A Yeoman was a free tenant, usually a prominent farmer. As he worked with his hands he could not be styled a Gentleman but his status was above that of most other copyhold tenants. He was qualified to serve on juries and vote in county elections. It is very difficult to compare the value of money over time, and there is no simple answer, since money only has value in terms of what it can buy. There are a number of sites that attempt to do this comparison, i.e. http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/current/howmuch.html Using the retail price index £161-1-10 (£ S d) in 1637 would be about £16,782 in 2006. http://eh.net/hmit/ Regards Stan Mapstone