Reading the Regency

Property - The Estate

"Sir John had two estates, one of them paternal, which went in the ordinary course of descent to the representative of the eldest son, being the present Sir Robert Percy. Sir John's other estate, in Hampshire, which came to him by his wife, he conveyed, a short time before his death, to his youngest grandson, the present Lewis Percy, who had held undisturbed possession of it for many years."
[Chapter 42, Patronage by Maria Edgeworth]

An Estate was more than just a house surrounded by a garden. It was one of the most important things a family could own.

A person's estate was all the land and property owned by the family. For many gentlemen, the money generated from their family's estate was their primary source of income. While families could receive interest from cash invested in Government funds, many others invested in land and expected the land to provide at least some if not all of their annual income. It was this independent income from the land they owned that contributed to their status as gentlemen.

It may seem unfair that the eldest male heir could inherit most if not all of an estate. However, doing that maintained the family's status as landholders. If a gentleman had two sons and four daughters and wanted them to benefit equally on his death, they could sell the estate and split the money six ways. The daughters' money would then flow into her husband's family and the sons may not have enough land each to provide the income needed to have a future as gentlemen of independent means.

So the priority was on keeping the estate whole, and making it bigger where possible, allowing the family to protect their social status. They could always help out other family members financially, but only if the estate provided the family with income. This is why entails were used by some families to protect and pass on this valuable resource "whole".

The Elements of an Estate

"Mr. Gardiner expressed a wish of going round the whole Park, but feared it might be beyond a walk. With a triumphant smile, they were told that it was ten miles round. It settled the matter; and they pursued the accustomed circuit; which brought them again, after some time, in a descent among hanging woods, to the edge of the water, in one of its narrowest parts."
[Chapter 43, Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen]

Every estate was different, with no common plan. Some were small and local, others were spread over thousands of acres. A few gentlemen or peers might have land or property in different parts of the country. A family that had inherited cash might invest in a house and land over a few years, while other families had built their estate over many generations.

Although there was no standard pattern for an estate, they included two or more of the following common elements:

A Country House, with a garden for the family to enjoy. The gardens, or pleasure grounds, could include other elements like a kitchen garden or a shrubbery. Although a country house was nice, it didn't generate any income itself unless rented out to a tenant.

A Park, was an extended area of grass, beyond the formal gardens, where the family could walk, ride or just enjoy the view from the house or gardens. You could also graze cattle, sheep or deer in a park. The size varied considerably. The smallest could be ten or twenty acres. Middle-sized parks might cover a few hundred acres and the very largest stretched to thousands of acres. You would have to be comfortably wealthy to leave thousands of acres of land unfarmed just to provide an impressive view from the house, and some of the largest parks were in the north of the country, where land was less in demand and therefore less valuable.