Draft:Robert Evans (land agent)

Robert Evans (1773–31 May 1849) was an English land agent. He is now largely remembered as the father of one of England’s greatest novelists, George Eliot. However, he deserves recognition as an important character in his own right, particularly his role in developing the position and status of land agents in the early 19th century.

Family and Early Life

Robert Evans was born early in 1773 at Roston Common in the parish of Norbury, Derbyshire, near the Staffordshire border and was baptised on 2 February that year. Roston Common was a small scattered settlement outside the hamlet of Roston and two miles south-east of Norbury.

Robert was the sixth child of George (1746-1830) and Mary Evans née Leech (1737-1803) who had married in Norbury Church on 16 June 1763. There is some uncertainty about Robert’s lineage. Little is known of his mother’s family though she may be the Mary Leech born in Derby in 1737, daughter of William and Mary Leach (née Knowles). On his father’s side there is evidence that the Evans family moved from Rocester to Norbury during the life of Robert’s grandfather Thomas but the claims later made by Robert of the Welsh ancestry of his family have proved to be doubtful, not least because of the vague and suspect claims to this effect in the College of Arms family tree obtained by Robert in 1836, with rigid 30 year gaps between the generations.

The Evans’ family’s 6 acres (2.4 hectares) property in Roston Common was based on a carpenter’s business working on farm implements and furniture, repairing carts and wagons and making coffins. After what was little more than an elementary education at Bartle Massey’s school at Roston, Robert joined the other members of his family in the early 1790s, walking over the bridge across the river Dove into the adjacent Staffordshire village of Ellastone.

Early Career

Young Robert’s carpentry was now supplemented by forestry and he became employed on the nearby Wootton Hall estate by the Newdigate family, his main employers being Francis Newdigate and his eponymous son. Robert’s qualities as an all-round workmen endeared him to the Newdigates and his marriage to Harriet Poynton in 1801 helped to cement the professional relationship as Harriet was ladies-maid to Francis Newdigate senior’s wife, Frances. Robert’s responsibilities increased and soon after the birth of their first child, also Robert. In 1802, the family moved to another Newdigate property at Kirk Hallam Derbyshire about twenty-five miles east of Wootton. Here he was given Spring Farm to look after, adding farming to his list of skills. He suggested ideas for the improvement of the estate to his employers as well as working on bread and butter matters such as constructing pigsties, drilling and harrowing turnips and developing beehives. But mere reliability and competence in Robert was maturing into innovation, developing improved methods of cattle and sheep breeding and the best root crops on which to feed them.

Move to North Warwickshire

In 1805 Robert and Harriet’s second child was born, Frances Lucy (known as Fanny). The parents continued their close connections with the Newdigates. In November 1806 Francis Newdigate senior inherited a property in North Warwickshire from a distant cousin, Sir Roger Newdigate, the 8,000 acre estate of Arbury Hall near Nuneaton. Robert and Harriet were invited to move there where Harriet continued as ladies-maid and Robert became the estate manager for Arbury, the family occupying South Farm in the centre of the Estate. Here, while he had his own acreage, he was principally to establish a very high reputation for his wide-ranging abilities dealing with all kinds of estate matters now spreading well-beyond carpentry, forestry and general farming.  His personal qualities of fair-mindedness, honesty, strength and all-round abilities were widely noted. Crop rotation, scientific application of fertilizers and developments in breeding, an eye for developing markets and a generally pro-active approach to farming, were all abundantly evident in his work.

The evolution of greater responsibilities for a land steward, now increasingly termed a land agent, was very apparent in Robert’s work especially with the organisation of annual maintenance of buildings, fences and hedges, gates and roads. This all helped to ensure the landowners’ income from tenant farmers was maximised. Robert became an expert in seed selection and very knowledgeable about drainage and crop rotation. He was responsible for hiring – and occasionally firing – estate workers, especially as his employer Francis Newdigate Senior was, for much of the time, quite hands-off in his approach and had a reputation of being mean-spirited. This provided Robert with the additional challenge of smoothing-over the complaints of disgruntled tenants. These responsibilities may have made him unpopular at times. In 1833 a serious fire broke out at Griff Colliery adjacent to his house and Robert, rushing back from his duties at the local workhouse found grain lost and over £1000 of damage. Robert put it down to the mismanagement of the site by the bailiffs though one recent commentator believes the fire was suspicious, which is possible: the evidence is inconclusive.

Robert continued to take an interest in the other Newdigate estate at Kirk Hallam, Derbyshire, and this increased his connection with Francis Newdigate junior now responsible through his father, for this property. This close professional relationship developed from strong mutual respect (Francis junior was a much more amenable personality than his father) into a friendship as close as differences in social rank would allow.

