st reflect either an increase in population or, more likely, a reduction in the status of houses which had once belonged to the smaller farms whose land had been merged into larger holdings by 1717. (fn. 264)
It was left to Hosier's successor, Thomas Prowse, to make the most important purchase for the estate, that of the two farms, a cottage and three yardlands (just over 100 a.) at Dagnall, for which he paid Charles Gibbs of Towcester £3,050 in 1753. (fn. 265) From that date practically the whole of the parish of Wicken, together with about 200 a. of woods in Leckhampstead, belonged to the estate. As Prowse's daughter-in-law Elizabeth later observed, only the parsonage and glebe (including two houses), plus five cottages in the village (one of them the White Lion) were not owned by her family. (fn. 266)
The way was thus open for Prowse to inclose the remaining common arable and meadow in the parish by agreement with the rector and bishop, which he proceeded to do in 1757. The glebe in the open fields was consolidated into a single farm of 126 a. (which was described as a gain of 36 a. to the living) and a composition of £130 a year agreed in lieu of the tithes due from the Wicken Park estate. Although the parties undertook to obtain an Act to confirm the agreement they did not do so. (fn. 267) At the same time Prowse made an exchange with one of the handful of small freeholders in the parish. (fn. 268)
Thomas Prowse gave up Wicken Park to his son George in 1764, (fn. 269) three years before his death. (fn. 270) George also died in 1767, (fn. 271) leaving a widow Elizabeth, who never remarried and ran the estate as a resident proprietor until her own death in 1810. (fn. 272) Both her own detailed accounts (fn. 273) and the comments of others testify to the close interest she took in Wicken and its people. She supported a day school for girls as well as boys, (fn. 274) suppressed any sign of Nonconformity, (fn. 275) and ensured that there was no poverty, no rebellion and no sedition in the parish. (fn. 276) In 1777 a visitor described how Mrs. Prowse entertained the labourers and their families (some 60 people in all) at harvest time with music, large bowls of syllabub, bread, cheese and ale, helping to ensure that they remained the 'happiest set of peasants in England'. She also invited her family and 'select friends in the neighbourhood' to a fête champêtre in the park, which the country people were allowed to watch from beyond the ha-ha, before being invited in by her servants to finish off the food. (fn. 277)
Within twenty years of inclosure a new farm, Little Hill, was established on the former open fields between the Buckingham road and the river, and Mount Mill had been assigned a large acreage of new inclosures. (fn. 278) In 1768 Mrs. Prowse converted all the farms from 'written agreements' (apparently annual tenancies) to leases, losing only one tenant in the process. (fn. 279) The number of separate holdings, however, did not change greatly: in 1778 Mrs. Prowse noted that she had insured nine farmhouses, the maltster's house and kiln, two tiled houses, and 51 thatched cottages, (fn. 280) figures very similar to those of 1717 and 1738. (fn. 281)
The estate was producing about £1,000- £1,100 in rent in the last quarter of the 18th century, from which Mrs. Prowse normally drew around £800 a year for repairs and domestic expenses, including the cost of the school. (fn. 282) One of the farms was kept in hand, although Mrs. Prowse charged herself a notional rent for the holding and carefully accounted for other expenses and income there. (fn. 283) The eight let farms were yielding about £1,250 gross in 1797, when a new survey suggested that advances of around 20 per cent could be achieved on re-letting. The farms, which all had their land in reasonably compact blocks around the house and buildings, ranged from 102 a. to 363 a. around a mean of 200 a., with considerable variation in the proportion of arable and grass between different holdings. Two had between 40 and 45 per cent of their land under the plough; on two m