Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- The rise of the estate steward
- The steward's career
- The whole duty of a steward
- Between lord and tenant
- Returns to London
- The ambassador
- Tending the interest
- The almoner
- Filling the pulpit
- The constable: defending the manor
- The constable: defending the forests
- Exploiting the estate
- The clerk of works
- Master and man
- A note on the manuscript sources
- Index
- Title in the series
The ambassador
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- The rise of the estate steward
- The steward's career
- The whole duty of a steward
- Between lord and tenant
- Returns to London
- The ambassador
- Tending the interest
- The almoner
- Filling the pulpit
- The constable: defending the manor
- The constable: defending the forests
- Exploiting the estate
- The clerk of works
- Master and man
- A note on the manuscript sources
- Index
- Title in the series
Summary
I quite forgot in my last to acquaint you of good Mr Drydon['s] death … Pray go you to his funeral and present my service to the gentlemen that go down to his burial and let them know I would have been sure to have been there myself had I been in the country and commanded you to be there to perform my last service to my very good friend.
Lord Fitzwilliam to Francis Guybon, 1708I see with others' eyes.
Sir John Lowther of Whitehaven, 1681The steward, as his lord's surrogate, was his ambassador to the region in which the estate stood. He was his master's eyes and ears, a vital source of intelligence both open and secret, as ambassadors have always been. He was also his master's voice, in the marketplaces, at the fairs, at the sessions and assizes, in the council chambers of neighbouring boroughs, at the meetings of local gentlemen which preceded elections for knights of the shire and (as we shall see in the following chapter) in parliamentary elections in boroughs in which his master maintained an interest, and even in the meetings of the board of governors of an endowed grammar school.
Sir Joseph Williamson intends some kindness to St Bees School. Order it so that at the next meeting of the governors someone resign so that Sir Joseph may be chosen governor and let the rest sign a letter to him to signify his election which I shall deliver. I do not intend that you shall resign but any of the rest.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Stewards, Lords and PeopleThe Estate Steward and his World in Later Stuart England, pp. 108 - 135Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992