Course:History 344 Nasty Families/Titles and Status/Esquire
Esquire
Historically, an esquire was an attendant who followed knights into battle and often was a servant for knights. [1] By the fifteenth century, esquires were part of the ‘gentle classes,’ below a knight, but above gentlemen. The term came to encompass, not only its medieval military considerations, but also a more modern flexible definition to accept professionals, administrators, and sometimes even merchants. [2] On a local parish level, esquires were gentlemen who had strong interests in their local community. [3] In Tudor and Stuart England, the title of esquire was a title of the gentry proper, with the expectation that they would own land, but not do any manual labour. “The title of Esquire, derived from the French ecuyer, by the seventeenth century had passed from the military into the political sphere and was generally applied to anyone of gentle birth active in governmental affairs.” [4] The title of gentleman was seen to derive from birth, while the title of esquire came from an office held. [5] It would be used for local officials, Justices of the Peace, and higher political offices.
- ↑ G.E. Mingay, The Rise and Fall of the Gentry. (Longman, 1976): 3.
- ↑ Malcolm Mercer, The Medieval Gentry: Power, Leadership and Choice During the Wars of the Roses (London: Continuum UK, 2010): 8.
- ↑ Mercer, 9.
- ↑ Norman W. Dawes, “Titles as Symbols of Prestige in Seventeenth-Century New England” The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1949): 71.
- ↑ Book review of “The Landed Gentry of England and Ireland by Sir Bernard Burke.” The Solicitors’ Journal (1864): 471.