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Women's Agency Within the Montagu Property Network, C.1709-1827

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Women's Agency Within the Montagu Property Network, C.1709-1827 Managing Aristocratic Households: Women’s Agency within the Montagu Property Network, c.1709-1827 Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester By Emma Frances Purcell School of History, Politics and International Relations University of Leicester April 2018 Abstract Managing Aristocratic Households: Women’s Agency within the Montagu Property Network, c.1709-1827 By Emma Frances Purcell The English country house has captured people’s interest and imagination for centuries, and has been the subject of many popular and academic studies. However, due to a tendency to focus upon the art and architecture of such properties, how families actually lived in and used these great houses has often been obscured and underexplored. The eighteenth-century Montagu family will be used as a case study through which to explore a number of key themes associated with the social, rather than architectural side of the country house. Their country seat of Boughton House, Northamptonshire will be considered as part of their wider network of urban, suburban and country estates, which increased throughout the century through marriages and inheritance patterns, in order to explore the position of the country house in connection to other aristocratic properties. This thesis will use the Montagu family to examine how aristocratic families used, managed and moved between a large network of estates. It will highlight the importance of inheritance and legal terminology in giving elite women agency, power and influence within households, within their marriages and over their own finances. It will explore the position that Boughton occupied within their network in relation to other properties, looking at what criteria three generations of the family prioritised when moving between houses. In particular, it will show that not all country properties were at the height of their popularity in the eighteenth century, with some, like Boughton, being neglected by owners and left to fall into decline. ii Acknowledgements This PhD has been kindly and generously funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the University of Leicester and the Buccleuch Living Heritage Trust. This opportunity has allowed me to develop my research skills, follow my interests and provided me with the chance to work with great people and fascinating source material, for which I am very grateful. Roey Sweet has been my supervisor for not just my PhD thesis, but my undergraduate and master’s degrees and I could not have asked for a better mentor. Roey has encouraged me to push myself, have more confidence in my own abilities and supported me throughout. Her guidance has been invaluable. I must also thank my end of year review advisors, Phillip Lindley and Elizabeth Clapp, for their questions, feedback and advice on how to improve my work, as well as Richard Ansell, Julie Attard, Sarah Goldsmith, Sally Horrocks and Elizabeth Hurren for their help and support. So many of the academics within the School of History at the University of Leicester have given advice to me throughout my studies and it has been a pleasure to have been part of such a supportive department for the past four years. I am indebted to Crispin Powell, archivist to the Buccleuch collections. Without his continued help, guidance and suggestions, I would not have been able to have completed this thesis. Crispin has helped me to find amazing material for my thesis from my first visit to Boughton House, helped me to navigate complex aspects of the Montagu family history and their sources, and answered my endless questions and queries with the utmost patience. I would also like to thank Richard and Elizabeth, Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry for allowing me to have access to the Buccleuch archives and the wonderful properties which they are located within. Helen Bates and Tamar Moore have been my colleagues on ‘The English Versailles’ project and I would like to thank them for sharing ideas and the discoveries they have made along the way. Within Boughton House and the Buccleuch properties, I would also like to thank Gareth Fitzpatrick for his help and welcoming me to Boughton at the beginning of the project; Honor Gay; Sandra Howat; Cameron Manson for showing me around the Dalkeith estate and his invaluable insights into the history of Dalkeith Palace and Daniel Bochman for kindly providing a fascinating tour of Dalkeith Palace. iii The postgraduate community within the School of History has always been incredibly active and supportive, which has made this process infinitely less isolating and allowed for many Friday evenings to be spent sharing discoveries and problems at the pub! In particular I would like to thank Aaron Andrews, Nicola Blacklaws, Katie Bridger, Sally Ann Hartshorne, Kellie Moss, Katy Roscoe, Ann Stones and Alister Sutherland for their support and friendship throughout. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Susan and Graham Purcell, for their unwavering support, encouragement and love. They have always supported my decisions and nurtured my interest in history from a young age. Mum, in particular, has been a constant source of strength, often providing a shoulder to cry on and plenty of home cooked dinners to keep me going – I could not have done this without you. iv Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................ v List of Figures ................................................................................................................ vii List of Maps .................................................................................................................... ix List of Tables ................................................................................................................... x List of Abbreviations ..................................................................................................... xi Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 Literature Review: The Scope of Current Studies ............................................................ 2 Boughton House and the Dukes of Montagu and Buccleuch and Queensberry ............. 14 Research Questions and Thesis Structure ....................................................................... 27 Methodology, Scope and Limitations ............................................................................. 30 Chapter 1: Entail, Heiresses and Legal Disputes: The Complexities of Montagu Property Ownership and Inheritance ......................................................................... 35 An Advantageous Match ................................................................................................ 42 Where There’s a Will . ................................................................................................ 47 A House Belonging to Me .............................................................................................. 58 Chapter 2: A Gentleman’s House but a Woman’s Domain? The Management of a Network of Households ................................................................................................ 67 Mary and John: A Gentleman’s Domain? ...................................................................... 71 Mary and George: A Joint Endeavour? .......................................................................... 84 Elizabeth and Henry: A Divided Network? .................................................................... 94 Chapter 3: House vs. Home: The Use and Function of a Network of Households 104 John and Mary: A Town Affair .................................................................................... 108 Mary and George: A Convenient Home? ..................................................................... 124 Henry and Elizabeth: An Ever Expanding Network ..................................................... 136 Chapter 4: ‘I Must Now Say a Word or Two of My Journey’: Travel, Communication and the Mobility of the Montagus ................................................. 148 Family Travel ................................................................................................................ 152 Movement of Servants .................................................................................................. 164 Travel and Sociability ................................................................................................... 171 Chapter 5: Financial Responsibility in the Aristocratic Household ...................... 180 v Mary and John: A Gentleman’s Responsibility? .......................................................... 183 Mary and George: Separate Accounts, Joint Responsibility? ....................................... 190 Elizabeth and Henry: The Influence of Inheritance ...................................................... 198 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 217 Appendix 1 ................................................................................................................... 224 Appendix 2 ..................................................................................................................
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