Gentry generally refers to a social class of people. Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions (or stratification) between individuals or groups in Societies or Cultures. The term derives from the latin gens, meaning a clan or extended family. In Ancient Rome, a gens (pl gentes) was a Clan, Caste, or group of Families, that shared a common name (the It has often referred to the class of people who owned land, but its precise meaning has varied both throughout history as well as according to which nation it is located within.
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United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Gentry is a term now in the United Kingdom particularly associated with the landed gentry. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Landed gentry is a term traditionally applied in Britain to those people of a certain type and education who possess land in the form of country estates often (but In Europe and the United States, gentry retains a wider meaning, ranging from those of noble background to those of good family (i. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the e. "gentle" birth). Before the Industrial Revolution in Britain, the gentry were located between the yeomanry and the Peerage, and were traditionally considered lesser aristocracy if they did not bear a coat of arms, or as the lesser nobility if the family was armigerous. The Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture manufacturing and transportation had a profound effect on the Yeoman is noun used to indicate a variety of positions or Social classes In the 16th century a yeoman was also a Farmer of middling social status who owned The Peerage is a system of Titles of Nobility in the United Kingdom, part of the British honours system. A coat of arms or armorial bearings (often just arms for short in European tradition is a design belonging to a particular person (or group of people Armiger may also refer to the AGM Armiger anti-radiation missile A squire would be a good example of a member of the local county gentry. In Feudal or Medieval times a squire was a Man-at-arms in the service of a Knight, often as his Apprentice. A county is a Land area of Regional Government within a larger State. Unlike yeomen, the gentry did not work the land themselves as farmers; instead, they hired tenant farmers. Yeoman is noun used to indicate a variety of positions or Social classes In the 16th century a yeoman was also a Farmer of middling social status who owned A tenant farmer is one who resides on and farms land owned by a Landlord. Women were often gentry.
In English history, landed gentry were the smaller landowners, and generally had no titles apart from Knighthoods and Baronetcies. The history of England is similar to the history of Britain until the arrival of the Saxons Landed gentry is a term traditionally applied in Britain to those people of a certain type and education who possess land in the form of country estates often (but Baronets are something of an exception, since they had hereditary titles but, not being members of the Peerage, were also considered of the gentry or lesser nobility. A baronet (traditional abbreviation Bart, modern abbreviation Bt) or the rare female equivalent a baronetess (abbreviation Btss) is the holder The Peerage is a system of Titles of Nobility in the United Kingdom, part of the British honours system. The landed gentry played an important role in the English Civil War of the seventeenth century. The English Civil War (1642-1651 was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 17th Century was that Century which lasted from 1601 - 1700 in the Gregorian calendar The term is still occasionally employed, for example, by the publishers of Burke's Landed Gentry, [1] though they explain that their continued use of that term is elastic and stems, in part, from the adoption of that short title for a series first entitled "Burke's Commoners" (as opposed to Burke's Peerage and Baronetage). Burke's Landed Gentry (original title "Burke's Commoners") is the result of nearly two centuries of intense work by the Burke family and others since in Burke's Landed Gentry (original title "Burke's Commoners") is the result of nearly two centuries of intense work by the Burke family and others since in Burke's Peerage Baronetage & Knightage is an authoritative in-depth historical guide to the titled families of the United Kingdom. The term county family is commonly deemed to be co-terminous with the terms gentry and landed gentry. Landed gentry is a term traditionally applied in Britain to those people of a certain type and education who possess land in the form of country estates often (but Landed gentry is a term traditionally applied in Britain to those people of a certain type and education who possess land in the form of country estates often (but See Walford's County Families and gentleman. " Walford's County Families " is the short title of a work partly Social register, partly " Who's Who " which was produced in Britain The term gentleman (from Latin gentilis, belonging to a race or "gens" and "man" Cognate with the French word gentilhomme
Poland
In Poland gentry never grew strong, mainly because of competition from the omnipotent and numerous hereditary nobility. Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland Szlachta ( refers to the noble class in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (since 1569 semi-federal semi-confederal The King deprived commoners of the right to buy land-estates. However, some landed burghers or hereditary advocati and sculteti who kept land in royal, noble or Church estates can be still classified as gentry as they had their own tenants. An advocatus was an Attorney at law in the Middle Ages. It was used in Continental Europe as the title of the lay Lord charged with As political and economic pressure from the peerage increased, many such families were forced to sell their titles to the nobles. Some managed to climb up into nobility but others remained commoners and with the arrival of 'second serfdom' can hardly be called 'gentry' anymore as they were bound to the land and subject to their lord's jurisdiction, and obliged to provide labour to the manor. Many commoner families that grew in wealth and importance were soon officially peered and thus cannot be called 'gentry' either. The Partitions of the Commonwealth mark the re-emergence of Polish gentry, as non-nobles were allowed to buy land-estates and, before this was later abolished, exercised manorial monopolies, electoral privileges and jurisdiction over their subjects. The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, officially the Commonwealth of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania also known as the Most Serene Republic But they never grew in high numbers, still suffering economic and social competition from the nobles. Many of those commoners who succeeded in becoming gentry integrated socially with the nobles, camouflaging their humble origins, and thus never developed their separate group identity. The lower nobility (Knights and lower) created in the Partition period may also be classified as 'gentry' although they were 'officially' nobles but these were rather honorary titles having little in common with the vast privileges of old Polish peerage. The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the
Portugal
In Portugal, there was no gentry, as there the Law distinguished only nobility, which had several relative degrees.
