The Montagu Estate at Eryholme, 1746-1778

The correspondence of the renowned bluestocking Elizabeth Montagu provides an exceptional insight into the management of an estate in the north Yorkshire township of Eryholme during the eighteenth century. In letters written between 1746 and 1778, Elizabeth and her husband Edward reveal in unusual detail their attitudes to their estate, their different approaches to its management, their relationships with their tenants, and their shared commitment to agricultural improvement. The article first establishes the structure and character of the estate inherited by Edward Montagu in 1735, explores the attachment of both Edward and Elizabeth to it, and assesses its financial value to them. It identifies and provides information about the tenant farmers, before exploring in greater detail their relationship, ultimately fraught, with Edward Montagu before his death in 1775; and thereafter the close and amicable relationship between the principal tenant family, the Laxes, and Elizabeth

Business · Estate · Finance · Historical Economic and Social Studies