Introduction

When an observer like Blome attempted to describe the number of ‘esquires’ or ‘gentlemen’ in an area, what criteria did he apply? This chapter will analyse what was required of an individual before he was perceived as belonging to the ‘gentry’. How much was social status a matter of ostentation, how much a matter of community recognition – and if this were the case, what reciprocal obligations were implied? The question then raised is what happened to the ‘legitimacy of gentility’ when these justifications were altered? I will define the perceptions of the world characteristic of this class, their sense of themselves and their family, their sense of honour and duties of kinship. The chapter will discuss gentry views of this world and the next, their duties to community and nation, and how all these changed fundamentally in the eighteenth century.

Display

In earlier chapters, the definition of ‘gentry’ has been taken in broad terms, as those who were accepted by contemporaries as belonging to this group. This criterion avoids the pitfalls of ‘inflation’, both literal and metaphorical. For example there was the problem that the great gentry in 1660 might have incomes of £500 and a title like ‘esquire’, while these same accomplishments might only mark a shopkeeper in 1780. ‘Devaluation’ of title can be observed in a list of Swansea's portreeves, all of whom appear as ‘gentlemen’ from 1708, and as ‘esquires’ from the 1780s, though these titles had once been real signs of distinction.