Managing the Marquis of Anglesey’s Dorset and Somerset Estate 1812 -1854

This is a guest blog from Dr Carol Beardmore, of The University of Leicester. Dr Beardmore’s research centres around the role of the land agent and the exploration of rural general practice through the letters and diaries of late nineteenth century practitioners. In this blog, she explores the papers of the Marquis of Anglesey…

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Managing the landed estate in the nineteenth century required entrepreneurial skills, a knowledge of agriculture, the ability to let land and to manage people as well as an in-depth understanding of the local agrarian community. The Marquis of Anglesey was essentially an absentee landowner and thus needed a reliable and trustworthy man to manage the day to day running of the most southerly part of his estate. There is no clear answer as to how or why William Castleman, a county attorney and experienced land agent, came to be appointed as Anglesey’s steward. He first appears in the record acting for the estate in the case of Place v Burt in 1804 and by 1814 was in full charge. The correspondence between the Marquis of Anglesey and the Castleman family (William on his death was followed by his sons) amounts to some 3000 letters, bi-annual rental accounts for some forty years, and more than 10,000 estate vouchers; and they create a prism through which to explore the landed estate in the first half of the nineteenth-century.

In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars agriculture witnessed a long and sustained depression of prices which for the Marquis of Anglesey and other landowners led to the accrual of large rental arrears. Samuel Bishop for example in 1823 owed at the next audit £2362 which was more than the entire contents of his home, farm equipment and stored and standing crops. Eviction, especially for those who were politically loyal, was a relative rarity. This was particularly important at Milborne Port where the Marquis of Anglesey ended up in a battle with Lord Darlington for control. Despite the borough being minute both men became involved in a housing race which cost around £55,000 (a staggering c.£6,000,000 today). In the end a simple transfer of land between Anglesey and Winchester College brought victory and Castleman organised the purchase of Darlington’s property for his employer.

One of the hardest times for the tenants was in 1829 and 1830 when the ‘coathe’ decimated the sheep flocks. The largest tenant, a member of the Highmore family, lost sheep to the value of £1200, with the problem further compounded because the hay and grass had been washed away in floods caused by heavy rain. Despite restocking the flock, the family suffered a second time from the disease. An allowance of twenty-five per cent on his rent was allowed but this only marginally helped his financial distress. Rents formed an important part of aristocratic incomes and William Castleman needed to juggle his employer’s financial commitments against keeping tenants in place and farms occupied.

Dorset was synonymous with low wages and in 1830 the Swing riots hit the estate. At Hanley the local grievances intermingled with changes in common rights over Cranborne Chase, and some sixty rioters gathered and destroyed all the agricultural machinery. At Henstridge the threshing machine of Mr Davis had been wrecked, but at Stalbridge the actions of William Castleman probably saved the day. On reaching Stalbridge on his journey returning home from Milborne Port, Castleman saw magistrates attempting to sign in special constables. He seized the moment took the Testament in his hand and had himself sworn in. Many others of the local populace followed suit although a receipt in the estate vouchers for 16s 8d for brandy for the specials may have aided in the process. As a result, the threshing machine in Stalbridge Park remained undamaged.

Although these are just snippets of the stories contained within the Anglesey archive, they give a broad overview of the richness of the estate story. While there has been an increasing interest in the lives of those who lived and worked in the country house itself, we still know little of the outer estate nor the lives of the land agents who ran them nor the tenant farmers or labourers who worked the land. This archive therefore has an important role to play in understanding both agriculture and the rural community in a period when those who worked the land have little personal record.

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If you are an academic user of Dorset History Centre, and would be interested in writing a short blog about your work, please do get in touch with us: archives@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk

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