2o8 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



gradually consuming their estates. Lee says of this class, " Their 

 property is nearly gone." x There is a suggestion that a change 

 of this kind in the habits of the yeomen farmers may have been 

 the occasion of forced sales of land in Worcestershire 2 and in 

 Somersetshire. 3 



But while extravagance may at times have been the cause 

 of failure, the yeomen as a class were industrious and frugal. 4 

 Speaking of the yeomanry of Cumberland, Blamire says they 

 "are quite as frugal as the tenantry and often more so, and 

 their situation is often worse. . . . They equally lodge their 

 laborers in their own houses, and dine at the same table with 

 them." 5 Having to give up their estates was "by no means the 

 effect of improvidence on their part." 6 Mr. W. Thurnall said 

 that in Cambridgeshire the yeomen were very economical and 

 always hard-working men. 7 " There is not a more industrious 

 man in the three counties," says J. B. Turner, "than a man in 

 Herefordshire whose estate has been sold under bankruptcy." 8 



It was not, as a rule, lack of frugality and industry which ruined 

 so many of the yeomanry during this period of depression ; it was 

 primarily the fall in prices at a time when indebtedness was very 

 prevalent with this class. 9 This indebtedness was sometimes 

 incurred for the purpose of purchasing land, sometimes for 

 improvements, often to provide for the younger members of the 

 family, and, occasionally, to cover general living expenses. 



Mr. W. Simpson told the committee of 1833 that the yeomanry 

 near Doncaster were " many pf them bankrupts." " Farmers who, 

 having four or five thousand pounds, bought farms twenty-five or 

 thirty years ago, borrowing part of the purchase money, have been 

 obliged to sell, and they have nothing left." 10 In Nottingham- 

 shire "a great number bought land at high prices, and having 



1 Parliamentary Papers, 1833, Vol. V, questions 5S16-5817. 



2 Ibid., question 1700. 6 Ibid., 1837, Vol. V, question 51 1 1. 



3 Ibid., question 9206. 7 Ibid., 1S36, Vol. VIII, question 2423. 



4 Ibid., questions 1704, 8585. 8 Ibid., 1S33, Vol. V, question 8477. 



5 Ibid., questions 6705-6706. 



9 Ibid., questions 6707 et set/., 2346. 6063, 532, 598, 1701. 4401. 4402. 9935, 

 9206; ibid., 1836. Vol. VIII, question 11310; ibid., 1837, Vol. V, question 5108. 

 10 Ibid., 1833, Vol. V, questions 3102-3108. 



