page_title: Sir James Graham, 2nd Baronet
section_title: Agricultural improver
hierarchical_section_title: Sir James Graham, 2nd Baronet / Agricultural improver
caption_attribution_description: English: Netherby Hall Mid-18th century and features in the novels of Sir Walter Scott.This is a photo of listed building number 1204948. http://www.visitcumbria.com/car/coophse.htm
context_page_description: Sir James Robert George Graham, 2nd Baronet GCB PC was a British statesman. He was descended from a family long famous in the history of the English border. He was the eldest son of Sir James Graham, 1st Baronet, by Lady Catherine, eldest daughter of the 7th Earl of Galloway. In 1819, he married Fanny Callander, youngest daughter of Sir James Campbell of Craigforth and Ardkinglas Castle. Sir James was created Doctor of Laws at the University of Cambridge in 1835, was Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, 1840. He was First Lord of the Admiralty from 1830 to 1834 when he resigned on account of the government pressing for a reform of the Irish Church. He became Secretary of the Home Department from September 1841 to July 1846 and again First Lord of the Admiralty from December 1852 until February 1855. He was a member of the Council of the Duchy of Lancaster, and Deputy Lieutenant for county of Hertfordshire.
context_section_description: Graham returned to Cumberland and began a programme of improving the family estate at Netherby, with the intention that such improvements would benefit both the landowner and the tenant. He began with a one-off gesture, wiping out the arrears of his tenants debts. He reduced the number of small uneconomic farms on the estate; he rebuilt the cottages and farm-buildings, introduced tile drains whereby much marshy land was reclaimed, and improved the breed of stock on the estate, spending in excess of £100,000 over a twenty-year period. He eventually studied the Corn Laws and their effects upon the community, publishing his conclusions in a pamphlet of 114 pages entitled Corn and Currency, which brought him into prominence as a man of advanced Liberal opinions. He argued that liberal economics rather than protection would best serve the interests of the landowners. High duties on foreign corn had failed to help British agriculture and should be cut to a level where they simply balanced the landowner's taxes and rates. Whereas high prices increased rents to the benefit of the landowners they conferred no advantage to the labourer and were an injury to the productive and a tax on the unproductive classes of the community. His general conclusions were in favour of free trade and free banking. He was also a founder member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (later RSPCA).
  On 8 July 1819, Graham married Frances ("Fanny") Callander, of Craigforth and Ardkinglas, a famous society beauty. In 1824 he succeeded to the baronetcy.
caption: Netherby Hall
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