John Broad is Principal Lecturer in History at the London Metropolitan University.

• List of figures; List of tables; Preface; Acknowledgements; Note on editorial practice; List of abbreviations; 1. Introduction; Part I. Re-establishing a Gentry Family 1600–57: 2. A gentry family in county and court society 1603–42; 3. The Civil War and Interregnum 1642–57; 4. The creation of an enclosed estate 1600–57; Part II. The Shaping of Family and Village 1657–1740: 5. Land, business and dynastic advance 1657–1736; 6. The making of a modern landed estate; 7. Power in the community - the making of an estate village 1660–1740; Part III. The Great Estate and Estate Communities c.1700–1820: 8. The rise and fall of Verney fortunes in the eighteenth century 1740–1820; 9. Transforming the Claydons in the eighteenth century; 10. Conclusion; Appendix A: Sir Ralph Verney's confessional letter of 1650; Appendix B: the genealogy of the Verney family; Bibliography; Index.

'… achieves this work provides a valuable addition to the broader social and economic history of rural England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries … It deserves a wide readership.' Agricultural History Review