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What is the difference between a Gentleman and an Esquire?

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  • What is the difference between a Gentleman and an Esquire?

    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?
    Bo

    At present: Marshall, Smith, Harding, Whitford, Lane (in and around Winchcomb).

  • #2
    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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    • #3
      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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      • #4
        strange one this - my 1966 Apprenticeship Deeds have the foresaid Allan Oakes Esquire ???......so does that make me a Gentleman ??..lol
        Allan ......... 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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        • #5
          Courtesy title, Allan. A legal document would not call you "Mister" as that could be misconstrued to mean that you were a surgeon.

          OC

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          • #6
            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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            • #7
              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/pp31-43
              Last edited by Caroline; 22-12-15, 22:38. Reason: How did that get in there???
              Caroline
              Caroline's Family History Pages
              Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

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              • #8
                I was always under the impression the title gentleman was used to describe a person with owning property or land over a certain level.
                Whoever said Seek and Ye shall find was not a genealogist.

                David

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                • #9
                  Gentleman is described in my dictionary as someone of chivalrous manners, good breeding, wealth and leisure.

                  OC

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                  • #10
                    Two of my direct ancestors a butcher turned farmer and a plumber/glazier described themselves as Gentlemen in later years. I just thought they were getting a bit above themselves! LOL
                    Anne

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                    • #11
                      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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                      • #12
                        Just shows what the dictionary knows! LOL. My ancestors clearly hadn't read it!
                        Anne

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