Baker, John Wynn (c. 1730–1775), agricultural improver and writer, emigrated from England, possibly from Worcester, to Ireland in 1761 after the collapse of a business scheme to convey brine from salt pits to the River Severn by a system of pipes. He published his first experimental treatise in ...
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Lady Evelyn Barbara Balfour (1898–1990) by Elliott & Fry, 1943 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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Balfour, Lady Evelyn Barbara [Eve] (1898–1990), promoter of organic farming and a founder of the Soil Association, was born on 16 July 1898 in Dublin, the fourth child of Gerald William Balfour, second earl of Balfour (1853–1945), and Lady Elizabeth Edith Balfour (1867–1942)...
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A. N. L. Grosjean
Blackwell, Alexander (bap. 1709, d. 1747), agricultural improver and government agent in Sweden, was baptized in Aberdeen on 10 October 1709. He was the son of Thomas Blackwell (1660?–1728), professor of theology and principal at Marischal College in Aberdeen, and his wife, Christian (...
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Bordley, John Beale (1727–1804), lawyer and agricultural improver in America, was born on 11 February 1727 in Annapolis, Maryland, the posthumous child of Thomas Bordley (c. 1683–1726), lawyer and government official, and his second wife, Ariana, née Vanderheyden (1690–1741), the widow of James Frisby...
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Broadhurst, Mary Adelaide (1860–1928), agricultural reformer and radical, was born at Chorlton upon Medlock, Lancashire, on 23 May 1860, the second daughter of William Broadhurst, bookkeeper for a bank, accountant, and city councillor in Manchester, and his wife, Maria, née Hutchinson. She gained an MA degree at ...
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Cockburn, John, of Ormiston (1679–1758), politician and agricultural improver, was born in Scotland, the second son of Adam Cockburn (c. 1656–1735) of Ormiston, lord justice clerk and lord of session with the judicial title Lord Ormiston, and his first wife, Lady Susanna Hamilton...
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Conyngham, William Burton (1733–1796), politician and improver, was born William Burton in 1733, the second son of Francis Burton (1696–1743), politician and landowner, of Buncraggy, co. Clare, Ireland, and Mary Conyngham (d. 1737), the only surviving daughter of Major-General Henry Conyngham and the sister of ...
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Christine Lodge
Gordon [née Maxwell], Jane, duchess of Gordon (1748/9–1812), political hostess and agricultural reformer, was born at Hyndford's Close, Edinburgh, the third of the four children of Sir William Maxwell of Monreith, Wigtownshire, third baronet, (c.1712–1771), and his wife, Magdalene, daughter of ...
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Jane Gordon, duchess of Gordon (1748/99–1812) by George Romney, 1778 [ and George Gordon, marquess of Huntly, later fifth duke of Gordon (1770–1836)] Scottish National Portrait Gallery
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R. H. Campbell
Grant, Sir Archibald, of Monymusk, second baronet (1696–1778), politician and agricultural improver, was born in Scotland on 25 September 1696. He was the elder son of Sir Francis Grant (1658x63–1726), lord of session with the judicial title Lord Cullen and, from 1705, first baronet...
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Sir James Grant of Grant, eighth baronet (1738–1811) by Nathaniel Dance, c. 1760 [Left to right] , John Mytton, the Hon. Thomas Robinson, later second Baron Grantham, (1738-1786), and Thomas Wynne (later Baron Newborough)] Yale Centre for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection / Bridgeman Art Library
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Andrew Mackillop
Grant, Sir James, of Grant, eighth baronet (1738–1811), agricultural improver and politician, was born on 19 May 1738, the only son of Sir Ludovick Grant of Grant, seventh baronet (1707–1773), landowner, and his second wife, Lady Margaret Ogilvie, eldest daughter of James, fifth earl of Findlater and second earl of Seafield...
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Rupert Edward Cecil Lee Guinness, second earl of Iveagh (1874–1967) by Howard Coster, 1931 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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R. G. Wilson
Guinness, Rupert Edward Cecil Lee, second earl of Iveagh (1874–1967), brewer and agricultural improver, was born in Berkeley Square, London, on 29 March 1874, the eldest of the three sons of Edward Cecil Guinness (1847–1927), who was created earl of Iveagh in 1919, and his wife, ...
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Peter G. Vasey
Hope, Sir Thomas, eighth baronet (c. 1681–1771), agricultural improver and politician, was born at the family home of Rankeillor in Fife, the second son of a distinguished lawyer, Archibald Hope of Rankeillor, Lord Rankeillor (1639–1706) [see under Hope, Sir John, Lord Craighall...
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Sybil Oldfield
Howard [née Matthaei], Louise Ernestine, Lady Howard (1880–1969), international civil servant and advocate of organic husbandry, was born on 26 December 1880 at 10 Priory Grove, Kensington, London, the youngest daughter in a family of three girls and a boy of Carl Hermann Ernst Matthaei...
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Isham, Sir Charles Edmund, tenth baronet (1819–1903), rural improver and gardener, was born on 16 December 1819, the second son of Sir Justinian Isham, eighth baronet (1773–1845), and his wife, Mary Close (d. 1878). He was educated at Rugby School and at ...
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Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne (bap. 1751, d. 1818) by Sir Thomas Lawrence, c. 1800 reproduced by kind permission of Lord Ralph Kerr, Melbourne Hall
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Jonathan David Gross
Lamb [née Milbanke], Elizabeth, Viscountess Melbourne (bap. 1751, d. 1818), political hostess and agricultural improver, was baptized on 15 October 1751 at Croft-on-Tees, Yorkshire, the only daughter of Sir Ralph Milbanke, fifth baronet (1721?–1798), of Halnaby Hall, Yorkshire, landowner and politician, and his wife, ...
