Inreal estate, alanded property orlanded estate is aproperty that generatesincome for the owner (typically a member of thegentry) without the owner having to do the actual work of the estate.
In medieval Western Europe, there were two competing systems of landed property;manorialism, inherited from theRoman villa system, where a large estate is owned by theLord of the manor andleased to tenants; and thefamily farm orHof owned by and heritable within acommoner family (c.f.yeoman), inherited fromGermanic law.
Agentleman farmer is the largely historic term for a country gentleman who has a farm as part of his estate and farms mainly for pleasure rather than for profit.[1][2] His acreage may vary from under ten to hundreds of acres. The gentleman farmer employed labourers and farm managers. However, according to the 1839Encyclopedia of Agriculture, he "did not associate with these minor working brethren". The chief source of income for the gentleman farmer was derived not from any income that his landed property may generate; he had either access to his ownprivate income, he worked as a professional and/or he owned a large business elsewhere. Or all three.[3][4][5]
Modern landed property often consists of housing or industrial land, generating income in the form of rents or fees for services provided by the facilities on the land, such as port facilities. Owners often commission anestate map to help manage their estate as well as serving as a status symbol.[6]
Landed property was a key element offeudalism, and freed the owner for other tasks, such asgovernment administration,military service, the practice of law, orreligious practices.
In later times, the dominant role of landed estates as a basis of public service faded. Development ofmanufacturing andcommerce createdcapitalist means of obtaining income, but ordinarily demanding the attention of the owner. At roughly the same time, governments began imposing taxes to fund governmentbureaus and the military, so that people of talent could perform government services for salaries without need for the proceeds of ownership of farmland.
Much of theUnited States, typicallyNew England,Pennsylvania, and most states west of the original colonies, never had a landedaristocracy, so their armed forces and government agencies could never be organized on the basis of alanded aristocracy.[citation needed]
A country gentleman who has a farm as part of his estate.
A man who farms mainly for pleasure rather than for profit
gentlemen farmers lord acreage sheep.
My father was a gentleman farmer in the sense that he had a private income... he didn't need to worry too much if the farm itself didn't make any money.
