Louisa Mary Cresswell

Louisa Mary "Louise" Cresswell born Louisa Mary Hogge aka The Lady Farmer (31 May 1830 – 2 July 1916) was a British farmer and autobiographer. She had a farm in England and later lived in Texas. She is known for her autobiography which records an eighteen-year dispute with her English farm's landlord Edward, Prince of Wales.

Life Louisa Mary Cresswell was born in Biggleswade in 1830, the penultimate child of eleven children of William Hogg(e) and Eliza/ Elisabeth, née Wells. Her father had successful business interests in banking, brewing, and malting, having shops and premises in Biggleswade and elsewhere. He also inherited his brother's similar businesses. Cresswell was educated at a boarding school in Brighton.

In Norfolk she became acquainted with Gerard Oswin Cresswell, who came from a banking family but like her shared an interest in the outdoors. In 1859 he had become a tenant farmer at Sedgeford. She married him in April 1862 and the two of them went to live at an even larger 900 acre farm, Appleton, at Sandringham where they divided the business between them.

In 1863 their baby daughter, Frances, died. They had one surviving child, Gerard Francis Oswald, who was born in 1864. The book is a useful description of the life of a woman running a large estate and her disputes. Later commentators point out that the book was written in retribution and some of the facts like dates are misreported. In 1896 her former home at Sandringham, Appleton, was given to Maud of Wales and the future King Haakon VII as a wedding present by Edward VII.

Death and legacy Cresswell died in Abilene in Texas In 2008 a book was written by Mary Mackie about her dispute with Edward VII over Appleton Farm. The book was called "The Prince's Thorn: Edward VII and the Lady Farmer of Sandringham".