''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 The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state, established by the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801. It continued in this form until ...

to a total of or valuation of £3000 annual income. It has become a standard

primary source In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an Artifact (archaeology), artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was cre ...

for historians of the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...

Compilation

The information was abstracted from the ''Return of Owners of Land'' (1873–1876), a government publication nicknamed the "Modern

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

". Bateman collated the

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

-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 Brightlingsea (, traditionally , , ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the Tendring District, Tendring district of Essex, England. It is situated between Colchester and Clacton-on-Sea, at the mouth of the River Colne, Essex, River Colne, on ...

Hall in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, and was a justice of the peace and deputy lieutenant for Essex and

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

. In 1865, he married Jessy Caroline Bootle-Wilbraham, sister of

Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, 1st Earl of Lathom Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, 1st Earl of Lathom (12 December 1837 – 19 November 1898) known as The Lord Skelmersdale between 1853 and 1880, was a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician. He was a member of every Conservative admi ...

. They had one daughter.

References

Editions

* * * * *

Sources

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

Citations

History of agriculture in the United Kingdom British biographical dictionaries British landowners 1876 non-fiction books 1883 non-fiction books {{ref-book-stub