Chandos Wren-Hoskyns BA, JP, DL (15 February 1812 – 28 November 1876) was an English landowner,

agriculturist An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.), is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the U ...

, politician and author. Not all of his views are shared today.

Family

Born Chandos Hoskyns, as the second son of Sir Hungerford Hoskyns, 7th Baronet of Harewood Park, Herefordshire, he was descended from the poet John Hoskins.Nicholas Goddard, "Hoskyns, Chandos Wren (1812–1876)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004
Retrieved 30 September 2017. Subscription required
/ref> In 1837 he married Theodosia Wren – descended from

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

and a daughter and heiress of Christopher Roberts Wren of

Wroxall Abbey Wroxall Abbey is a substantial Victorian mansion house situated at Wroxall, Warwickshire which was converted for use as a hotel, spa, wedding venue and conference centre. It is a Grade II listed building. History Built in 1141 by Sir Hugh d ...

, Warwickshire – and changed his surname to Wren-Hoskyns. They had a daughter, Catherine. After his first wife's death in 1842, he married in 1846 Anna Fane, daughter of Charles Milner Ricketts. They had a son and two daughters.

Public life

Educated at

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

, followed by

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, Wren-Hoskyns was called to the Bar at

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

in 1838. He served as

High Sheriff of Warwickshire This is a list of sheriffs and high sheriffs of the English county of Warwickshire. The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most ...

in 1855 and was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of the county in 1860. He was a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

from 1869 to 1874, but spoke little apart from a few remarks on agriculture.

Writings

As an author, Wren-Hoskyns wrote frequently for the ''Agricultural Gazette'' from its establishment in 1844, and for the ''Journal of the

Royal Agricultural Society of England The Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE) promotes the scientific development of English agriculture. It was established in 1838 with the motto "Practice with Science" and received its Royal Charter from Queen Victoria in 1840. RASE is bas ...

'' in 1855–1858. Writing in the preface to ''A Short Enquiry into the History of Agriculture in Ancient Medieval and Modern Times'' (1849), he noted pertinently: "English publishers say, despondingly, that agriculturists are not a reading class. What have they ever had to make them so?' Not all his views are generally shared in the 21st century: he described hedgerows as "hideous and useless strongholds of roots, weeds, birds and

vermin Vermin (colloquially varmint(s) or varmit(s)) are pests or nuisance animals that spread diseases or destroy crops or livestock. Since the term is defined in relation to human activities, which species are included vary by region and enterpr ...

." His main interest latterly was reform of

land tenure In common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "tenir" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land owned by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement between both individual ...

, specifically, obstacles to the purchase and sale of land, such as

primogeniture Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...

and

entail In English common law, fee tail or entail is a form of trust established by deed or settlement which restricts the sale or inheritance of an estate in real property and prevents the property from being sold, devised by will, or otherwise alien ...

Bibliography

Wren-Hoskyns's works include:
''A Short Inquiry into the History of Agriculture in Mediæval and Modern Times''
(1849)
''Talpa or the Chronicles of a Clay Farm. An Agricultural Fragment''
(1852) *''Agricultural Statistics'' (1857)
''Occasional Essays''
(1866) *''Land in England, Land in Ireland, and Land in other Lands'' (1869) *''The Land Laws of England: Systems of Land Tenure in Various Countries'' (1870)
''A Catechism on the English Land System''
(1873)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wren-Hoskyns, Chandos 1812 births 1876 deaths Agriculture in England Deputy Lieutenants of Warwickshire 19th-century English writers Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Inner Temple UK MPs 1868–1874 Younger sons of baronets High Sheriffs of Warwickshire English landowners Sheriffs of Warwickshire 19th-century British businesspeople