Suzanne ask this question in connection with the Fauquier Co. court minutes to which she referred in a VERY RECENT post: Interesting side note--Present were Jeremiah Darnall and Thomas Harrison, Gentlemen. What would have been their official capacity?? Jeremiah Darnall is almost always listed as present during this time period. My response My reading--I cannot quote an authority for this. Perhaps the scholars and lawyer subscribers can better answer this question. Maybe Hening's Statutes has a reading on this. But I was overwhelmed at a Virginia genealogical gathering a few years ago when one of the instructors brought her collection of books called Henings Statues--many more books than I would want to tackle!!! Even though these folks were not *gentlemen* [meaning good manners, as some of us ladies think they should behave, or sometimes, aristocrat] in the way we might think, this term is almost always used in reference to court or county officials. Although they county clerks or the court clerks signed the documents, they did NOT use the term Gentleman.. These *gentlemen* were magistrates or justices. Here is a quotation from a Kentucky county. Note the use of *gents* They were the magistrates or justices: At a Court of Quarter Sessions held for Madison County [KY] at the house of David Gass, gent. on Tuesday the 7th of March 1787. Present George Adams, John Snoddy, David Gass, John Boyles and Archibald Woods, gents (From Jackie Couture, Madison County, Kentucky, Court Order Book A, 1787-1791 [Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 1996], p. 11) E.W.Wallace . **************One site keeps you connected to all your email: AOL Mail, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Try it now. (http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000025)