"But the point of my remarks has been lost." So was mine. What I have been trying to ineptly say is that the same "strict pecking order" society that existed in England came right off the boat with the luggage in 1600s Massachusetts. I is hard to isolate it exactly because the early plantations were melting pots where gentlemen and solvent yeomen hoed beans with everyone else. However, the Browns and Paines ruled Rehoboth because, at least in part, because of a yeoman nobiesse oblige. BC