Second Marriage, Second family and Second Home

At the end of 1809 tragedy struck both the Evans and Newdigate families. The final illness and death of Frances Newdigate was followed almost immediately by the death of her ladies maid Harriet Evans who died before the end of the year soon after giving birth to her and Robert’s third child, another Harriet, who also died, very early in 1810.

Robert re-married in 1813. His new wife Christiana Pearson (1787-1836) came from a family who had lived in the north Warwickshire villages (near Arbury) of Arley and Fillongley. They represented a not uncommon breed in the area, substantial if not wealthy farmers with 200-300 acres, independent of the Newdigates. It greatly increased Robert’s local, social and business links. Robert’s Journals reveal that he assisted men with their business finance like his brother-in-law quarry owner John Everard who was married to Christiana’s oldest sister, Mary. Robert and Christiana’s children were Christiana (Chrissie) born 1814, Isaac, 1816 and Mary Ann, 1819. Twin boys Thomas and William born in March 1821 survived only a few days. After this last event mother Christiana was unwell but the exact nature of her illness is uncertain. Post-natal depression seems a reasonable supposition though it lacks evidence. The idea that she was an alcoholic is only based on the substantial amount of alcohol purchased by Robert and concrete evidence is flimsy. Comparatively little is known about the activities of Christiana though it seems she was in charge of the butter and dairy side of Robert’s own farming business and carried it on with considerable vigour.

In 1820 the family moved from South Farm to Griff House situated in a hamlet a mile to the east of Arbury Hall and a more substantial property with 280 acres for Robert to manage. No evidence exists as to the precise reason for the move but it reflects his growing status as well as his growing family. This life soon changed, possibly as a result of Christiana’s indisposition. The younger children were sent to local boarding schools, Mary Ann going at barely five years old in 1824 to Miss Latham’s school at Attleborough. The two children from the earlier marriage, Robert Junior, just twenty  and Frances (Fanny), seventeen, were sent in 1822 to look after a new Newdigate property just acquired at West Hallam, Derbyshire. Robert Junior would be the farm manager and Fanny his housekeeper. As the young Isaac grew up he was groomed for a land agent’s position at Arbury in which he later succeeded his father. It had been Robert Evans who had done much of the preparatory work for the acquisition of West Hallam, travelling there, writing a report about it and riding all over the property with Francis Newdigate junior, discussing the working of the local colliery with him. It all cost £65,000 to purchase.

Widening responsibilities

By 1820 Robert’s work was no longer confined to the Arbury estate. From 1817 he spent a lot of time at the adjacent Astley Castle property which was leased to Francis Newdigate junior by his father in 1817. For nearly a century the Castle had been used periodically as a dowager house for the Newdigate family and also rented to tenants and it was now in need of a substantial overhaul. Francis junior had retired from his wartime duties as a militia lieutenant-colonel in 1814 and was now settling down. In 1820 he was to marry Lady Barabara Legge, daughter of the third earl of Dartmouth. A renovated Astley Castle would be their home until 1832 and Robert played a major part in the property’s overhaul. An ice house was constructed, market gardening undertaken and lime obtained to break up the heavy clay soil. Five new cottages were laid out in 1818 and cattle and sheep were bought; in 1824 ‘Welsh sheep’ appeared. Trees were both planted and pulled down and threshing machines were first introduced in 1826.

Robert also started working on specific tasks for other local landowners. His growing knowledge of agricultural estates, sound judgement and fair-mindedness meant he was in demand as a land valuer and he helped to set up and develop farms with advice about farming stock and crop growing. He was in some demand from local clergy who frequently needed support with the farming of the glebe land and also in the sensitive area of the collection of tithes. Robert excelled in delicate situations not least with tenants’ payment of poor and road rates, as well as rent and terms for the transfer of tenants’ property and payment of numerous casual labourers. He dealt with recalcitrant tenants and attended legal hearings, not least the complex case that developed in the 1820s of Newdegate et al v Newdigate, between different branches of the Newdigate family. This concerned how far Francis senior could pull down trees on his estate without reducing its value for the next incumbent of the property. Sir Roger Newdigate’s complex will had only given a life interest in Arbury to Francis Newdigate senior, and his son would not succeed him but rather a cousin. Robert was in his element examining the minutiae of Arbury’s estate accounts going back to Sir Roger’s time. The eventual legal victory of Francis senior over the timber question in 1834 owed something to Robert.

