THIS EDITED VOLUME IS about a subject of rural history that has often been ignored or reviled: the land agent. Factor, commissioner, manager, steward or agent: call him (and he was until well into the twentieth century universally a ‘him’) what you will, historians of rural Britain and Ireland have yet to give his role and operational parameters much sustained attention. This blind spot is particularly odd when we remind ourselves of the power – actual and reputational – wielded by land agents over large rural populations until relatively recently. As the representatives of landowners ‘on the ground’ in a part of Europe where large swathes of land were concentrated into relatively few hands, it is perhaps unsurprising that land agents carry a somewhat mixed – sometimes dark – historical reputation. In parts of Scotland, Wales and Ireland in particular, some agents developed local, regional – even national – reputations as tyrants and oppressors of the poor, to the extent that their names are still remembered today. In some parts of the British and Irish isles, agents did not labour under such burdensome reputations, but they were still generally recognised as powerful, well-educated men; leaders of their local society, often holding a multiplicity of local and regional political and governmental offices. They were relatively well paid too, often far in advance of doctors, clergy or teachers, fellow members of the rural middle and professional classes. Land agents are not just of interest to historians either; in the twenty-first century, they are still instrumental to the administration of landed estates.

Their role was a challenging one, as the chapters in this collection will demonstrate, in every geographical context. Resident land agents were required to manage almost every aspect of the estate, from the collection of rents and rates, to managing building repairs and improvements, surveying and agricultural science, the sensitive relations between landlords and tenants, as well as strategic planning for the future. All of this was underpinned by their relationship to their employer, the landowner, and their attitude to their estates, investment and consumption. Most land agents also had to have a strong working knowledge of the law; indeed, there was an enduring link between the legal and agency professions throughout the period covered by this volume, and certain law firms became associated with estate management and developed dynastic expertise.