Agricultural improvement in the Scottish Enlightenment: the third Duke of Buccleuch, William Keir and the Buccleuch Estates, 1751-1812

Abstract

This thesis aims to reconstruct the management of the Buccleuch estates in Scotland during the administration of Henry Campbell Scott, third Duke of Buccleuch (1746-1812). Particular emphasis is given in the study to the role of William Keir of Milnholm, the duke's overseer of works and improvements, while the influence of the philosopher Adam Smith as tutor and adviser to the duke is also considered. In doing so, this thesis attempts to contribute to the wider debates surrounding the role of the landed classes in Scottish agrarian improvement and the influence of Scottish Enlightenment thought upon the improvers.

The thesis begins by reconstructing the administration of the Buccleuch estates during the duke's sixteen-year minority and outlining the land management policies pursued during this period. The duke's education is then examined with particular emphasis on the role played by Adam Smith as his tutor during the duke's Grand Tour. Smith's involvement is also examined in the context of the initial management reforms implemented by the duke at the outset of his personal administration in 1767, where it is argued that Smith played a previously unacknowledged role as agent and adviser to the duke. The thesis continues with two detailed case studies of the attempts to implement agricultural improvement upon the estate, where the role of William Keir is highlighted. The first of these describes the programme of improvements implemented upon the duke's lowland estate of Eckford, while the second outlines the attempts to reform the management of the duke's upland estates. In the following chapter, aspects of the `infrastructural improvement' carried out upon the estates is considered along with a number of `extra-economic' concerns that also influenced the management of the estate. By examining the involvement of Adam Smith in the duke's affairs together with the vision of improvement expounded by William Keir, the thesis attempts to examine the influence of Enlightenment ideas upon the improvement policies pursued under the duke's administration, before finally assessing the duke's personal role in the improvement of his estates. The thesis concludes that the management of the Buccleuch estates under the third duke is an important example of `improvement from above' in which a central role was played by an ideological commitment to a concept of improvement that encompassed not only commercial and economic imperatives, but also social, political and moral concerns.