Robert also took interest in improving the roads in north Warwickshire, suggesting to Francis Junior in 1831 a new Griff to Attleborough road that would aid coal transport. Robert’s journals record his numerous efforts to employ workers to improve the condition of local roads and he acted as a surveyor. Robert himself was undertaking a good deal of travelling in his work but locally he preferred walking to riding, often over very long distances. He did not like fast riding.

Robert's activities continued to widen in the 1830s. He acted as a local school manager at the nearby village of Astley ensuring buildings were kept in good order and undertook political work for the Tory Newdigates at election times, the North Warwickshire constituency being created by the Reform Act of 1832. He joined the Tory Candidate’s (William Stratford Dugdale) re-election Committee, ascertaining the mood of voters and sometimes treating potential supporters.  The earl of Aylesford asked Robert to pass on his voting request to his tenants in Leicestershire.

In 1831 when Francis senior passed on responsibility for the local coal mines at Griff to his son, Robert was given more authority in this area. Soon there were advances in the use of steam power to pump water out of the mines and Robert would go underground to inspect conditions.   As with the other areas of his work his high reputation led to examination of other pits in Leicestershire and Staffordshire. While miners’ conditions were never good it may be significant that Griff miners were the last in the Warwickshire coalfield to withdraw their labour in the national strike of 1842.  In 1830 Robert was appointed the new administrator of the substantial Bedworth charity of Nicholas Chamberlaine (who had died in 1715) . The testimonial for Robert for this post, written by Francis Newdigate junior, showed the very high regard in which he was held. It was highly likely that Francis junior obtained Robert another post advising a large landowner. In 1831 he took on the management of the estate at nearby Packington for the Earl of Aylesford. He maintained this post for the next fifteen years despite all his other commitments, occasionally making long journeys to the earl’s far-flung properties in Kent and Hampshire.

While busy at Packington and Astley Robert was asked to do less work on the Arbury estate by Francis Newdigate senior who had become a cheeseparing and curmudgeonly old man, neglecting improvements to the property. This was an especially acute problem in his final years, 1830-1835, but there had been trouble as early as 1821 when Robert had been temporarily dismissed by his temperamental employer – probably for spending too much on the estate. Saved almost certainly by the intervention of Francis junior he was dismissed again in September 1833 but, as before, quickly re-instated. He had shown himself to be indispensable and had risen from humble origins to be quite a wealthy man though certainly not one inclined to over-charge for his services: his honesty and abilities had made him well-known in north Warwickshire and beyond and he was utterly dependable. The only hint of his lack of formal education was in his occasionally eccentric spellings in his extensive Journals. These included 'puting'. 'emediately','poney', 'ballance', 'stoped' and 'funeril'.

The difficult year of 1835

1835 brought both professional and personal challenges for Robert. In February his old master Francis Newdigate senior died and the Arbury estate passed not to his son but to a great nephew, Charles Newdegate, who had, at the request of Sir Roger in his will, altered the spelling of the family name. Charles was 18 but until his formal education was complete his widowed Mother, Mrs Maria Newdegate, would be in charge at Arbury. If the young man died before the age of twenty-one this  would result in the reversion of the estate to Francis Newdigate junior. Arbury badly needed an injection of money after neglect under the old Francis but Maria was reluctant to spend it until her son reached his majority. This led to an early tense relationship between Robert and Maria though the passing of time eased the situation and Maria came to respect Robert’s abilities and experience which he offered to her wholeheartedly just as he did to everyone else.The improved relationship had a significant result. In the late 1830s Robert’s youngest daughter, Mary Ann, developing into a young lady of precocious talent, was given the run of the Arbury Hall library by Maria. This further developed her literary education which her Father had, with foresight, already bestowed upon her in her younger years and had far-reaching implications for the future of English Literature.

1835 was also the year when Robert first reported in April about the fatal breast cancer of his wife Christiana. It was a year of great strain for Robert and on the very last day of it he suffered a severe attack of kidney stones. For a few days at the start of 1836 it seemed that he might be dying as well as his wife but Robert recovered. A symbol of his importance was that he was attended by Dr William Bucknill of Nuneaton who was also employed by the Newdigates. The Doctor stayed a number of days with Robert to ensure recovery. After a few weeks he returned to all his duties at Arbury, Astley Castle, Packington and frequent consultations with other land and colliery owners. Christiana died in February 1836.

The Coventry Years

By the late 1830s  Robert, now in his mid sixties, was grooming his son Isaac, now in his early twenties, to take on similar land agent responsibilities to his own. Isaac was a contemporary of the young Charles Newdegate, now starting to assume greater responsibilities himself. The two became quite close and in 1841 Robert decided to relinquish his Arbury responsibilities in favour of Isaac who in that year married and took over Griff House. Since Robert failed to attend Isaac’s wedding at this time there has been discussion centering around whether Robert was pushed out of Griff by his son or at least that he felt Isaac would deal better with the young and somewhat spendthrift Charles Newdegate.

