In the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, a gentleman farmer is a landowner who has a farm (gentleman's farm) as part of his estate and who farms as a hobby rather than for profit or sustenance. [1] [2]
The Collins English Dictionary defines a gentleman farmer in the United Kingdom as one who is actively involved in farming but does not do it for a living, or a person who happens to own a farm but does not farm it himself (paraphrase). A gentleman farmer of the United States is defined as a rich man who can afford to farm for pleasure, or a rich man who farms not to earn, but because he is interested in it (paraphrase). [3]
The farm can vary from under ten to hundreds or even thousands of acres, and may produce any number of types of grains, poultry, or other livestock. A gentleman farmer employs labourers and may also employ a farm manager, and the farm is usually not the chief source of his income. He generally has his own private income, works in a profession, owns a large business elsewhere, or some combination of the three. [4] [5] [6] [7]
Some notable British gentlemen farmers include: Thomas Shaw-Hellier, director of the British Army's Royal Military School of Music and a breeder of Jersey cattle; William Strickland, 6th Baron Boynton, of Yorkshire, numismatist and author of the Journal of a Tour of the United States of America, 1794–95; the pirate Edward Collier, second-in-command to Sir Henry Morgan during his expeditions in Spain; and the Kent County Cricket Club cricketer Hopper Levett.
American examples include James Roosevelt I, the father of President Franklin D. Roosevelt; Dwight D. Eisenhower, who retired to a farm near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, after leaving the White House; Winthrop Rockefeller, son of John D. Rockefeller Jr., who moved to Arkansas in 1953 and established Winrock Farms on Petit Jean Mountain; James Jefferson Webster, who owned multiple business and served in the Rockingham County local government; Frederick Hinde Zimmerman; [8] Frank C. Rathje; William Locke Allison, known for Allison Woods, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995; [9] and Robert Williams Daniel, a bank executive who survived the sinking of the Titanic and later married Margery Durant, daughter of General Motors founder Billy Durrant, and was elected to the Virginia Senate in 1935. His farm, Brandon, one of the oldest continuous agricultural operations in the United States, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969, [9] and was further declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1985. [10] [11]
A farm is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used for specialized units such as arable farms, vegetable farms, fruit farms, dairy, pig, and poultry farms, and land used for the production of natural fiber, biofuel, and other commodities. It includes ranches, feedlots, orchards, plantations and estates, smallholdings, and hobby farms, and includes the farmhouse and agricultural buildings as well as the land. In modern times, the term has been extended so as to include such industrial operations as wind farms and fish farms, both of which can operate on land or at sea.
Rappahannock County is a county located in the northern Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, US, adjacent to Shenandoah National Park. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 7,348. Its county seat is Washington. The name "Rappahannock" comes from the Algonquian word lappihanne, meaning "river of quick, rising water" or "where the tide ebbs and flows." The county is included in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Berryville is an incorporated town in and the county seat of Clarke County, Virginia, United States. The population was 4,574 at the 2020 census, up from 4,185 at the 2010 census.
In real estate, a landed property or landed estate is a property that generates income for the owner without the owner having to do the actual work of the estate.
A gentlemen's club is a private social club of a type originally set up by men from Britain's upper classes in the 18th and succeeding centuries.
A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technology, involvement of family in labor and economic impact. Smallholdings are usually farms supporting a single family with a mixture of cash crops and subsistence farming. As a country becomes more affluent, smallholdings may not be self-sufficient, but may be valued for the rural lifestyle. As the sustainable food and local food movements grow in affluent countries, some of these smallholdings are gaining increased economic viability. There are an estimated 500 million smallholder farms in developing countries of the world alone, supporting almost two billion people.
A hobby farm is a smallholding or small farm that is maintained without expectation of being a primary source of income. Some are held merely to provide recreational land for horses or other use. Others are managed as working farms for secondary income, or are even run at an ongoing loss as a lifestyle choice by people with the means to do so, functioning more like a country home than a business.
The Cyrus McCormick Farm and Workshop is on the family farm of inventor Cyrus Hall McCormick known as Walnut Grove. Cyrus Hall McCormick improved and patented the mechanical reaper, which eventually led to the creation of the combine harvester. The farm is near Steele's Tavern and Raphine, close to the northern border of Rockbridge and Augusta counties in the U.S. state of Virginia, and is currently a museum run by the Virginia Agricultural Experimental Station of Virginia Tech. The museum has free admission and covers 5 acres (2.0 ha) of the initial 532-acre (215.3 ha) farm.
