Women, enclosure and estate improvement in eighteenth-century Northamptonshire

McDonagh, Briony

Abstract

This paper examines the role of elite women in estate management, enclosure and landscape improvement in eighteenth-century England, a topic which has to date received little in the way of sustained academic consideration. The paper focuses on four women who took control of sizeable Northamptonshire estates in the 1760s and early 1770s, and demonstrates that these women were active as both managers and innovators. In examining the women’s involvement in estate management, the paper explores a series of important questions about women’s place in the history of parliamentary enclosure and landscape improvement, as well as women’s role in eighteenth-century society more generally.

Citation

McDonagh, B. (2009). Women, enclosure and estate improvement in eighteenth-century Northamptonshire. Rural History, 20(2), https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956793309990021

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2009
• Deposit Date: Sep 19, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 19, 2013
• Journal: Rural History
• Print ISSN: 0956-7933
• Electronic ISSN: 1474-0656
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 2
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956793309990021
• Keywords: Women, property, agriculture, estate management, enclosure, improvement, landscape
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1014648
• Publisher URL: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=6160332
• Related Public URLs: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~lgzwww/womenandenclosure
• Additional Information: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009.