Improvers

Improvers

1. John Cockburn of Ormiston

   • An early improver of the first generation, and thus a genuine pioneer
   • Unusual in that beyond economic gain Cockburn can be considered a cultural improver
   • Cockburn was pro Union, and believed agricultural improvement would allow Scotland to justify its place in eighteenth century Britain
   • Between 1714 and 1746 Cockburn oversaw a far reaching programme of improvement. All steadings were rebuilt, enclosure, hedge planting
   • Paid for tenants and their sons to learn husbandry in England
   • Granted unheard of 19 year leases in exchange for tenants agreements binding them to improve the land at their expense, emulating Cockburn’s improvements on his home farm
   • Unlike typical gentry of the era, Cockburn adopted an active interest, continually inspecting husbandry and even corresponding directly with tenants when on business in London
   • Re-built the local farm-toun into the ‘new-town’ of Ormiston providing a market for surplus produce and facilities including a brewery, distillery and bleachfield
   • 1747 – Cockburn declared bankrupt, however it may be argued that a lack of success as a businessman and having an impact upon the agricultural revolution may not necessarily be incompatible
     • Many of his tenants continued in their improved husbandry whilst benefiting from the material infrastructure which became his legacy
   • Smout
     • identifies Cockburn as being particularly important in applying and dissemination improved farming practice. It is impossible not to be impressed by the energy and vision with which a man like John Cockburn of Ormiston burst open the high walls of tradition on his estate.

2. Archibald Grant of Monymusk

   • Grant was an MP, wealthy landowner and pioneer improver whose efforts to modernise the husbandry practised on his lands ran in parallel with Cockburn’s
   • Proved improvement was compatible with sound business practice, restoring through necessity his family fortune through the implementation of efficient methods
   • Invested heavily in infrastructure, such as his planned village of Archiestown to provide not only a marketplace but also employment in textile manufacture
   • Imported European workers to instruct on agricultural and industrial techniques
   • Whately
     • notes Sir Archibald Grant of Monymusk’s considerable investment in infrastructure in both planned towns and associated industry

3. Sir John Sinclair

   • Influential landowner who actively involved himself in the encouragement of his tenants to adopt improvement
   • Prominent member of the Board of Agriculture and the Highland and Agricultural Society
     • Sinclair instigated agricultural research and investigation on a vast scale, culminating in editing the Statistical Accounts and the General Views of Agriculture
   • Prolific, widely read author who denounced customary practice, which he claimed relied upon implements ‘of the worst description’ ensuring ‘all attempts at improvement would be in vain’
   • Numerous publications provided an important impetus for progressive ideas
   • Financed new and improved infrastructure including the redesign of Caithness and the establishment of Thurso

4. Thomas Hope of Rankeillor

   • Member of the gentry who toured England and Europe in search of agricultural innovation
   • Instrumental in forming and running Edinburgh’s Honourable Society of Improvers which itself was instrumental in disseminating knowledge of the new husbandry
   • Became particularly adept in the use of drainage, gaining repute for the draining of Edinburgh’s south loch which was replaced by the meadows

5. Henry Home, Lord Kames

   • Prolific agricultural author and publicist Kames wrote extensively on the importance of the practical application of science in agriculture
     • Most famously in his publication of the influential ‘Gentleman Farmer’ 1776
   • Commissioned extensive agricultural studies to record and publicise best agricultural practice. Provided capital for ambitious rural transport improvements including road improvements, bridges and the cutting of canals
   • Gained fame for the scale of his improvements on his Blair Drummond estate which included the drainage and cultivation of 330 acres of marsh
   • Adams
     • confirms Lord Kames influence upon contemporaries courtesy of the enormous scale of improvement at Blair Drummond.

6. Devine

   • emphasises the pivotal role of the individual improvers as a collective force in the promotion of agricultural change. The landed class was at the heart of the process, not necessarily through routine personal involvement by at a more strategic level through the support they gave to their professional factors