I have found my 4xGt Grandfather in a poll book from 1774 in Westminster and I'm pondering what the difference is in "status" between the entry definitions of one man being described as a Gentleman and the another as an Esquire. I thought the monicker Esquire was given to a man who attended Oxford or Cambridge University?
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What is the difference between a Gentleman and an Esquire?
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I believe esquire has its root in the word squire which was the term used for young men apprenticed to a knight. Therefore in rank in between gentleman and a knight.
I've not come across it in terms of OxBridge. When I was young it was a courtesy title, so my dad often received letters addressed to P M....., ESQ.Judith passed away in October 2018
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I agree with Judith - Esquire is these days, a courtesy title.
Gentleman is someone who does not need to work for a living. You sometimes see on census, someone descfribed as a gentleman, when really it means he is out of work - what we would call unemployed today!
In 1774, a gentleman would be of the middle or upper classes but without any specific title. Esquire would be someone of reasonable financial standing, but not necessarily a gentleman.
I have never heard of a connection between Oxbridge and being called Esquire either - where did you read that?
OC
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strange one this - my 1966 Apprenticeship Deeds have the foresaid Allan Oakes Esquire ???......so does that make me a Gentleman ??..lolAllan ......... researching oakes/anyon/standish/collins/hartley/barker/collins-cheshire
oakes/tipping/ellis/jones/schacht/...garston, liverpool
adams-shropshire/roberts-welshpool
merrick/lewis/stringham/nicolls-herefordshire
coxon/williamson/kay/weaver-glossop/stockport/walker-gorton
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There is an article in this month's (Jan 2016) issue of Family Tree Magazine which gives a number of derivations and uses for the titles of Esquire and Gentleman and the changes over time.Retired professional researcher, and ex- deputy registrar, now based in Worcestershire. Happy to give any help or advice I can ( especially on matters of civil registration) - contact via PM or my website www.chalfontresearch.co.uk
Follow me on Twittter @ChalfontR
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I was amused to find this description of my greatx3 grandfather - a butcher of Bampton in Oxfordshire, in the Victoria County History:
Another butcher, farmer, and landowner, William Andrews (d. 1856), later called himself gentleman ... (it was in his will.)
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol13/pp31-43Caroline
Caroline's Family History Pages
Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.
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Gentleman: A man of gentle birth, or having the same heraldic status of those of gentle birth; properly, one who is entiled to bear arms, though not ranking among the nobility but also applied to a person of distinction without precise definition of rank.
Esquire i) a young man of gentle birth, who as an aspirant to knighhood, attened upon a knight (the form squire bring commonly used historically); ii) A man belonging to the higher order of English nobility , ranking immediately below a knight; iii) A landed proprietor, (country) 'squire'; iv) As a tilr accompanying a man's name. originally applied to those who were 'esquire' in sense ii; subsequently extended to other persons to whom an equivalent degree of rank or status is by courtest attributed.
Source:The Compaction Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (1979)
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