The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland (originally The Acre-Ocracy of England) is a reference work published by
John Bateman in four editions between 1876 and 1883, giving brief details of individuals owning land in the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to a total of 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) or
valuation of £3000 annual income. It has become a standard
primary source for historians of the
Victorian era.[1]
Compilation
The information was abstracted from the
Return of Owners of Land (1873–1876), a government publication nicknamed the "Modern
Domesday Book". Bateman collated the
county-by-county information, correcting errors, allowing for variations in spelling of surnames, noting with footnotes and asterisks discrepancies and complexities of ownership or income. Owners noted in
Evelyn Shirley's Noble and Gentle Men of England as in unbroken inheritance since the reign of
Henry VII were given a special mark; later editions also separately marked owners not listed by Shirley but who protested to Bateman that they had the same antiquity.