1850 (Cambridge, 1996), p. 68 & p. 87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14. Hainsworth, Stewards, pp. 49–51.

15. PRO, C112/181, instructions to Mrs Buck on the 10th August 17481.

16. Emmanuel College Archives, Cambridge [hereafter ECAC], Box 20/N21.

17. Suffolk Record Office, Lowestoft [hereafter SROL], 741/A4/2/31, 741/E1/5/110 Suffolk Record Office, Ipswich [hereafter SROI], HD148/5,7,8,10.

18. Wordie, J., Estate Management in Eighteenth Century England: The Building of the Leveson-Gower Fortune (Royal Historical Society Studies in History, 30, 1982), pp. 18–19.Google Scholar

19. PRO, Cl12/181, instructions to Mrs Buck on the 10th August 1748.

20. English, ‘Patterns’, 39.

21. Laurence, E., The Duty of a Steward to his Lord (1971), p. 5.Google Scholar

22. PRO, C109/153- various letters, & C112/181 instructions to Mrs Buck on the 10th August 1748.

23. SROI, Various correspondence in accession HA49.

24. Clay, ‘Landlords’, 243 Roebuck, ‘Absentee’, 2.

25. Helmingham Hall Archives [hereafter HHA], T/HEL/1/59 & 61, T/HEL/20/42.

26. Hertfordshire Record Office [hereafter HRO], XI.13.

27. Pembroke College Archives, Cambridge [hereafter PCAC), Framlingham/K3, - notes for a speech to be made by T. Browne, Master of Pembroke College to the inhabitants of Framlingham, dated 11th February 1695/6, and two letters from R. Porter to the Fellows of the College, 8th October 1701 & 24th August 1702.

28. Martin, J., ‘Estate Stewards and their work in Glamorgan, 1660–1760: A Regional Study of Estate Management’, Journal of Glamorgan History (Morgannwg), XIII (1979), 9–28.Google Scholar

29. SROI, HB405/C2/1.

30. SROI, HA119/T99/44/15.

31. PRO, Cl12/181 instructions to Mrs Buck on the 10th August 1748.

32. Habakkuk, H. J., ‘Economic Functions of English Landowners in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’, Explorations in Entrepreneurial History (1953), 93 Overton, Agricultural Revolution, p. 184.Google Scholar

33. Macdonald, S., ‘The Lease in Agricultural Improvement’, Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 147 (1976), 19.Google Scholar

34. PRO, Cl12/181, observations upon the lease of W. Ward.

35. SROL, 741/D3/1, 741/E1/5/110.

36. SROI, HA49/C2/5/1–3.

37. HHA, T/HEL/26/61, T/HEL/1/166.

38. PCAC, Framlingham/T2 & XI-X6.

39. SROI, XI14/3.2 (322).

40. PCAC, Framlingham/T2.

41. PCAC, Framlingham/Kl, K3, Yl-5.

42. PCAC, Framlingham/K3; SROI, FE1/6/44, GB10/1/1.

43. SROI HA24/5011914.5 (17).

44. SROI, HA68/2593/3512.

45. SROI, HB405/C2/1.

46. SROI, HA119/T99/44/15.

47. SROL, 741/E1/1/20, 741/E1/5/154.

48. SHA, SA/16136; SROI, FB157/C4/1.

49. SROI, S1/2/200 Bundle 1 1781 lease for Stoke Ash Hall; Suffolk Record Office, Bury St. Edmunds [hereafter SROB], 1C500/3/5/17.

50. SROL, 741/B1/2/69,73,76,77 & 78; HHA, T/HEL/127/1/8, T/HEL/127/3/30 & 31, T/HEL/127/6/26.

51. SROB, 613/349/1,613/631/5.

52. Habakkuk, ‘Economic’, 92–3 Holderness, B. A., ‘The Agricultural Activities of the Massingberds of South Ormsby, Lincolnshire, 1638-c. 1750’, Midland History, 1:3 (1972), 19–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

53. Young, A., Tours in England and Wales (London, 1932), p. 113.Google Scholar

54. SROI, GB405/C2/1 Overton, M., ‘The Diffusion of Agricultural Innovations in Early Modern England: Turnips and Clover in Norfolk and Suffolk 1580–1740’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, new series, 10, 205–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

55. SROI, HA240/2508/30 Plumb, J. H., ‘Sir Robert Walpole and the Norfolk Husbandry’, Economic History Review, 2nd Ser., 5 (1952), 86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

56. HHA, T/HEL/127/1/1.

57. PCAC, Wyverstone/C10; SROI, GB10/1/1.

58. Beckett, ‘Absentee’, 99–100.

59. PCAC, Framlingham/Y6; SROI, FEI/5/129 PRO, C109/153; Norfolk Record Office [hereafter NRO], INV70/222.

60. Two examples of progressive owner-occupiers in the region include William Goodwyn of Street Farm, Earl Soham and Mr. Simpson at two farms in Witnesham and Peartree Farm, Otley. Both men experimented very early with new systems for drilling in crops and eliminating spring ploughings; Mr. Simpson also installed an extensive network of under-drains on his land [SROI, HD365/1 & 2: Raynbird, Agriculture, p. 186].

61. Overton, ‘The Diffusion’, 208–11 PRO, E134/26CHAS2/EAST24, E134/4ANNE/MICH4.

62. Young, General View, p. 33, p. 35, p. 47, pp. 350–410.

63. Raynbird, Agriculture, p. 115, p. 124, p. 129, p. 187 Overton, Agricultural Revolution, pp. 122–3.

64. HHA, T/HEL/25/7,9,16,20,21,23, T/HEL/26/18. The 1729 set of maps held in Helmingham Hall. Many thanks to Lord Tollemache and Bill Sargeant for making access to this material possible.

65. HRO, X1.13 Essex Record Office, Chelmsford, [hereafter EROC], D/DHIVI/B/48,49,50,51,54.

66. PRO C109/153.

67. HHA, T/HEL/20/32 & 33; PCAC, Framlingham/K3.

68. HHA, T/HEL/127/1/6, T/HEL/26/120.

69. Macdonald, ‘The lease’, p. 25.

70. SROI, Sl/2/500.1.

71. PRO, E134/13WM3/EAST39.

72. Beckett, ‘Absentee’, 106.

73. British Parliamentary Papers, 1866, VI, 175.