The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-04-12
GENTLEMEN IN ENGLAND.
ORIGIN OF THE TERM AMI ITs Use
at nm present TIME.
'" professional Gentiemen" who Have No
Legal station IN Society-0enttcrnen In
Tn" Past and How the Hnnk Wns OBJ
tned-trentIon OF Ktnns and Heraid-

~ ANV" wv ~ wv '
transformations OF KinEs aud Heraid-
The British table Of precedence has been de.
termIned partly by statute. partly by the King
patent, and partly by the ancient usage OF tho
Kingdom. Much more than half OF II relates To
the rank. after the soverelgns, OF the different
members of the royal family, OF the great Of.
hcers OF state and Church, and OF the different
orders of the nobility, with that of their
wives, their sons and daughters. and
of their sons-in-law and daughters-in.lnw.
Next after the nobility come the knights
OF various degrees. and then tho Colo
nels. Why, particularly. the Colonies 7 Well,
says an eminent authority, because the Colonel
is c]rercit,s coiumnd the nillar of the army; in
fact, however. the commanding officer OF n regi-
ment. Following upon the heels OF the Colonies
come sergCants and doctors of the law: then the
gentlemen, followed by yeomen, tradcsmcn,
artifccrs. and laborors.
bod, in his Manual of Dignitics, cnumeratcs
about 100 royalties, officers Of state and
Church, MOBILES. and so on. in the social and po-
litical order Of Great Britain. before he reaches
the gentlemen, OF which rank he alleges, how
ever, that every noblcman and every public
officer, whether in the army, the navy, or the
civil service, Is one. This goes upon the theory.
1t is to be presumed. that the greater include.
the lesser title, as II always does in the pcerage.
'"N hhNNo " vi nv huu lnNtTtNllIk
statement In his Manual; curious and inter-
esting, at any rate, to the average American, as
indicating that a class OF persons who in the
United States are regarded as first in the
social order hold a very vague and subordi-
nate place in the social life of Great Britain.
professional gentlemen" says bod naming
solicitors, attorneys and counscllors at law,
medical practitioners. artists. literary men,
merchants, master manufacturer. college pro-
fessors, and the like e are considered to have
some station In society, although the law takes
no cognizance OF their rank"
Caesar said that he would rather be first
man in n village In the Alps than second
man in Rome-a characteristic observation, to
which the average sensible BriIon subscribes
who belongs among the commoners; he would
rather be in the front of his order than at
the tail of the aristucracy. But Dod's state
ment Is not so strong as upon its face it
looks 10 be, for It is from the class
whose social place is said by him to be
so underlined that the peerage is constantly
being recruited; aud within its limits there is
ample scope for the qualification of every high
British ambition except that of beco ming a
member of the royal family. and that would
not be without its inconvenience if it were at
tainable. As to the particular occupations
enumerated by bod. those who practise them
go NV " hb' ilk bLhA llNg al
professional gentlemen at least.
The word gentleman in its original and
strict sense meant a person of noble extraction.
or a person created a gentleman by the sover-
eign. whose descendants took his rank by in
heritance: the Kings patent in the case of the
creation of u -" gentleman" being accom- panied
with no title Of honor. but with n coat OF arms
merely. According to the fine old ballad of
Adam Bell and Clym of the Clough" the
Queen as well AS the King could make n gentle
man and also n gentlewOman. us the Queen
did OF "Wi!lyam OF Clondesle' and his wire:
investing "Willyam' with an income of seven
teen pence a day to support his dignity. Ac-
GGrainn to TO 'ii ieEai ang ? @tne eI ID .Ge, Son iH of a
Iiscount had no title or peerage. nor were his
daughters ladies. but the eldest son and daugh;
Ireland are said to have been the first
gentleman and gentlewoman in the king
take, for the first viscount in Great
Britain was Beaumont. created such by Henry
T na, Sp Sn cid i+ ,iSIe IA alt 1@n,ihe nniscoGntr was al,
a fact. the British gentleman" dates back 10
Saxon times. For. says Freeman. the historian.
as early As the eleventh century. the order OF
gentleman, as n separate class. seems to have
been forming AS something new. and by the
have been fully established" And it is very
well known that the Saxon gentlemen en-
tation, for example, instead OF being hanged. in
case OF II capital crime. as would have
been the punishment of peasants or tradesmen
for the same crime, and they were allowed to
fight II duel or combat in case of insult or injury
by members of their own order, but could not
fight with peasants or tradesmen. The Saxon
gentleman was. In brief, practically the French
with privileges substantially the
same. and subject to like restrictions.
No one was admitted to the degree, either in
Saxon or later times. who lived by any trade of
buying or selling, except merchants beyond the
seas and those owning lands titled by them
selves; in the latter case. of "whatsuCver estate
they might be, although they go to plough and
OF The noble, for he lost his dignity if he had not
fortune to sustain 1t: and lac could pursue no
manual occupation for his maintenance. But
there was one description of gentlemen whose
rank was dependent upon their means OF liveli-
hood, who. were neither merchants nor in the
of husbandry. These were the inCum-
bents of certain offices: They were gentlemen
solely because OF their incumbency. When they
lost their offices they ceased TO he gentlemen.
In the very nature of the institution, how
ever, different classes of gentlemen were de-
veloped, and very early in its history there
were already gentlemen OF blood" or ances-
try ndSscenda9ts Of four, some say Of five.
and the mothers side. These were the flower
OF the order, and tho. more ancestors one could
There was another class at one time of u very
distinguished description. These were the
had slain each his Saracen: some of them had
slain more than one. 1t is not ditlicult to
Ing religious enthusiasm OF the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries. he who had destroyed an
enemy or CHRIST stood high with both King and
people, and was n gentleman, not only by virtue
of the Kings invcstiturc, but by the approvalof
the Church. hut this kind OF gentleman was
not made after the year 100.
1t was, OF course, possible to divide the order
into many different classes by the exercise OF n
little subtlety, as was done in the early period
of the institution, the author of the " ROkc of
81. Albans.' printed in last. enumerating. for
instance, no less than nine different descriptions
OF gentleman, The author says also that "Criste
was II gentylman Of his moder he halvc, and
bare cotarmuro OF aunseturie."
The existing degrees are four. and familiar
enough: "Gentlemen by blood those whose
gentility Is derived from their ancestors;
gentlemen OF coat armor," who are not gen
tlemen by blood These are created by grants
of coats-of-arms from the hcralds, aud their
issue In the third generation are gentlemen by
blood gentlemen" created by comforting
knighthoOd upon yeOmen; and gentlemen
cr"ntcd by comforting a spiritual dignity upon a
yeomRn.
1t would appear, then, that. as already OBJ
served, in the strict sense, the word gentleman
n political and social state, which in
Cludes royalty, the nobility, the knightagc, the
officers OF the army, of the navy, and of tho civil
service, and the four classes OF persons lust
above designated.
Formerly the sovereign alone could create a
gentleman, but for centuries even the kingS-at-
arms have made the official gentlemen Of Eng
land, except rs certain persons have become