Description:A number of letters in the Sutherland Papers concern tenants who leased land and property on the Leveson-Gower family’s estate in Wolverhampton. Their letters to the family’s estate agents reflect issues surrounding the rights to land and property at this time, providing an insight into life in Wolverhampton in the early nineteenth century.
Edward Banks, 1837: Land Rights
Edward Banks of Wolverhampton wrote to William Lewis, the Leveson-Gower family's Trentham Agent, in December 1837 about some land which his Mother had owned before she passed away. Edward had received a notice to quit the land and appeals to William Lewis that he wished to keep the land for himself.
Edward informs Lewis that he had held the land since his Mother’s death, adding that the land had been ‘in the family so long about 30 years’. The rent on the land was ‘always duly paid’ and would continue to be paid so by Edward himself.
He writes that during 1836 he had been ‘at a considerable expence in Manuering’ the land which had required about two hundred loads of manure. Before receiving Lewis’s notice, Edward had already had ‘many loads’ delivered in order to undertake the job. He had plans for developing the land as his Mother ‘not understanding the management of land’ had not used it to its best advantage. Edward assures Lewis that if he was allowed to keep the land he would ‘do the best’ he could with it, adding that he would be ‘lost without a piece for the accommodation of my Horse’.
Edward’s letter reflects the inconvenience and disruption caused to families when problems arose with their land and property. The death of Edward’s mother, who was the legal owner of the land, meant that the lease on the land had expired and was now the property of the landowner. Edward continues his letter with a ‘PS’ remarking that if he was not allowed to keep the land he would want them to have it ‘at a low price’ rather than have ‘any more trouble’. Edward had already travelled numerous times to negotiate an agreement with a man named Mr. Newton who wanted the land, and he asks Lewis that Mr. Newton be given ‘the preference’ to the land if he wished.
Click on the images on the left to find out more about the lives of local people living in Wolverhampton during the early nineteenth century.