Hello all: Could anyone expound on the meanings of "yeoman" ? A yeoman seems to have different meanings from a sailor to an estate holder, It would be great to understand more of the history of the word and the localities in England in which the meanings would be different in a particular time. Some of ancestors -- the EMERYs, FOGGs and MEADERs seem to have been yeomen in the 1500s and 1600s -- they were from Kent and Essex and emigrated to New England in the first half of the seventeenth century. Thanks, Donna of Santa Cruz, CA. tenantsrights@sbcglobal.net.

You mention that one of the uses were to describe a sailor, and as a military rank, yes i assume in earlier uses that could well be the case, but keep in mind one thing, and that's that the word SEAMAN looks quite a bit like YEOMAN when the long S is used. In one parish i was transcribing the PR's for.. I had transcribed YEOMAN several times (as it was not in fact a seaboard parish) which were all in henscratch writing, when the Clerk changed a few years later, the couple had one more child, and it was printed. Obviously discernable as SEAMAN instead. This occurance has a MUCH later date than what you are likely referring to however. Luke ----- Original Message ----- From: "tenantsrights" <tenantsrights@sbcglobal.net> To: <OLD-ENGLISH-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, March 19, 2004 12:39 PM Subject: [OEL] yeoman > Hello all: Could anyone expound on the meanings of "yeoman" ? A yeoman seems to have different meanings from a sailor to an estate holder, It would be great to understand more of the history of the word and the localities in England in which the meanings would be different in a particular time. Some of ancestors -- the EMERYs, FOGGs and MEADERs seem to have been yeomen in the 1500s and 1600s -- they were from Kent and Essex and emigrated to New England in the first half of the seventeenth century. Thanks, Donna of Santa Cruz, CA. tenantsrights@sbcglobal.net. > > ______________________________

In message <029401c40dd9$33d1ac60$6701a8c0@donna>, tenantsrights <tenantsrights@sbcglobal.net> writes >Hello all: Could anyone expound on the meanings of "yeoman" ? originally (mediaeval) a soldier immediately attached to and following a knight possibly because these men can home from the French wars with loot and were able to buy land from the depressed nobles/knightly classes 2. C16-17a freeholder of land, normally working it himself; if the land was worth 40 shillings rateable, he would have a vote. Status immediately below the minor gentry. then because some major tenants of important nobles farmed far more than the small yeoman 3. C18, freeholder or major tenant of large farms. Same sort of status 4. C19, as many men of the yeoman class either gave up farming or were reduced in land size in the agricuiltural depression, any man whose father or grandfather had been a yeoman as above. Status however, could be reduced by lack of finance. Yeoman stock implies sturdy, salt of the earth,, country based (even if now living in a town), stand no nonsense from anyone (at least in theory.) >A yeoman seems to >have different meanings from a sailor this is a very specialised meaning, harking back to the mediaeval meaning of a subordinate to an officer, with special duities of some kind. -- Eve McLaughlin Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society