Presidential Address: The Rise and Fall of English Landed Families, 1600–1800

Abstract

There are two types of question that can be asked about estate-ownership. The first relates to actual families. What was the rate of turnover of landed families, i.e. what percentage appeared and disappeared in, say, each half century? What sort of families were rising and for what reasons? How many were old-established and how many were new? Which families were declining and how many were extinguished; and what were the causes of decline and extinction? Among such questions it is reasonable to ask whether the size of a family's estate made a difference to its survival, whether for example the great families of 1600 fared better or worse than the gentry in the following centuries.