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On 11 September 1903 Wexford farmer William Browne became the first tenant farmer to complete a purchase under the Wyndham Land Purchase (Irl) Act (1903). This change in the law ushered in the most radical change in history in Ireland's land ownership. Before it, Ireland's land 
was largely owned by landlords; within years most land passed to former tenants, purchases supported by government subsidies. This could without exaggeration be called one of the most radical changes in Irish life in history. (History does not record who his solicitor was).
In
In
December 1902 George Wyndham Chief Secretary for Ireland gave his backing to a new scheme for tenant land purchase based on the government paying the difference between the price offered by tenants and that demanded by landlords.
The resulting 1903 Act finished off landlord
The resulting 1903 Act finished off landlord
control over tenants and made it easy for tenants to purchase land, facilitating the transfer of about 9 million acres (36,000 km²) up to 1914. By then 75% of occupiers were buying out their landlords under the 1903 Act and the later 1909 Act which introduced compulsory purchase.
