After the French Revolution of 1789, his views on its politics carried weight as an informed observer, and he became an important opponent of British reformers.

[9][10] Young suffered from lung disease from 1761 to 1763, and turned down the offer of a post as a cavalry officer from Sir Charles Howard.

[1] Young's mother then put him in charge of the family estate at Bradfield Hall, a small property encumbered with debt.

[11] He then collected works by Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau, Samuel Hartlib and Jethro Tull, as well as reading Harte.

In a work from 1799, during wartime and fiscal strain on the national budget, Henry Beeke gave more reliable figures, showing Young had erred.

The Annals of Agriculture began to wind down in 1803, when John Rackham of Bury St Edmunds, who printed it, found copy was lacking and pressed Young, who padded out the pages with old notes.

Travelling all over the country annually from 1787 to 1789 (around the start of the French Revolution) he described the condition of the people and the conduct of public affairs at a critical juncture.

[1] Seeing the burned châteaux at Besançon, he was shocked by the provincial disorders, as he had been by the chaotic debates of the National Assembly (for which he recommended John Hatsell's book on procedure).

[23] He and William Windham aligned themselves with Edmund Burke's views expressed in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), in Young's Plain and Earnest Address to Britons of November 1792.

[30] In the late 1780s the export of wool became contentious, but Young combined forces with Sir Joseph Banks in opposing restrictions on this.

[33] A tour by Young was typically preceded by newspaper publicity and consisted of social meetings with prominent farmers and agricultural improvers.

[1] One in south-west England in 1796 led to an acquaintance with Sir Francis Buller, 1st Baronet, a judge and improver at Princetown on Dartmoor.

Young influenced contemporary observers of economic and social life, such as Frederick Morton Eden and Sir John Sinclair.

Richard Stone (1997) presents him as a pioneer national income statistician, continuing the work of Gregory King, who had lived a century before.

These include: The Travels in France were translated into French in 1793–1794 by François Soules; a new version by Henri Lesage with an introduction by Léonce Guilhaud de Lavergne appeared in 1856.

Their acute marital strife and Young's devotion to his children were witnessed by Frances Burney and her half-sister Sarah during a visit in 1792.

[43] He grieved deeply when his daughter Martha Ann died of consumption on 14 July 1797 at the age of 14, and her loss is said to have turned his mind to religion.