Nathaniel Kent (1737–1810) was an English land valuer and agriculturist.

Life

Nathaniel Kent was baptized in Andover on 8 February 1737, the youngest son of Ambrose Kent and Mary Sylverthorn. He was first employed in the diplomatic service as secretary to

Sir James Porter Sir James Porter Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (1710 – December 1776) was a British diplomat. He wrote papers on astronomy and geology and was a member of the Royal Society. Life Porter was born in 1710 in Dublin, Ireland. He was the son of ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. During his time there he studied the husbandry of the Austrian Netherlands, at that time thought to be the best in Europe. The acquaintance of Benjamin Stillingfleet, the naturalist, was valuable to him. Kent's published writings brought him employment on a large scale as an estate agent and land valuer, and he worked to improve English methods of land management. His subsequent work in agriculture was mainly in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, but he also suggested extensive embankments in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

, which were successfully carried out. He was for a short time

bailiff A bailiff (from Middle English baillif, Old French ''baillis'', ''bail'' "custody") is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. Bailiffs are of various kinds and their offi ...

of George III's farm in the

Windsor Great Park Windsor Great Park is a Royal Park of , including a deer park, to the south of the town of Windsor on the border of Berkshire and Surrey in England. It is adjacent to the private Home Park, which is nearer the castle. The park was, for many ...

. On 25 Nov 1766, at St. James, Piccadilly, Kent married Miss Ann Powell. Their offspring included:
1) Marianne, baptized at All Saints Fullham on 28 Sept 1769, buried at Buxton, Norfolk, on 21 Mar 1773
2) Sophia, baptized at All Saints Fulham on 10 Oct 1772, married to Charles Adams at St Martin in the Fields, Westminster, on 22 Jan 1803 The widowed Kent married Miss Armine North, granddaughter of Roger North, on 10 April 1783. Their children included:
1) Charles, born 28 May 1784 at Fulham
2) George, born 24 Sep 1787 at Fulham
3) Thomas (grandfather of the poet Armine Thomas Kent and first husband of the second wife of Bishop Charles James Blomfield), born 31 Mar 1790, died 1818
4) Harriet (who married Alexandre T Sampayo in 1820), born 19 Mar 1793, died 1857
Kent died of apoplexy at

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

, 10 October 1810 and was buried at

All Saints Church, Fulham All Saints' Church is the ancient parish church of Fulham, in the County of Middlesex, pre-dating the Reformation. It is now an Anglican church in Fulham, London, sited close to the River Thames, beside the northern approach to Putney Bridge. T ...

on 16 October.

Works

Some of Kent's letters to Sir James Porter, dated 1765 and 1766. are in the

Egerton Manuscripts The Egerton Collection is a collection of historical manuscripts held in the British Library. The core of the collection comprises 67 manuscripts bequeathed to the British Museum in 1829 by Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater, along with ...

2157. Returning to England in 1766, he drew up an account of Flemish husbandry at the request of

Sir John Cust Sir John Cust, 3rd Baronet PC (29 August 1718 – 24 January 1770), of Belton House near Grantham in Lincolnshire, was a British politician who served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1761 to 1770. Origins He was the eldest son of Sir ...

, the

Speaker of the House of Commons Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a speaker to lead its proceedings. Systems that have such a position include: * Speaker of ...

, who persuaded Kent to devote himself to agriculture. Kent published in 1775 ''Hints to Gentlemen of Landed Property'' (3rd edition 1793) with coverage going as far as labourers' cottages. He contributed ''A General View of the Agriculture of the County of Norfolk'' to the ''

Survey Survey may refer to: Statistics and human research * Statistical survey, a method for collecting quantitative information about items in a population * Survey (human research), including opinion polls Spatial measurement * Surveying, the techniq ...

'' issued by the

Board of Agriculture The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) was a United Kingdom government department created by the Board of Agriculture Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c.30) and at that time called the Board of Agriculture, and then from 1903 the Board ...

in 1794 (and supplementary remarks, Norwich, 1796), and papers in

Alexander Hunter Dr Alexander Hunter (1729–17 May 1809) was a Scottish physician, known also as a writer and editor. Life Born in Edinburgh in 1729 (the ''Memoir'' says 1733), he was eldest son of a prosperous druggist. He was sent to the grammar school at ...

's ''Georgical Essays'', York, 1803. Details on the king's farm, communicated by him to the Society of Arts in 1798, were subsequently published as a pamphlet.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Kent, Nathaniel 1737 births 1810 deaths 18th-century English writers Agricultural writers Burials at All Saints Church, Fulham