Agricultural History Review, Volume 66 Part 1 (2018), pp. 67–92

Subletting continues to be overlooked in macro-economic narratives of agrarian change in early modern England. This article outlines a new methodology to reconstruct and map subletting practices. The approach is demonstrated using two eighteenth-century case-study parishes but can be more widely applied. It outlines the proportion of sublet land in each parish and establishes subtenants’ socio-economic status. Measured by length of occupancy, subleases are shown to offer subtenants similar levels of tenurial security to those enjoyed by owner-occupying manorial tenants. Manorial documents are shown to inaccurately reflect landholding patterns at the level of occupation because they conceal subtenant-driven engrossment and a substantial subletting market. Finally, the article explores the implications of this for existing methods of calculating early modern farm sizes, and questions the accuracy of existing farm size data. 

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