What about if one were a Seigneur ?...as in the D'Avranche line ? malinda PDeloriol@aol.com wrote: > HI, > 'Sieur ' is effectively the owner of an estate called........ > The estate is not NOBLE, and therefore the owner does not have feudal rights > over it, like the wonderful' Droit de Seigneur'(!!!), So the bearer of this > title is purely the owner of a particular piece of land designated as > .......... More often than not, the owner was quite rich and on the way up! > His next xtep would be to purchase a 'Noble' fief, (i.e. a Manor with feudal > rights) which would get him further up the social ladder, or, in the event > that he could bargain with the Royal demesne, he could have the estate turned > into a 'noble' one and thus acquire 'nobility' through the ownership of a > 'noble' estate rather than having it conferred upon him. > In short, your ancestor was of a family some local standing, who probably > obtained his wealth from a notarial or legal activity. hope this answers your > question. > There is another angle to this, however. It could be that the owner was a > Noble but his father did not have enough 'noble' estates to pass around, so > he gave him one that was not! > Pierre > > ==== HUGUENOTS-WALLOONS-EUROPE Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe (if you are in digest mode), > type and send only the word unsubscribe to: > HUGUENOTS-WALLOONS-EUROPE-D-request@rootsweb.com > > ============================== > Ancestry.com now has more than 200,000 subscribers! To celebrate, > access to ALL of Ancestry.com will be free from July 18 to July 31! > http://www.ancestry.com/subscribe/freepromo.asp?sourcecode=A11AM