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mentatorstodistinguishthemfromthepeerage,i.e.nobilitasmajor(orgreater
nobles).44Thewordgentrymostprobablystemsfromgentriceindicatinggentlebirth
andhighrank,however,itisnoteasytobepreciseinitsdefinition.TheOxford
EnglishDictionaryincludestheentrydefining‘gentry'as“peopleofgentlebirth
andbreeding;theclasstowhichtheybelong;inmodernEnglishusespec.theclass
immediatelybelowthenobility.”Thefirstciteduseofsuchameaningisfromaslate
as1585,whichisunlikelytobetrue.AccordingtotheMiddleEnglishDictionary
thenoun‘gentil',later‘gentleman',initiallydenoted“amemberofthenobilityor
thegentry”(MED1.a).Thenotionof‘gentil',usedasaqualitativedenominator
alsoincorporatedthecharacterandmanners“befittingoneofgentlebirth”and,
assuch,thewordwasusedtodescribethebehaviourfoundinbothnoblemenand
laterinmembersofthegentry.Theterms‘gentil'and‘gentleman'wereusedwidely
withinthenobilityandthegentryclassesthroughoutthefourteenthandthefifteenth
centuries.
Thesimplestwaywouldbetoequategentrywithgentility,buthowtodefinethelat-
ter?ThomasSmithwrotethatone“whocanliveidlyandwithoutmanualllabour,
andwillbearetheport,chargeandcountenaunceofagentleman,heshallbecalled
master,forthatisthetitlewhichmengivetoesquiresandothergentlemen,andshall
betakenforagentleman.”45Formanyhistorianssuchastatementisoflittleorno
helpatall,foritdoesnotdistinguishgentryfrom,forexample,yeomanry.PeterCoss
suggestsanumberofreasonablecharacteristicstypicalofthegentry,whichinclude
thefollowingfeatures:itisatypeoflessernobility;althoughbasedonlandowner-
ship,itisabletoencompassothertypesofproperty;itisterritorialelite;itrelatesto
apublicauthority;itseekstoexercisecollectivesocialcontrol;ithasacollectiveiden-
tityandcollectiveinterests.46ThomasBrynmorPughwrites,
Beforetheemergenceofaparliamentarypeeragethesocialdistinctionbetweenthe
Englishnobilityandthegentrydidnotexist.Itwasintheearlyfifteenthcenturythat
personsofsomesocialstandingbegantodescribethemselvessimplyas‘gentlemen';at
first,nodoubtthismeantnobleman(asithaddoneinthepast),butthisnewusage
soonspreadandthemeaningofthetermchanged.Inanageofsocialmobilitythe
statusofmenwhohadadvancedtheirfortunesmightwelldefypreciseclassification.
socialpositionhadbeguntobeexpressedintermsofwealth.SeeHeard,TudorEconomyand
Society,p.85.
44
M.J.Sayer,EnglishNobility:TheGentry,theHeraldsandtheContinentalContext(Norwich,
1979),pp.3–5;J.C.K.Cornwall,WealthandSocietyinEarlySixteenthCenturyEngland
(London,1988),p.142;K.Wrightson,“Estates,DegreesandSorts”,[in:]Language,History
andClass,ed.P.J.Corfield(Oxford,1991),pp.30–35.
45
Smith,DeRepublicaAnglorum,Ch.XX“OfGentlemen”.
46
Coss,“TheFormationoftheEnglishGentry”,p.8,accessedon01.11.2007.
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