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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1996-02 > 0823537510


From: Lesley Robertson <>
Subject: Re: yeoman
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 1996 16:25:10 GMT


(Craig Partridge) wrote:
>Richard Barney <> writes:
>
>>back in England in the sixteen hundreds, just what did the term"yeoman"
>>mean.....I understand it was sometimes given to third or fourth sons of
>>a lord or Knight. How was he less...and how was he more than the run of
>>the mill. And, is he entitled to use the ESQ after his name?
>
>It was generally used to mean a well-to-do farmer.
>
>Craig

You're right!
The Oxford Concise Dictionary says:

Yeoman (1) (hist) Person qualified by possessing free land of 40
shillings annual value to serve on juries, vote for knight of shire, etc.
(2) small landowner, farmer, person of middle class engaged in
agriculture; member of the yeomanry force. Also 2 naval and military
ranks. Hence Yeomanry - volunteer force raised from farmers.
lovely things, dictionaries!
Lesley Robertson

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