The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland

The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland (originally The Acre-Ocracy of England) is a reference work published by John Bateman in four editions between 1876 and 1883, giving brief details of individuals owning land in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to a total of 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) or valuation of £3000 annual income. It has become a standard primary source for historians of the Victorian era.

Compilation

The information was abstracted from the Return of Owners of Land (1873–1876), a government publication nicknamed the "Modern Domesday Book". Bateman collated the county-by-county information, correcting errors, allowing for variations in spelling of surnames, noting with footnotes and asterisks discrepancies and complexities of ownership or income. Owners noted in Evelyn Shirley's Noble and Gentle Men of England as in unbroken inheritance since the reign of Henry VII were given a special mark; later editions also separately marked owners not listed by Shirley but who protested to Bateman that they had the same antiquity.

John Bateman

John Bateman (1839–1910), editor of The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland, lived at Brightlingsea Hall in Essex, and was a justice of the peace and deputy lieutenant for Essex and Staffordshire. In 1865, he married Jessy Caroline Bootle-Wilbraham, sister of Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, 1st Earl of Lathom. They had one daughter.

References

Editions

• Bateman, John (1876). The Acre-ocracy of England; a list of all owners of three thousand acres and upwards, with their possessions and incomes, arranged under their various counties, also their colleges and clubs; culled from the Modern Domesday Book. London: Basil Montagu Pickering. Retrieved 22 May 2020 – via HathiTrust.
• ⸻ (1878). The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland: A list of all owners of three thousand acres and upwards, worth £3,000 a year, in England, Scotland, Ireland & Wales, their acreage, income from land, college, club, and services, culled from the Modern Domesday Book; with an analysis. London: Harrison and Sons. Retrieved 22 May 2020 – via HathiTrust.
• ⸻ (1879). The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland. A list of all owners of three thousand acres and upwards, worth £3,000 a year, in England, Scotland, Ireland, & Wales, their income from land, acreage, colleges, clubs, and services, culled from the Modern Domesday Book; corrected in the vast majority of cases by the owners themselves (new [2nd], with the addition of 1,320 owners of 2,000 acres and upwards ed.). London: Harrison. Retrieved 22 May 2020 – via HathiTrust.
• ⸻ (1883). The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland. A list of all owners of three thousand acres and upwards, worth £3,000 a year; also, one thousand three hundred owners of two thousand acres and upwards, in England, Scotland, Ireland, & Wales, their acreage and income from land culled from the Modern Domesday Book; also their colleges, clubs, and services; corrected in the vast majority of cases by the Owners themselves (4th, revised and corrected throughout ed.). London: Harrison. Retrieved 22 May 2020 – via Internet Archive.
• ⸻ (1971) [1883]. The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland. "Victorian Library" series. Spring, David (introduction) (4th ed.). Leicester / New York: Leicester University Press / Humanities Press. ISBN 978-0-7185-5013-4. OCLC 1079198448 – via Internet Archive.

Sources

• Obituary in The Times, October 13, 1910.
• Spring "Introduction" in Bateman 1971