Owners of land in Portugal, Brazil, and other Portuguese former colonies, were granted the power to partially establish it in indivisible domains (up to one third of one's property, the so called terça), and be administered by heirs in a line designated freely by the first will's dispositions, the heirs being were none the less constrained by that first will to specific and unique dispositions. These administrating heirs had no power to sell the property or to change the first will. They were in fact not full owners of the land. They could be male, female, mixed, widows, celibate daughters, etc. These properties could have family (morgadio) or religious (capela) purposes, and were frequent till 1834 in all categories of the Portuguese nobility and clergy, from the king down to the least important priest of the kingdom.
China
The Chinese gentry has a specific meaning and refers to the shen-shi or the class of landowners that had passed the bureaucratic examinations. In imperial China, Gentry were the class of landowners who were retired mandarins or their descendants The Imperial examinations ( in Imperial China determined who among the population would be permitted to enter the state's Bureaucracy. They rose to power during the Tang dynasty when meritocracy triumphed over the nine-rank system which favoured the Chinese nobility. The Tang Dynasty ( Middle Chinese: dhɑng (June 18 618&ndashJune 4 907 was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by The Nine rank system ( Pinyin: jiǔ pǐn zhōng zhèng zhī or jiǔ pǐn guǎn rén fǎ or much less commonly Nine grade controller system, was a Civil service Wang (King and Huangdi (Emperor The King or Wang (Chinese 王 or 國王 wáng was the title of the Chinese Head of state until the Qin dynasty The gentry were retired scholar-officials, and their descendants, who lived in large landed estates due to Confucianism's affinity to and advocacy of the worthiness of agriculture and hostility to commerce and mercantile pursuits. A Mandarin was a Bureaucrat in Imperial China, and also in the monarchist days of Vietnam where the system of Imperial examinations and Confucianism ( is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of the fifth century B
India
India had a well established gentry system in the southern state of Kerala. Kerala ( Malayalam: {{Kerala in Malayalam}}; Nairs were the gentry class, owned all land and often had tenants cultivate the land. Nairs were banned from bearing arms after the British invaded India and eventually lost control of the land. To this day, they are addressed as thampran (owners) by local people.
United States of America
Colonial American definitions reflected the British concept of "landed gentry. The Thirteen Colonies were part of what became known as British America, a name that was used by Great Britain until the Treaty of Paris (1783 recognized the Landed gentry is a term traditionally applied in Britain to those people of a certain type and education who possess land in the form of country estates often (but " In more modern American society, gentry is often used to refer loosely to the highly educated professional upper-middle class, this use of the terminology is inconsistent with the British use of the same term as the American use would include those without confirmed aristocratic roots (as is required under the British definition). The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A society is a Population of Humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive Culture and Institutions The upper middle class is a sociological concept referring to the Social group constituted by higher-status members of the Middle class. This sense of the term is often pejoratively used in the term "gentrification", a term that could alternatively be called "bourgeois-ification". Gentrification, or urban gentrification, is the change in an Urban area associated with the movement of more affluent individuals into a lower-class The Antebellum Southern planters were often younger sons of landed British families and continued the culture of the British gentry in rural Virginia and in such cities as Charleston, South Carolina, where, in addition to tenant farmers and indentured servants, they also employed chattel slavery. " Antebellum " is an expression derived from Latin that means "before war" ( ante, "before" and bellum Planter may refer to A Box or pot for plants also known as a Jardiniere A person who or object that plants seeds Landed gentry is a term traditionally applied in Britain to those people of a certain type and education who possess land in the form of country estates often (but A tenant farmer is one who resides on and farms land owned by a Landlord. An indentured servant is a form of Debt bondage worker The Laborer is under Contract of an Employer for some period of time usually three to Personal property is a type of Property. In the Common law systems personal property may also be called chattels or personalty. In the north, the gentry included those offshoots of gentry families (many of them British) that helped provide leadership for the establishment of such cities as Boston, Massachusetts, as well as institutions such as Harvard and Yale Universities. Attitudes stemming from the phenomenon of this historic American gentry help clarify the current use of the term in U. S. society, and it is still loosely applied to people from old-monied and landed families in the United States.
See also
Notes
- ^ "The History of Burke's Landed Gentry" (genealogy book), Burke's Peerage & Gentry, 2005, Scotland, United Kingdom, webpage: Burkes-Peerage-Scot15. This article is about the medieval system "Manors" redirects here Feudalism, a term first used in the early modern period (17th century in its most classic sense refers to a Medieval Europe Political system composed Aristocracy is a form of Government, where rule is established through an internal struggle over who has the most status and influence over society and internal relations Nobility is a government-privileged title which may be either hereditary (see Hereditary titles) or for a lifetime Genealogy (from Greek: el γενεά el-Latn genea, "descent" and el λόγος el-Latn logos, "knowledge" is the study of Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located
References
- Burke's Landed Gentry (genealogy book), John Burke family et al. , 1826, 1898, United Kingdom. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located
Dictionary
gentry
-adjective
- Birth; condition; rank by birth.
- Courtesy; civility; complaisance.
-noun
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