The Return of Owners of Land in England and Wales 1873

The Return of Owners of Land in England and Wales aimed to show the number and names of owners of land of one acre and upwards, whether built upon or not, together with the estimated acreage and the annual gross estimated rental of the property, and the number (but not named) of owners of land of less than 1 acre..

The reason the return was called for was due to a discussion which had taken place in the House of Lords, between The Earl of derby and The Lord Privy Seal, when the Earl had said, "..there was from time to time a great outcry raised about what was called the monopoly of land, and, in support of that cry, the wildest and most reckless exaggerations and mis-statements of fact were uttered as to the number of persons who were the actual owners of the soil."

The outcries the Earl was referring to originated out of newspaper reports, quoting the 1861 census, which had stated that the number of owners of land was approximately 30,000, which, given the 1861 population of England and Wales was returned as 20,065,811, put the ownership of the land in England and Wales in the hands of around 0.15% of the population.

The figures in the 1861 census were misleading, as various owners of land were not returned under that heading, but under other headings, such as gentleman, merchant, shopkeeper, farmer etc.

The Earl felt that 300,000 was nearer the mark (but he was way off too, as we shall see).

The information in the return was culled from local valuation lists for rating purposes, and padded out with the names of lessees who held a lease for 99 years or more, or those lessees who had a right of perpetual renewal, both of which were to be considered as 'owners'.

The term 'owner' also included bodies such as Poor Law Guardians, Overseers, Churchwardens, Trustees, Executors of Wills etc.

The final results were as follows:

Number of owners of land > 1 acre: 269,547
Number of owners of land < 1 acre: 703,280

Giving a total of 972,836, or 4.8% of the population (in the East Riding the proportion was higher, at around 7.3%).

The following list shows owners of land of 1 acre or more, who were resident in Aughton, but whose land may not necessarily have been in the parish. 

Addresses in brackets indicate that the actual address of the owner of land could not be ascertained, so the parish in which the land was situate has been entered instead. Care should be taken with 'Cottingwith'. Some addresses were given explicitly as eith East or West Cottingwith, but some sipmply as Cottingwith.


Extent of
Lands		 Gross Estimated
Value
Name of Owner Address of Owner A R P £ s.
Holmley, Rd. (East Cottingwith) 1 1 18 4 0
Hombey, Rd (East Cottingwith) 3 1 18 12 15
Lund, James (East Cottingwith) 105 1 22 183 10
Lund, Priest (East Cottingwith) 3 3 36 6 10
Blanshard, Mrs. R.R. Aughton 39 3 20 42 2
Brownbridge, John Aughton 2 0 0 4 2
Churchwardens of… Aughton 14 0 34 29 0
Lee, Robert Aughton 100 0 0 138 10
Precious, George Aughton 28 0 0 50 0
Simpson, Rev. R. Aughton 28 0 12 65 9
Blacker, Ann and Sush. Cottingwith 10 0 22 16 10
Blacker, Elizabeth Cottingwith 137 1 34 180 0
Blacker, George Cottingwith 3 1 35 33 10
Blacker, John Cottingwith 16 2 20 23 0
Jewitt, Mr. Cottingwith 3 0 26 10 0
Jewitt, William Cottingwith 11 2 6 20 0
Jowett, Mr. Cottingwith 63 3 1 100 0
Parish officers of … Cottingwith 50 1 16 85 10
Ratcliff, William Cottingwith 21 3 0 16 0
Reaston, Hy. Cottingwith 2 0 37 16 0
Richardson, Rev. G. Cottingwith 37 0 23 43 0
Blanshard, George East Cottingwith 113 3 35 187 5
Bonard, Thomas East Cottingwith 1 1 30 23 5
Ellis, Miss East Cottingwith 8 3 13 134 15
Featherby, Mrs. East Cottingwith 18 3 38 19 0
Gell, Thomas East Cottingwith 2 0 19 16 0
Godfrey, Martin East Cottingwith 132 1 34 256 5
Hemingway, John East Cottingwith 2 2 11 14 15
Martin, William W. East Cottingwith 7 2 35 8 15
Overseers of … East Cottingwith 21 3 6 25 15
Pears, Ann East Cottingwith 29 1 7 57 5
Radcliffe, John East Cottingwith 70 0 0 55 13
Room, Thomas East Cottingwith 7 0 0 18 10
Ryder, Mrs. Mary East Cottingwith 41 2 38 62 15
Seymour, John East Cottingwith 1 2 22 4 15
Stead, Samuel East Cottingwith 1 0 6 15 0
Sumpton, Sarah East Cottingwith 23 2 37 53 0
Wake, George East Cottingwith 25 0 3 66 5