Woodlawn is a historic house located in Fairfax County, Virginia. Originally a part of Mount Vernon, George Washington's historic plantation estate, it was subdivided in the 19th century by abolitionists to demonstrate the viability of a free labor system. The address is now 9000 Richmond Highway, Alexandria, Virginia, but due to expansion of Fort Belvoir and reconstruction of historic Route 1, access is via Woodlawn Road slightly south of Jeff Todd Way/State Route 235. The house is a designated National Historic Landmark, primarily for its association with the Washington family, but also for the role it played in the historic preservation movement. It is now a museum property owned and managed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Lower Brandon Plantation is located on the south shore of the James River in present-day Prince George County, Virginia.
The Oliver Kelley Farm is a farm museum in Elk River, Minnesota, United States. From 1850 to 1870 it was owned by Oliver Hudson Kelley, one of the founders of the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, the country's first national agrarian advocacy group. The Oliver Kelley Farm is operated as a historic site by the Minnesota Historical Society. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964 under the name Oliver H. Kelley Homestead—which also places it on the National Register of Historic Places—for its national significance in the themes of agriculture and social history. It was nominated as a representative of the beginnings of agrarian activism in the United States, setting the stage for the Farmers' Alliance and the People's Party of the late 19th century.
Paul Brandon Barringer was an American physician and college administrator, the sixth president of Virginia Tech, serving from September 1, 1907 through July 1, 1913. He was also chairman of the faculty at the University of Virginia from 1895 through 1903. He made major changes to the medical curriculum at U.Va, adding requirements for clinical training, as was common in Europe.
Rose Hill Farm, also known as the James-Marshall-Snyder Farm, is a double-pile, two story brick farmhouse with Greek Revival features near Shepherdstown, West Virginia. A log house on the property was built circa 1795, while the brick house was built around 1835. It is believed that the log house was built by Samuel Davenport, who leased the land from the Stephen family. In 1821 the property was sold to Thomas James.
Gap View Farm, near Charles Town, West Virginia, is a historic farm complex built in 1774. The farm was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 9, 1997.
Temple Hall is an early 19th-century Federal-style mansion and working farm near the Potomac River north of Leesburg in Loudoun County, Virginia.
Valley View is a mid-19th-century Greek Revival residence and farm overlooking the South Branch Potomac River northwest of Romney, West Virginia. The house is atop a promontory where Depot Valley joins the South Branch Potomac River valley.
The Stone-Darracott House is a historic house on Old Marlborough Road in Dublin, New Hampshire. It was built in 1792 by John Stone, an early settler of Dublin for whom nearby Stone Pond is named. The house was also made part of a "gentleman's farm" by Mrs. Alberta Houghton in the early 20th century, along with the adjacent Stone Farm. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
Isaac Newton was an agriculturalist who became the first United States Commissioner of Agriculture.
The Butler-Wallin House, at 1045 E 4500 S, Millcreek, Utah, in Salt Lake County, Utah, was built in 1928–29. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
The Butler-Wallin House, built in 1928-1929, is a one-and-a-half-story Period Revival-style residence. The house is significant under Criteria A for its association with the agricultural and suburban development of central Salt Lake County. The Butler-Wallin House was originally built as the showpiece of a 35-acre farm. The house and farm had several owners during the historic period, and each had different agricultural use for the property. The farm acreage land was sold for residential development between the 1950s and 1980s, but the house remains a distinctive reminder of the neighborhood's agricultural heritage. The Butler-Wallin House is a rare example of a farmhouse that represents a subset of second-generation Salt Lake County residents, the "gentlemen" farmers. Prosperous businessmen, who like Robert Butler and Alvin G. Wallin, kept their in-town jobs while maintaining suburban farms for hobby, experimentation, and educational purposes. The Butler-Wallin House is also significant under Criterion C as an architectural landmark in the area. The Butler-Wallin House was designed by the first owner, Robert W. Butler, whose avocation was architecture. The design of the house was derived from published plans for farmhouses, but adapted by Butler to produce a period revival hybrid of the English Tudor and Colonial Revival styles. It is the only substantial period revival-style frame house in the area. Thehome's beautiful architecture and lush landscaping made it a popular venue for weddings, receptions, and other social events during the historic period. The Butler-Wallin House and landscape contribute to the historic resources of its Salt Lake County neighborhood.
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.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) and Accompanying four photos, interior and exterior, from 1969 and 1974 (32 KB){{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) (at Virginia DHR, includes map of the plantation)