In any event Robert kept on his other work when moving to the Coventry suburb of Foleshill and to a house called Bird Grove, accompanied by his unmarried daughter twenty-one-year-old Mary Ann. While still busy professionally, Robert (and Mary Ann initially) attended Holy Trinity church where Robert soon became as involved as in his earlier years when attending All Saints, Chilvers Coton, where he had been a Churchwarden. His faith was more than nominal. In his Journal, written over many years, he frequently commented on sermons he had heard. He may have hoped that Coventry society would provide an eligible suitor for the hand of his extremely intelligent daughter but Mary Ann, after a teenage commitment to Evangelicalism, decided to cease attending church early in 1842 on account of lack of belief. This came as a shock to Robert and it brought out the more stubborn side of his nature: he found it difficult to cope with Mary Ann’s intellectual independence not least because he felt it might well lose her a suitable husband. He was unmoved by her eloquent pleas, not least on paper, for his tolerance and understanding of her position and for a time she left her father’s house and sought temporary refuge with her brother at Griff. For his part Robert even considered moving to the cottage on the Packington estate that he already occupied for short periods while working there.

After a few months a compromise was reached and Mary Ann returned to the paternal home, resuming church attendance on the understanding that she reserved the right to think what she liked. The normally close relationship between father and daughter had been patched up. This was just as well because within a few years Robert became ill and needed all the loving care and attention of his only unmarried child.

In October 1845 Robert Evans broke his leg but recovered well and was working again before the end of the year. However, early in 1846 his health began to decline and increasingly he needed help and attention. In both 1847 and 1848 he went away with Mary Ann to Dover and the Isle of Wight and managed to keep working periodically. However, after a journey to Derbyshire in 1848 he declined further and by April was quite ill. Doctors seemed unsure of the problem though attributing it to a weak heart. Uncharacteristically, lassitude set in and Mary Ann found herself reading to him to keep his faculties engaged. After a long decline he died on 31 May 1849. While the second cause of death on the certificate was dropsy – now called oedema and consistent with heart problems – the principal cause was given as liver disease. Robert had certainly imbibed alcohol regularly all his adult life. Whilst never known to be drunk it could be this regular drinking over more than fifty years that had contributed to his death.

The largest visual tribute to him is hidden away in the belfry of St Wilfred’s Church, West Hallam, where Francis Newdigate put up a memorial window to his beloved land agent, an acknowledgement of their fifty years of friendship. But his youngest daughter left lasting literary tributes both direct and indirect.

The George Eliot Connection

As a result of Robert’s decision to move to Coventry with his daughter, Mary Ann found her views developing as a result of her association with the Coventry intellectual set based around Charles and Cara Bray. She began her literary career by writing for newspapers in Coventry.  Immediately after Robert’s death she left Bird Grove, went on foreign travels and subsequently worked in London as assistant editor of the periodical the Westminster Review. She only occasionally returned to Coventry and never after 1855. Her literary intellectual metropolitan existence seems a far cry from her childhood at Griff but her subsequent development as a novelist starting in the late 1850s owed much to that early time and not least to her father’s experiences and influence. Portraits of workers such as Adam Bede in the eponymous novel and Caleb Garth the land agent in Middlemarch were much influenced by her father.The characters were not exact portraits of Robert but her knowledge of his character and activities certainly influenced her presentation of them. Many of the numerous rural settings in her novels drew heavily on her childhood experiences where, when not at school, she would frequently accompany her father on his business. Robert and Christiana had ensured an education which brought out her talents. She had attended schools in Attleborough, Nuneaton and Coventry until forced back home by her mother’s fatal illness when she was just sixteen. But after her mother’s death her father Robert arranged a Language Tutor in French and German, Joseph Brezzi a peripatetic teacher from Leamington as well as some Latin lessons from a Coventry Grammar school Headmaster, Rev. Thomas Sheepshanks. Along with eloquent descriptions of the countryside, the novels showed her detailed knowledge of the world of Robert Evans: estate management in general and in particular landownership and the position of the tenantry, crop growing, dairying, woodland and timber, horses, scientific applications, hedging and ditching, drainage and the first railways. Also emerging in her work were features of life such as the workhouse, forms of transport, pub talk and excessive drinking, rural poverty, poaching, tithes, the weaving trade and religious dissent. Her wide social range of characters was mirrored in her father's social range of contacts from substantial landowners to poor defaulting tenants and many business people and labourers in between.Thus Robert’s influence and his way of life lived on in ways he could hardly have anticipated.

References

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