Agricultural History Review, Volume 43 Part 2 (1995), pp. 193–204

William Paddison was born in Lincolnshire in 1839 and farmed in the marsh area throughout the agricultural depression at the end of the nineteenth century. He rose from small beginnings to a holding of I00 acres and rode out the depression to emerge in a prosperous state. This paper evaluates the reasons for his success in difficult times and comments on the peasant as a survivor and on Paddison's handling of labour. Primary sources used are Paddison's own diaries and business papers. Paddison seemed to be the right man in therfight place at the right time doing the right things but, at the time, he did not know this and his success was not evident until the depression was over. Thirsk has regretted that the annals of such men as Paddison are generally unrecorded: this paper starts to redress the lack of extant evidence of the business methods of medium-sized farmers. 

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