tenant right

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tenant right was a phrase much in use in Irish politics, especially after the famine of 1846. Since custom and practice differed from province to province and from estate to estate, the term was not precise and landlords complained that tenants devised new rights as soon as old ones were conceded. The immediate aim of the Tenant League, formed in 1850, was to secure the Ulster custom, whereby a tenant could sell his goodwill or interest in a farm, thus gaining some compensation for improvements. The three Fs for which the league later campaigned were free sale, fixity of tenure, and fair rent—all of which were slogans difficult to quantify and to adjudicate on. Gladstone's Land Act of 1870 legalized the Ulster custom where it existed. The Irish Land League of 1879 renewed the campaign, organizing rent strikes and boycotts and resisting evictions. Gladstone's second Land Act of 1881 conceded free sale, improved security of tenure, and introduced a machinery for deciding what was a fair rent. After 1885 the Conservatives moved towards facilitating land purchases, turning tenants into independent farmers. By that time a number of landlords were only too glad to sell up and be expropriated. Palmerston's comment—‘tenant right is landlord's wrong’—was the other side of the coin.

J. A. Cannon

tenant right, also known as the Ulster custom. The demand for tenant right became increasingly widespread during and after the Great Famine. It was a primary aim of the Irish Tenant League in the 1850s, and of the Land League after 1879. Although little consensus existed over its meaning, tenant right was conventionally held to refer to one of the ‘three Fs’: a departing tenant's right to dispose of his saleable interest in his tenancy to the highest bidder, subject to the landlord's approval of the purchaser. The nature of this interest was itself ambiguous. It was commonly thought to include not only the value of any improvements carried out by the tenant, but also the difference between the competitive market rent and the lower or ‘fair’ rent he actually paid. By implication, therefore, tenant right only had meaning in the context of under‐renting by landlords. Its opponents argued that incoming tenants were crippled by demands that could amount to the equivalent of several years' rent. The 1870 Land Act conceded tenant right in regions where it was customary; the 1881 Land Act conceded it throughout Ireland.

Lindsay Proudfoot

tenant right was a phrase much in use in Irish politics, especially after the famine of 1846. Landlords complained that tenants devised new rights as soon as old ones were conceded. The three Fs for which the Tenant League later campaigned were free sale, fixity of tenure, and fair rent—all of which were slogans difficult to quantify. Gladstone's Land Act of 1870 legalized the Ulster custom where it existed. Gladstone's second Land Act of 1881 conceded free sale, improved security of tenure, and introduced a machinery for deciding what was a fair rent. Palmerston's comment—‘tenant right is landlord's wrong’—was the other side of the coin.