Improving Landlords? The Earls of Dartmouth and the Economic Development of their Yorkshire Estates 1750-1891

The term ‘improvement’ has a variety of meanings in the context of landed estates. This thesis attempts to explore the role of four generations of an aristocratic family in improving their Yorkshire estates in the sense of making them more profitable by involving themselves in the development of their resources. The landed estates of the study belonged to the Earls of Dartmouth who had risen to political prominence during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and had acquired estates spread over several counties to match their status. An important part of their landholding included three substantial compact estates, one close to Leeds and two near Huddersfield, in the textile manufacturing area of the West Riding, together with smaller areas of land nearby. Such estates were more important to aristocratic owners for their economic value than for residence or recreation as they offered a variety of resources such as timber and coal for their owners to exploit as well as having a growing manufacturing base and expanding population. The study begins with the accession of the second Earl in 1750 and ends with the death of the fifth Earl in 1891 and so spans a period during which the economy of the area of the estates was transformed whilst the role of the aristocracy in the economic, political and social life of the nation underwent immense change. The four Earls involved in this research had much in common in terms of their political allegiances but each of them was to play a distinctive role in the ways that economic change affected their estates. A variety of both landed interests and commercial interests was involved in the economic development of the area, so an attempt is made to examine the economic role of the Earls of Dartmouth in this wider context.

URI

https://bradscholars.brad.ac.uk/handle/10454/20505

Type

Thesis

Qualification name

MPhil