Perhaps you could find out what the person's occupation is given as in the census. I would take "esquire" as an occupation to mean someone who didn't work but received an income from investments or land. I think in a census their occupation would have been shown as "independent means" Ron Andrew Billinghurst wrote: > On 27 Jan 2008 at 23:39, Walter Morgan wrote: > > >> I googled the term "Esquire" that was on a Marriage Certificate from 1906. >> I came up with a term denoting social status. Does this mean of noble >> birth or just meaning wealthy and land owner? >> >> > > If it is 20thC, it is starting to be about pretensions, so it may > just be a claim. > > It would declare at least that they are not directly of a title, > though it may indicate that they have some level of title in a few > past generations. > > Wikipedia covers the topic reasonably well (too long to replicate) > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esquire > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squire > > It would also be a bit of an indicator that you should check for a > probate for themselves and parents. Whether they are pretensions or > not, they probably a good indicator of a will having been written, > and a later probate if there was sufficient value. > > Regards, Andrew > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SUSSEX-PLUS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >