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THE NOBILITY 
 
 or THE 
 
 BRITISH GENTRY. 
 
\ 
 
ON 
 
 THE NOBILITY ^ T ^^^ _ 
 
 THE BRITISH GENTRY, 
 
 OR THE 
 
 POLITICAL RANKS AND DIGNITIES 
 
 OF 
 
 Compared with those on the Continent ; 
 
 FOR THE USE OF FOREIGNERS IN (iREAT BRITAIN, AND OF 
 BRITONS ABROAD ; 
 
 PARTICULARLY OF THOSE WHO DESIRE TO BE PRESENTED AT 
 FOREIGN COURTS, TO ACCEPT FOREIGN MILITARY SERVICE, 
 TO BE INVESTED WITH FOREIGN TITLES, TO BE ADMITTED 
 INTO FOREIGN ORDERS, TO PURCHASE FOREIGN PROPERTY, 
 OR TO INTERMARRY WITH FOREIGNERS. 
 
 Nobilps sunt qui arnia irentiliria antoressoruni siiorum proferre possunl. 
 
 C(i/ie upon Litttpton, 
 
 SECOND EDITION, ENLARGED. 
 
 BY SIR JAMES LAWRENCE, 
 
 KNIGHT OF MALTA. 
 
 !t0nlf0n : 
 
 T. HOOKHAM, OLD BOND STREET, 
 
 AND 
 
 SIMPKIN AND MARSHALL, STATIONERS' COURT. 
 1827. 
 
\ 
 
^7 Li 
 
 (9 11 
 
 I • I 
 
 TO 
 
 THE GENTLEMEN OF GREAT BRITAIN, 
 
 whethkr 
 
 PEERS, KNIGHTS, OR ESQUIRES, 
 THE COUNTRYMEN OF SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, 
 
 A.\D 
 
 THE TRUE NOBILITY OF THE EMPIRE, 
 
 THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED. 
 
 160 
 
 \ 
 
\ 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Coat of aims the criterion of Nobility 2 
 
 Gentility superior to Nobility ib. 
 
 Landed Proprietors the natural Nobility 7 
 
 Grants of arms, or leilres de noblesse S 
 
 Extracts from Sir Thomas Smith 14 
 
 Sir John Feme 15 
 
 Sir Edward Coke IS 
 
 Camden 22 
 
 Thomas Miiles 24 
 
 The Comte de Monllosier 25 
 
 Matthew Carter 26 
 
 a 
 
 ■f 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Extracts from Silvaaus Morgan 28 
 
 Guillim ib. 
 
 EdmondsoD 29 
 
 Douglas 30 
 
 Monumental Inscriptions 33 
 
 Peacham's Compleat Gentleman 34 
 
 Burial Certificates 35 
 
 County Histories 36 
 
 Dictionaries S" 
 
 Nobility of antient Rome 40 
 
 Turner's History of England 42 
 
 Du Cange ib. 
 
 De Lolmc ib, 
 
 Ferri de S t. Constant ib. 
 
 Dc Marchangy 46 
 
 Sir John Eresby 48 
 
 Gentilhomme Anglais 4^ 
 
 Visitations of the Heralds 51 
 
 Passports 53 
 
 Tournaments ,...,,..., , 55 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 Page 
 
 Princes and Peers styled Gentlemen , 57 
 
 Quality 5S 
 
 Honorable and Worshipful , 62 
 
 Lord — Sir — Master — Goodman Qk 
 
 Roturier ib. 
 
 The Commons or Communities &Q 
 
 KnigUts of the Shire 69 
 
 ISobility of the Seven Islands 77 
 
 Hanoverian Nobility. . , ib. 
 
 Order of the Garter 82 
 
 Misalliances 85 
 
 German Nobility 87 
 
 French Nobility 90 
 
 Le droit de monter dans le carosse du roi 92 
 
 Les deux Chambres 95 
 
 Majorats ib. 
 
 Entails 97 
 
 Peerage not to be confounded with Nobility 98 
 
 Who are the noblest in England 101 
 
 Etymology of Lord 105 
 
All COI^TEKTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Why officers and Lawyers are styled Geniremen fOi' 
 
 Abuse of the ■word Gentleman, 112 
 
 Abuse of titles in Germany 116 
 
 Intermarriages — of Englishwomen with foreigners of 
 quality ; of English gentlewomen with foreign ad- 
 venturers, plebeians, new noblemen, gentlemen, 
 ttc 121 
 
^J^. 
 
 -pc. 
 
 ON THE 
 
 OBILITY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE BHITISH GENTRY, 
 
 ETC. ETC. 
 
 It iias been asserted by envy or ignorance, that 
 tbe peers are the only nobility in the British em- 
 pire. This assertion has been i-epeatecl on the 
 Continent, and particularly in France, by those 
 who Avish to inculcate the inutility of the ancient 
 noblesse. This assertion, however unfounded, has 
 done injury to individuals, and is derogatory to 
 the honor not only of the gentry, but of the peers 
 themselves. For the gentry being the nurserv- 
 garden ffom which the peers are usually trans- 
 
Z RANK. AXD TITLES 
 
 planted, if the peers were to date their nobihty 
 froin the elevation of their ancestors to the upper 
 house, what upstarts would their lordships appear 
 in the opinion of the pettiest haron on the Conti- 
 nent ! 
 
 Puussla is said to contain 580,000 nobles; Aus- 
 tria, on a late enumeration, 239,000 male nobles; 
 and Spain, in 1785, contained 479,000 nobles ; 
 and France, at the revolution, 365,000 noble fa- 
 milies, of which 4,120 families Avere of ancient 
 gentility. 
 
 A French author has asserted there are only 
 about 300 nobles in Great Britain. Had he said 
 there are only 300 peers, he might have been to- 
 lerably correct; but there are, according to the 
 statement produced in 1798, when the subject 
 of armorial bearings was before Parliament, in 
 England, 9,458 families entitled to bear arms; in 
 Scotland, 4,000: now all these families are noble. 
 " Kobiles sunt (says Sir Edward Coke), qui arma 
 gentilicia antecessorum suorum proferre possunl." 
 
 Gentility is superior to nob ihty ; gentility must 
 be innate; nobility may be acquired: noblemea 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 3 
 
 luay be only persons of rank and distlaction • Lut 
 gentlemen must be persons of family and quality. 
 — Fit nobilis, nascitiir generosus. 
 
 Nobility means notability j noble is wortby of 
 notice, or of being known. Any individual, wbo 
 distinguisbes liimself, may be said to ennoble him- 
 self. A prince, judging an individual wortby of 
 notice, gave him letters patent of nobility. In 
 these letters were blazoned the arms that were to 
 distinguish his shield. By this shield he was to be 
 known, or nobilis. A plebeian had no blazonry 
 on his shield, because he was ignobili's, or un- 
 •worthy of notice. In an age when a warrior was 
 cased in armour from head to foot, he could only 
 be knoAvn by bis shield. (1) The plebeian, wbo 
 
 (1) The squire -vTas not less noble than the knight, and 
 changed not his helmet on being knighted. Armour -vyas 
 expensive, and lasted not only during the life of the war- 
 rior, but descended from father to son; but a squire, hav- 
 ing distinguished himself by some brilliant action, opened 
 his vizor to be identified, before his chief conferred on him 
 the honor of knighthood. Hence the helmet of the squire 
 is painted with the vizor closed, and the helmet of the 
 knight with the vizor open. 
 
 b2 
 
4 RA.NK AND TITLES 
 
 liad uo pretcnslou lo be known, was clypeo igno- 
 bilis alho. Hence arms are the criterion of nobi- 
 lity. Every nobleman must have a shield of arms- 
 Wlioever has a shield of arms is a nobleman. In 
 every country in Europe, without exception, a 
 grvint of arms or letters of nobilify is conferred 
 on all the descendants. In the northern countries, 
 Germany, Hungary, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, the 
 titles also of baron or count descend to all the male 
 posterity, and to all the unmarried females of the 
 family : but In the southern countries, France, 
 Spain, Portugal, and Great Britain, the titles of 
 duke, marquis, count, viscount, or baron, descend 
 onlv accoi'ding to the rules of primogeniture. In 
 Italy the titles conferred by the Emperor descend 
 in the German fashion to all the branches of the 
 family •, those conferred by the Pope, and the Rings 
 of Naples and Sardinia, descend only to the eldest 
 sons in succession; but the cadets of all these 
 houses, though they possess neither the same titles 
 nor privileges, are not less noble than the heads of 
 their respective houses. 
 
 The British gentry have not only been di»tin- 
 
COMPARED AXD EXPLAINED. 5 
 
 gui'shecl by coals of arms, but have given liveries 
 to their retainers from time immemorial. 'Wlieu 
 Henry the Fowler wished to polish the Germans, 
 lie sent commissioners to En inland to observe the 
 regularity and order with which the tournaments 
 there were conducted; and they brought back 
 with them the rules of the tournaments, almost 
 "word for word, translated into German. These 
 rules may be found in Edmondson's Heraldry, and 
 in Ruxner's Turnierbuch. In Riixner is the list of 
 all the combatants at the grand national tourna- 
 ments in Germany ; and every German gentleman 
 is not less proud in showing the name of his an- 
 cestors, in these lists, than our families of French 
 origin at finding their names on the roll at Battle 
 Abbey. Every German or English gentleman, 
 who, without being able to prove his descent from 
 four grand parents of coat armour, or, as the Ger- 
 mans express it, to prove four quarters, should offer 
 himself as a combatant, was obliged to ride the 
 barriers among the hisses of the populace, as tlie 
 punishment of his presumption. 
 
 The English genti-y Avere knights Templars, 
 

 
 RAXK AND TITLLS 
 
 and, till Henry VIII. al3olislictl the Enijlish 
 tongue, every English gentleman of four quarters 
 was admissihle in the order of I\Ialta, or of Saint 
 John of Jerusalem. In Portugal and Italy also 
 only four quarters ■^vere requisite ; though iu 
 Germany sixteen quarters vrevc required. The 
 English knights of Malta ^n'ere chosen among the 
 gentry : the prior of England had a seat in the 
 House of Lords. In Germany the knights were 
 chosen among the harons, or ndbiles minores; and 
 the prior of Germany had a seat in the Diet of the 
 Empire. In the reign of Queen Mary, Sir Richard 
 Shelley was the last grand prior of England. 
 
 In later lltnes llie Biitlsh gentry have produced 
 admirals, generals, governors. They have held 
 nohle posts at the court of Saint James, and have, 
 as amhassadors, represented their sovereign at fo- 
 reign courts. They therefore, even if they had 
 never heen styled nol)ility, as they possess all the 
 essential qualities of nohility, might he considered 
 on a footing with the noblesse of the Continent. 
 But numerous quotations will show that they are 
 not only nohlc in fact, hut In name ; and as those 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. I 
 
 officers, who are authorized hy law, still pronounce 
 them nohle, they have never ceased to he so. 
 
 But it were the height of ahsurdity to deny tlie 
 nohility of a class in society, to record whose hirths, 
 alliances; and deaths, the Heralds' Office was esta- 
 blished. In every country plebeians are below the 
 notice of a court of honor. 
 
 The landed proprietors are in every country the 
 natural nobility, hence, in the opinion of the ge- 
 nealogist, those families who are named alike with 
 their estates, such as the Iloghton of Hoghton, the 
 Ratcliffe of Ratcliffe, the Fitzakerly of Fitzakerly, 
 and the long list of landholders that appears in 
 Gregson's Antiquities of Lancashire ; and the 
 Titchborn of Titchborn, the Wolseley of Wolse- 
 ley, the Wrotesley of Wrotesley, the Bz^ogham of 
 Bi-ogham J and the Scottish families oithe ilk ; and 
 the German families yon und zu (of and at), as the 
 von und zu Hardenberg, the von und zu Hahn- 
 stein, etc. are the noblest families in their respec- 
 tive provinces. Coidd any title of the peerage 
 add to the nobility of the Hampden upon whose 
 
o RAKK AND TITLES 
 
 sarcophagus is inscribed — " John Hampden, 
 twenty -fourth hereditary lord of Great Hamp- 
 den?" 
 
 Under the feudal system there were immense 
 privileges attached to the soil; and consequently 
 the sovereign, in granting a fief, granted nobility 
 With it. At that period there was no necessity for 
 letters patent. The proprietors, when summoned, 
 must appear, cased in arms from head to foot, and 
 m this military masquerade the hei'ald could only 
 distinguish the individual by the blazonry on his 
 shield. But when the sovereign had no more lands 
 to grant, he, either to reward services, or as a 
 financial speculation, granted letters patent of 
 nobility, with a coat of arms described therein. 
 When in Latin, the words were. In signnm hnjus 
 nohilitatis anna dannis: when in French, Nous 
 donnons ces armes en signe de nohlesse. 
 
 In England these patents were styled letters of 
 nobility, or grants of arms, indifferently. Several 
 Jjooks, containing a series of them by either name, 
 are in the British Museum. They are in Latin, 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 9 
 
 PVencli, or English. The following, wliich Is also 
 in Rymer, v. 132, is from a Harl. MS. (1507.) 
 
 Ann. D. 1444. An. 22 H. VI. vas. 22 H. VI. m. 8. 
 Rex omnibus, ad quos, etc. saliitem. 
 
 Quia principibus cujuscumque interest suos sub- 
 ditos, praecipue illos, qui servitia eis impendant, 
 gratlls, libertatibus, privilegiis, et immunitatibus 
 prsemiere, u.t ad hujusmodi seryitia impendcnda 
 promptiores valeant ct cltlus animentur. 
 
 Hinc est quod nos consideratlonem habentes ad 
 bona et gratulta servitia, quae fideles legil nostri, 
 Arnaldus de Bordeu et Grimondus de Bordeu ejus 
 filius, burgenses civitatis nostrae Burdegallae, divers! 
 modi nobis impenderunt et impendant in futu- 
 rum. 
 
 Eosdem Arnaldum et Grimondum et eorum pi'o- 
 creatos et procreandos, de gratia nostra speciali, 
 nobilitamus et nobiles facimus et creamus. 
 
 Et in signum hujusmodi nobllitatis arma in hiis 
 Uteris nostris patentibus depicta, cum libertatibus, 
 privllegiis, juribus et insignibus viris nobillbus de- 
 
 f 
 
 I 
 
 >*/, 
 
10 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 Litis et consuetis eis clamus et coucecUmus per prse- 
 ieutes. In cujus, etc. 
 
 Teste Rege apud Weslmonasterluin viceslmo oc- 
 tavo die JMartii — Per breve de private sigillo et de 
 data praedicla, etc. 
 
 The same Ilarl. MS. No. 1507; contains the fol- 
 lowing: — 
 M To all Christian people these present letters 
 reading, hearing, or seeing, I Richmond Claren- 
 ceux, principal herald and king of arms of the 
 south part of this realm of England, send due and 
 hum])le recommendation and greeting. 
 
 ) " I the said king of arms, not only Ly common 
 
 renown, hut also by my own knowledge, and re- 
 port of many other credible and noble persons, 
 
 ' verily ascertained that Nicholas Matlok of Ilichim 
 
 in the county of Hertford hath well and honorably 
 guided and governed himself, so that he hath de- 
 served and is right worthy, he and his posterity, to 
 
 ^ be in all places of worship admitted, renowned, 
 
 '; accounted, numijered, accepted, and received, unto 
 
 % 
 
 I 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 1 t 
 
 the number and into the company of our ancient 
 gentle and noLle men perpetually from henceforth; 
 and for rememhrance and consideration of the 
 same his gentleness, virtue, and ability, by the au- 
 thority and power of my office, I the said king of 
 arms have devised, ordained, and assigned unto and 
 for the same Nicholas and for his posterity the arms 
 here following: [Here the arms are described] as 
 more plainly it appearelh in the margin depict. 
 
 '' In witness thereof, I, the said king of arms, 
 have signed the same presents with my own hand, 
 and sealed the same with my seal of authority, at 
 London, 23rd day of July in the ninth year of the 
 reign of our Sovereign Lord King Henry the Se- 
 venth. 
 
 t' Per me, Richmond, Roy d'Armes dlt Cla- 
 rencieus." 
 
 It may be observed in the above that gentlemen 
 are placed before noblemen, but in more modern 
 patents noblemen are placed the lii'st. Places of 
 Avorship signified places where the nobility assem- 
 bled. 
 
12 RANK AXD TITLES 
 
 The landholdex's considered these patents of uc- 
 Lilltj an innovation, and dangerous stretch of pre- 
 rogative, and affected to look down with contempt 
 on those who built their pretensions on a sheet of 
 parchment. Yet landed property was stdl so far 
 considered an essential to nobility, that the new- 
 j made noble endeavoured immediately to purchase 
 
 a manor, and this manor he either named after 
 himself, or named himself after tliis manor. 
 
 Those, who possessed not an acre of laud, en- 
 deavoured to pass for landholders by tacking, in 
 Germany von, in France de, before their names. 
 This was frequently absurd in the extreme. An 
 individual named Taylor, Smith, or Miller, called 
 himself, as it were, Mr. of Taylor, of Smith, or of 
 Bliller, as if Taylor, Smith, or Miller were the 
 '„ name of a manor j or endeavoured to lessen the 
 
 'I absurdity by adding to his mechanical name a 
 
 ' local termination. Hence in Germany, the en- 
 
 nobled Mr. Schneider (Tayloi-) called himself 
 f , Baron von Schneidersdorf (Taylor's thorp or vil- 
 
 J> ^^ge) ; Mr. Schmidt, Baron von Schmidtfeld ; I\Ir. 
 
 y Muller, Baron von Mullersbach (Millcrsbrook), 
 
COilPARED AND EXPLAINED. 13 
 
 and so forth ; thougli it woiilcl have puzzled them 
 to say iu what cu'cle of the holy empire Schnei- 
 dersdorf, or Schmidtfeld, or Miillershach were to 
 be found. In some provinces in Germany nohlcs 
 only are permitted to purchase noble estates, or 
 knightb'-fees (litiergut). In other provinces a ple- 
 beian purchaser must have himself ennobled. And 
 in the course of things, to those families in Ame- 
 rica, that have inherited landed property from ge- 
 neration to generation, will be paid that respect, 
 which will compensate for the European system of 
 nobility. 
 
 During the feudal system all countries were di- 
 vided into fiefs, and these again into arriere- fiefs. 
 In Germany the holders of the fii'st are styled 
 prmces, of the second, barons. Spain had its 
 grandees and hidalgos — Hungary has its magnates 
 and equites. In France and England the gi-and 
 vassals of the crown, or the greater barons (after- 
 wards peers) composed the first-, and the lesser ba- 
 rons (afterwards knights and squires) the second 
 order. In all these countries the second class are 
 styled noble as well as the first. At what period. 
 
 :6B> 
 
fl 
 
 14 RAKK AND TITLES 
 
 or for what reason, have our gentlemen ceased to 
 be so? The followhig citations Avill prove their 
 rights, ivhich may be dormant; but cannot be 
 lost. 
 
 iSm Tho^ias Smith, died 1577. 
 ^' The Commonwealth of England, compiled by 
 the Honorable Sir Thomas Smith, knight, one of 
 the principal secretaries unto two most worthy 
 ) princes, King Edward and Queen Elizabeth; print- 
 
 ) ed 1601. 
 
 '' The first part, of gentlemen of England, called 
 oioMUtas major. 
 
 *' The second sort, of gentlemen, which may be 
 I called nohiliias minor. 
 
 Lj '^Esquire heiokeneWi sciitifenim or arynigerum^ 
 
 * and be all those which bear arms, which is to bear 
 
 as a testimony of the nobility or race from whence 
 they do come. 
 
 " Gentlemen be those, whom their blood and 
 ' race dolh make noble or known. The Latins call 
 
 them all nohiles. the French nobles. 
 
 JL!*. 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 15 
 
 ." Gens in Latin betokenelh the race and snr- 
 name. So the Romans had Cornellos, Appios, Fa- 
 hios, jEmihos, Plsones, Julios, Brutes, Valerios. 
 Of which, who were agnati, and therefore kept the 
 name, were also gentiles, and retaining the memory 
 of the glory of their progenitor's fame, were gen- 
 tlemen of that or that race. 
 
 " Yomen he not called masters, for that, as I 
 have said hefore, pertaineth to gentlemen, hut to 
 their surnames men add Goodman. 
 
 " \Yherefore to speak of the Commonwealth of 
 England, it is governed hy three sorts of persons ; 
 the prince, which is called a king or queen — the 
 gentlemen, which are divided into two parts, the 
 Laronie or estate of lords, and those which he no 
 lords, as knights, esquires, and simple gentlemen. 
 — The third and last sort of persons are named the 
 yomen." 
 
 Sir John Feene. 
 " Tlie Blazon of Gentry and Nohility divided 
 into two parts, the Glory of Generosity and Lacjes 
 nobility, compiled hy John Feme, gentleman, for 
 
16 
 
 RANK AxND TITLES 
 
 I t 
 
 4- 
 
 \ '. 
 
 I V 
 
 tlie instruclion of all gentlemen bearers of arms; 
 ■whom and none other this Avork concerneth. — 
 Printed 1586. 
 
 " If a duchess, countess, or baroness, marry -with 
 hut a simple gentleman, she loseth her dignity; 
 ^ye say the reason is this, Quando faimina nohilis 
 mtpserit ignohili, desinit esse nohilis ; hut in so 
 doing "oe misquote the text, -which means that if 
 any gentlcAVoman, Avhich in our laws is called no- 
 bilis, do marry a man of no coat armor (whom 
 also Ave call ignohilem), her state and title of gentle- 
 ness is in suspense, and no man knoAveth Avhere it 
 is ; hut yet the laAV preserveth the same, until God 
 send her a husband of a better kind, and then it 
 shall appear again. In the time of Queen Mary 
 (continues Sir John Feme, Avhose language I shall 
 late the liberty to modernize), the laAvyers in 
 lAvo cases consulted Avilh the heralds, if the AvidoAvs 
 of peers, being married to gentlemen, might re- 
 tain their names and titles of dignity, the law 
 having said, Quando fonmina nohilis, etc. ; but the 
 lieralds ansAvercd, that they misquoted the laAv; 
 ])ut Ihat nevcrlhelcss these AvidoAVS must lose iheir 
 
COMP-ARED AND EXPLAINED. 17 
 
 titles, though not from any want of nohllUy ia 
 their second hushands, for no one without injustice 
 could deny that they Avere gentlemen, being en- 
 registered as such; but the reason "vvhy, is deduct- 
 ed from nature: and it were monstrous, if a wife, 
 in the enjoying of titles should be superior to her 
 husband, who is her head ; and this would be, if 
 the wife be honoured as a duchess, and the hus- 
 band be entertained but according to his inferior 
 state." 
 
 Such was the opinion of the heralds. The law 
 of arms and the law of the land judged with reason 
 on their side. But the courtesy of England is not 
 less complaisant than the second husband, who by 
 permitting his other half to bear the title of his 
 predecessor, acknowledges himself the acquirer of 
 only second-hand goods. Great is the astonish- 
 ment of foreigners at this custom. They know not 
 which most to admire, the want of dignity in the 
 husband, or of delicacy in the wife. So much for 
 the second marriages of dowagers. Of the misal- 
 liances of damsels, Sir John Feme says : — 
 
 f ' It were well, if gentlewomen of blood and 
 
13 RAXK. AND TITLES 
 
 of inheritance would have better regard to theif 
 matching; for by marrying with a gentleman, she 
 is a help to sustain his noble house : but by marrying 
 a churle, she barrelh botii herself and her progeny 
 of nobleness." 
 
 Lord Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke, died 1634. 
 The above quotation from Sir John Feme ex- 
 plains the only passage in Coke upon Lyttelton, 
 which might lead one to imagine that this great 
 law authority confined the nobility to the peerage of 
 England ; whei-eas in the other volumes of his In- 
 stitutes, he says that all who bear arms are noble. 
 
 Statuttim de 3IiUtlhn8, anno primo Edtc. 2. 
 " He that is destrained ought to be a gentleman 
 of name and blood, claro loco natus. Of ancient 
 time, those that held by knight's serrice Avere 
 regularly gentile. It Avas a badge of gentry. Yet 
 now tcmpora irmtanUir, and many a yoman, bur- 
 gess, or tradesman^ purchasclh lands holden by 
 knight's service, and yet ought not, for want of 
 gentry, to be made a knight. At this time the 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. I 9 
 
 surest rule is, Nohiles sunt qui anna gentilicia an- 
 tecessoncm stionim proferre possunt. Therefore 
 they are callecl scutiferi, armigeri. 
 
 i' A knight is by creation, a gentleman by de- 
 scent; and yet I read of the creation of a gentleman. 
 A knight of France came into England, and chal- 
 lenged John Kingston, a good and strong man at 
 anus, but no gentleman, as the record saieth, ad 
 certa armorum puncta, etc. perjicienda. Re^v 
 ipsum Johannem ad ordinem generosonuu adop- 
 tavit, et armigerum constituit, et certa Jionoris 
 insignia concessit.'' The King made him no 
 knight, as his adversary was, because he was no 
 gentleman. 
 
 So great an interest was attached by our ances- 
 tors to every circumstance of chivalry, that tliis 
 anecdote of John Kingston has l^een reported by a 
 variety of writers. Selden, however, in his Titles 
 of Honor, says not, that he was created a gentle- 
 man, but that he was received into the state of a 
 gentleman, and made an esqtiire. This might be 
 done by giving him a coat of arms. A king might 
 
20 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 thus ennoble him ; but in those days, when the word 
 gentleman was so well understood, he would no 
 more have thought of creating him a gentleman 
 than of creating him a giant. We shall in another 
 place hear the opinion of James the First on the 
 subject. 
 
 The Lord Chief Justice continues. " And gi'eat 
 discord and discontentment Avould arise within tlie 
 realme, If yeomen and tradesmen were admitted 
 lo the diguity of knighthood, to take the place 
 and the precedency of the antient and nohle 
 gentry of the realme. 
 
 "It is resolved in our hooks without contradic- 
 tion that a knight hatchelor is a dignity, and of the 
 inferior degree o{ nobility. Brltton styleth a kniglit 
 honorable, and in the record 9 Edw. I. Sir John 
 Acton, knight, hath the addition of nobilis ; but 
 gentlemen of name and of lilood had very rarely 
 the addition of gencrostis or armiger, helng suffi- 
 ciently distinguished by their knight's service from 
 yomen, who served Ijy the plough. But it was en- 
 acted by the statute 1 Ileu.Y. that in every writ ori- 
 
COMPARED A^'D EXPLAINED. 21 
 
 ginal of actions, personal appeals^ and indltements, 
 to the name of the defendants, addition be made of 
 the state, or degree, or misterie ; and hereupon 
 addition was made o£ generosus or armiger. 
 
 " An unmarried gentlewoman is improperly 
 styled spinster ; she ought to he styled generosa'\ 
 — 2 Institutes QQ8. 
 
 In the fourth volume the Lord Chief Justice 
 quotes Cicero and Pliny, Nobilis est qui sui gene- 
 ris imagines proferre potest : and adds, that what 
 images were to the Romans, coats of arms are to 
 us— Arma seu insignia gentilicia ex antiquo ha- 
 huerunt locum imaginum : so now the best way of 
 discussing of antiquity of gentry is per insignia. 
 
 He says that all disputes about precedency among 
 Peers must be decided in the House of Peers j that 
 the like disputes among the mem])ers of the loAver 
 house, must be decided in the lower house : but 
 tliat such disputes among all others must be de- 
 cided before the Lord High Constable or Earl 
 ^Marshal. 
 
 He ends, as the subject would cari'y him too far, 
 ])y referring the reader to the works of Camden, 
 
22 RANK A^'D TITLES 
 
 and particularly to ihe scries ordinnm, or table of 
 precedency therein. 
 
 They must be ignorant indeed of the laws of 
 honor, and of the nature of nobility, who could 
 suppose, that any ignoble persons would presume 
 to refer their disputes to the Constable or Eai'l 
 IMarshal. 
 
 In France, before the revolution, all disputes 
 among gentlemen were referred to the Marechaux 
 de France. 
 
 Camden, Clarencieus King of Arms, died 1623. 
 He w rote his Britannia in Latin \ it afterwards 
 
 appeared in English. He says : 
 
 " Nobiles vero nostri dividuntur in major es et 
 minores. Nohiles minores sunt equites aurati, ar- 
 mlgeri, et qui vulgo generosi, et gentlemen vo- 
 cantur. — The lesser noblemen are the knights, es- 
 quires, and those whom we commonly call gentle- 
 
 men." 
 
 In his History of Queen Elizabeth, Camden says : 
 " By her mother's side her descent was not so 
 
 h igh, albeit nolle it was : her great grandfalher was 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 23 
 
 Sir Jeffery Boleu, a man of noble birth in Norfolk, 
 Lord IMayor of London 1457; who matched his 
 daughters into the noble houses of the Cheineys, 
 Heydons, and Fortescues; his grand-daughters 
 married to Shelton, Calthorp, Glare, and Sack- 
 vill; men of great wealth and noble descent. 
 
 " In 1559 some noblemen voluntarily departed the 
 kingdom, of whom those of better note werellenry 
 Lord Morly— Sir Francis Englefield, Sir Robert 
 Peckham, Sir Thomas Shelley, and Sir John Gage." 
 
 Thus Camden not only considered the above 
 knights as noblemen, but nobiles melioris iioIcb. 
 
 A Harlelan manuscript (No. 1359) contains a 
 confu'mation by Camden of twenty quarterings 
 to Sir E.alphe BoseviUe of Bradborne in Kent, a 
 gentleman of quahty, blood, and fair and ancient 
 coat armor, and of pure and undoubted lineal 
 descent, and an uninterrupted derivation from 
 ancient nobility, and from divers noble knights 
 and esquires of this kingdom, his ancestors, as 
 well of his own surname, as also of other noble 
 
Ji 
 
 24 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 surnames, and right worthy families, as appearetli 
 hy the quarterings of this achievement. 
 
 '' W.Ai. Camden alias Clarencieux Rex Armor." 
 "20th Sept. 1621." 
 
 TuoMAs MiiiEs puhlished, 1608, his Nohilitas 
 Politica et Civilis, and 1610 his Catalogue of 
 Honor, which is the translation. He says : 
 
 " The division of the orders and degrees of men 
 which the Englisli commonwealth or empire Avell 
 beareth, is exceedingly well set down Ly those 
 who have divided the same into a king, into nohi- 
 litie of the greater and of the lesser sort, citizens, 
 men liberally brought up, and labourers. 
 
 " These are the orders and degrees of both our 
 sorts of nobllily, named and unnamed (titled or 
 untitled.)" 
 
 In the table of precedency follow in degree 
 
 "26. Esquires. 
 27. Gentlemen." 
 
 He descrlljes the order of the procession at the 
 coronation of Edward "VI. 
 
COMPARED AND EXI'LAINED. 25 
 
 First of all, the king's messengers two and two 
 together : delnde nohiles minorum gentium, vcl 
 eenerosi bini. 
 
 The esquires of the king's body : nohiles corpo- 
 ris Regli custodes, quos pro corpore armigeros 
 nuncupamus. 
 
 The gentlemcQ of the privy bed-chamber : no- 
 biles Regi in privato cubiculo astipulantes. 
 
 The gentlemen pensioners : stlpendiarii nohiles. 
 
 This Series ordimim, cited by Lord Chief Justice 
 Coke, and inserted by so many writers two cen- 
 turies ago, constitutes the table of precedency 
 printed at present in the Court Calendar. They, 
 who were then styled the noblemen of lesser note, 
 the nohiles minorum gentium, are now styled the 
 gentlemen entitled to bear arms. 
 
 The following account of the different Classes in 
 France, given by the Comte de IMontlosier in his 
 MonarcMe Francaise, bears a remarkable resem- 
 blance to the foregoing extracts from Milles and 
 Sir Thomas Smith ; except that the Comte divides 
 the Peerage and Noblesse into two distinct classes, 
 
 c 
 
26 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 ^vhereas these English authors unite the Peerage 
 nnd Gentry in the same class. 
 
 '' lu the later times of our ancient Monarchy 
 •\ve might hare counted four classes of persons : — 
 1. The peers or grand officers of the crown. — 2. 
 An order of nohllity- — 3. The body of roturiers 
 or burghers. — 4. Hired servants. 
 
 "In observing the population of the first races 
 (Gauls and Francs), I find, 1. The Grands, who 
 laight correspond perhaps to our peers — 2. An 
 order of free men, or ingemis, who correspond to 
 our order of nobility — 3. An order of tributaries, 
 who correspond to our roturiers — 4. The slaves, 
 who seem to correspond to our servants." — Mont- 
 losier, 1. 81. 
 
 Matthew Carter, esquire, in his Honor Redi- 
 vivus, or an Analysis of Honor and Armory, pub- 
 lished in 1654, says : 
 
 " S- "vce others, as Sir John Feme and Sir \Vm. 
 S ve been so punctual in discussing the pri- 
 
 • ) gentility (gentlemen), I pass to the ncit 
 .ness, which is the esquire. 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 2T 
 
 " The division of tliese dignities of honor was 
 anciently hut into twelve; hut the addition of 
 knight haronet has made them into thirteen. The 
 six first are only nohle, as the gentleman; esquire, 
 knight hachelor, banneret, haronet, and haron. 
 
 " The other seven princely, and are allowed 
 crowns and coronets — viscount, earl, marquess, 
 duke, prince, king, and emperor. Sir John Feme 
 places the viscount in the first division, hut, I think, 
 improperly, in regard to his coronet." 
 
 The barons also having been allowed coronets by 
 Chai'les the Second, Mr. Carter would probably 
 have placed them also among the princes. Though 
 perhaps another distinction might have separated 
 lliem from the viscounts ; the barons are only 
 stvled trusty and Avell-loved, as other knights and 
 gentlemen, whereas the viscounts are styled the 
 cousins of their sovereign. 
 
 At the court of Charles the Fifth there used 
 to be perpetual disputes about precedency be- 
 tween the German princes and the grandees of 
 Spain ; and in catholic times an English peer 
 was considered equal to a German prince at the 
 
 c2 
 
28 RANK AND TITLIS 
 
 court of llie Pope. lu those times the princesses 
 of England could find hushands at home; and 
 w hat may he the consequence of our foreign alli- 
 ances ? the mongrel descendants of a Corsican 
 may eventually pretend to the throne of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 SiLVAKUs MoKGAN, in liis Sphere of Gentry, 
 puhlished in 1661, divides them into native, da- 
 tive, achieved, and created nohility. 
 
 Jon>' GtriLLiM, poursulvant, puhlished the fifth 
 edition of his Display of Hci'aldry in 1679. He 
 says : 
 
 *' By the course and custom of England, nohili- 
 ty is either major or minor. Major contains all 
 titles and degrees from knighthood upwards — 
 minor all from harons downwards." 
 
 He says, page 154 — nohlcs are truly called gen- 
 tlemen. 
 
 He treats, page 71, of yeoman, or ignohle per- 
 sons. 
 
 " Women in England, according to their bus- 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 29 
 
 Lands' quality, are either honorable and nohle, 
 or ignoble. 
 
 " Their honorable dignities are princesses, 
 duchesses, marchionesses, countesses, viscountesses, 
 and baronesses. 
 
 '' The noblesse, as the French call tliem, are all 
 knightb' ladies, -who in all writings are styled 
 dames. All esquires' and gentlemen's wives, only 
 gentlewomen. 
 
 " The third sort comprehends the plelicians, and 
 are commonly called good wives." 
 
 It is remarkable that Guillim places the epitliet 
 honoraljle before noble. 
 
 JosEtH Edmondson, Mowbray Herald, publish- 
 ed in 1780 his Compleat Body of Heraldry, the 
 last though most Important Avork of the kind, as 
 it contains the armorial of all England. It may 
 be found in several public libraries, and particu- 
 larly in the court libraries on the continent; 
 It was deserving of the patronage of George 
 the Third, and it may be useful to Englishmen 
 abroad ; as any gentleman, whose nobility was 
 doubted, might show the arms of his family. The 
 
3(1 RANK AKD TITLES 
 
 account that he gives of the immediate nobility^ 
 or the tenentes in capita, of Germany, of the con- 
 tinental orders of knighthood, and of the rules at 
 tournaments, places the British gentry on a level 
 ■with the noblesse of the continent. But in order 
 to avoid repetitions, I shall make few extracts 
 from him, as he has only repealed the arguments 
 of Selden in his Titles of Honor, and of preceding 
 antiquaries and heralds. He not only declares 
 that the English gentry are noble, but from the 
 folloAving account of two of the most noble orders 
 in Germany, it is evident that Edmondson consi- 
 dered gentility the most exalted word for nobility. 
 
 " A candidate for the order of Saint George at 
 Munich is obliged to prove his gentility for five ge- 
 nerations, on his mother's side as "well as on that 
 of his father. 
 
 " Some German gentlemen creeled a most sump- 
 tuous liospital at Acre, and assumed the title of 
 Teutonic Knights." 
 
 Douglas. The same service that Edmondson 
 renders to the gentry of England, Douglas may 
 render to the barons or gentry of Scotland. 
 
CO.MPARED AND EXPLALXED. 3l 
 
 But not only in the works of heralds and anti- 
 quaries, hut in proclamations, state papers, and 
 monumental inscriptions, the gentry liave been 
 styled noble. 
 
 Tlie ravages committed by the Welsh iu 1283, 
 are styled iu Rymer, " strages magnatum, noM- 
 lium, et allorum :" the slaughter of lords, nobles 
 and others. 
 
 This is correctly expressed ; but in a modern 
 newspaper the cart would be put liefore the horse , 
 and it would probably run, " the slaughter of no- 
 bility, gentry, and others." 
 
 Barnes, in his History of Edwaixl the Third, 
 styles Sir Miles Stapleton a man of great nobility j 
 Sir Nele Loring a knight of great valor aud no- 
 bility. 
 
 The names of the Englishmen of the noblest at 
 the battle of Cranant are thus given, Harl. MS. 782 : 
 
 The Earl of Salisbury, 
 
 Sir de Willouglihy, 
 
 Sir Edmond Heron, 
 
 Sir John Traflbrd, 
 
 Sir Gill)ert Ilalsal, etc. 21 nauie3 iu all. 
 
3i 
 
 RA]SK AND TITLES 
 
 And the same MS. contains the names of the 
 prmces, dukes, earls^baronsjhannerets, and bachelor 
 knightSj with other nobles of the household and re- 
 tinue, under the right mighty prince, John Regent 
 of France, Duke of Bedford. The Register of Ely 
 (Harl. MS. No. 5828) mentions some meeting an- 
 no 1458. 
 
 " Presentihus Wmo. St. George et Joh'ne Col- 
 
 ville militibus, Laurencio Chejne, Peyton 
 
 et Thoma Lockton armigerls, et multis aliis nohi- 
 libtcs." 
 
 Two centuries later, Sir Simon d'Ewes used to 
 direct his letters to a descendant or kinsman of one 
 of the above esquires : 
 
 '' Edwardo Peyton, 7wbih'ssi'moharonetto." 
 
 Lord Verulam, in his History of Henry the Se- 
 venth, inserts the proclamation of Perkin Waibeck, 
 "who thus accuses the King : 
 
 " First, he has caused divers nohles of this our 
 realme to be cruelly murdered, as our cousin Sir 
 William Stanley, Lord Chamberlain ; Sir Simon 
 Montford, Sir Robert RatclifTe, William Dawljenv, 
 Humfrey Slraflord, and many others." 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 33 
 
 Of the above nobles none was a peer. 
 Heylin, in his History of the ReformatloQ, dedi- 
 cated to Charles the Second, says : 
 
 '^ 1546. In the next place came Sir Thomas 
 Wriothesley, a man of a very new noMlitij." 
 
 According to a Harleian MS. No. 801, is in- 
 scribed in Doncaster church : 
 
 " Here lyeth of nohle extraction, John Harring- 
 ton, a famous squire, and nohle Isabel his wife, chief 
 founders of this chantry; -which Isabel died on St. 
 George's day 1462, and the foresaid John on the 
 nativity of the Virgin 1465." 
 
 At Romaldkirk in Richmondshire, even so late 
 as 1664, a simple knight is inscribech Nobilissimus 
 Dominus Franciscus Apelby de Lartington : — (Whi- 
 taker's Richmondshire.) 
 
 " John Lord Viscount Welles married Cicely 
 daughter of Henry the Sixth ; she afterwards mar- 
 ried a gentleman of the nohle family of Kyme of 
 Kyme Tower." See Thompson's Boston and Gent. 
 Mag. Sept. 1821. John Viscount Wells, son of 
 Lionel Lord Wells, married the daughter of Ed- 
 
34 P.A^K AKD TITLES 
 
 ■ward tlie Fourlli. See Thorolon's History of Isoi- 
 tinghamsljire. The above passage therefore is in- 
 correct ; hut it shows, that not only our lords, hut 
 our squires, have intermarried with the royal 
 family. v> 
 
 Peacham published, in 1634, his Compleat Gentle- 
 man, fashioning himself in necessary qualities that 
 may be required in a noble gentleman. JMore than 
 a third of the book treats of blazonry, and he gives 
 the list of the heraldic works in different languages 
 that should compose his library. In his questions 
 on nobility in general, he discusses whether advo- 
 cates and physicians may be ranked with the en- 
 7iohled. 
 
 " Coats of arms, he says, are sometimes purchased 
 by stealth, shuffled into records and monuments 
 by painters, glaziers, carvers, and such; but so good 
 an order has been lately established by the Earl 
 Marshal, that this sinister dealing is cut off from 
 such mercenary aljusers oinohility. 
 
 " Gentility is lost by attainder of treason or felo- 
 ny, by which persons become base or ignoble. " 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 35 
 
 lu Jacob's Law Diclionai-y we read, under the 
 word Herald, Garter is to marshal the funeral of 
 peers ; the next is Clarenceux. — his office is to mar- 
 shal the funeral of all tlie lesser nohility, knights 
 or esquires, south of the Ti'ent. 
 
 There are several volumes of hurial certificates 
 both in the Herald's Office and in the British Mu- 
 seum. From the following certificate (Harl. MS. 
 7029) one may judge of the solemnity with which 
 cm- lesser nohility were interred. " Sir Francis 
 Hinde died at his manor-house of Madingley the 
 21st of March 1595, being 65 years of age, and was 
 worthily burled in the parish church of Madinglev 
 aforesaid on the 6lh of April next following •, chief 
 mourner was William Hinde, esquire ; the four as- 
 sistants. Sir John Cutte, knight, Edward RadcliQe;, 
 esquire (son-in-law), Edward Hinde (second son), 
 and Thomas Chicheley. The standard was borne 
 by Humfrey Gardener, and the pennon of his arms 
 was borne by Mr. Saney. The officers of arms, 
 that solemnized the said funeral, were, Mr. Cla- 
 renceux Ring of Arms, and York Herald of Arms. 
 
I, 
 
 3G RANK AKD TITLES 
 
 In witness hereof we whose names are uuclerwrlt- 
 ten have subscribed these presents. 
 
 " \YillIam Hlude. 
 
 " Edward RadchOe. 
 
 " Edward Hmde." 
 
 The books to form an opinion of the dignity of 
 an oldEnghsh gentleman are the county histories; 
 and these seldom come into the hands of foreign- 
 ers. His baronial castle, or his not less sumptuous 
 mansion of a more modern date, is there depicted. 
 A stately avenue conducts to his residence, and a 
 coach and six, escorted by a troop of outriders, the 
 usuid appendage of his quality, is seen driving into 
 his gates J and when at length his numerous te- 
 nantry have accompanied the heraldic pomp of his 
 funeral to the neighbouring cathedral, the next print 
 represents him there sleeping in dull cold marble, 
 but blazoned with all the escutcheons of his house. 
 Such are the halls that embellish Whitaker's His- 
 tory of Richmond ; such, in Nash's History of Wor- 
 cestershire, are the monuments of the Shcldons, 
 of the Vernons, and the Talbots, whose numerous 
 
COMPARED AND KXPLAINED. Si 
 
 qiiarterings avouIcI not have dispai-aged an elector 
 of Mayence or a prince bishop of Wurtzhourg. 
 
 The late King of Wirtemberg used to say, that 
 he could form no idea of an English gentleman, till 
 he had visited several at their family seats, and seen 
 their manner of living in the country. And it is 
 remarkable that the author who at present seems 
 to take the most pleasure in doing justice to the 
 character of an English squire, is an American — 
 Washingtoa Irving. 
 
 In Johnson's Dictionary, it is true, a gentleman 
 is said to be " one of good extraction, but not no- 
 ble j" and in so saying, he rendered the English 
 gentry considerable injury, as his work is translat- 
 ed into foreign languages, and this unintentionally ; 
 for he was a conscientious man, and though no 
 gentleman himself, he bore no envy towards his 
 superiors- he was a friend of all aristocratical in- 
 stitutions ; but however pi-ofouud an etymologist, 
 he was neither herald nor antiquary, and he com- 
 mitted the modern blunder of confounding nobi- 
 lity with peerage ; and on points of honor, Lord Ye- 
 
SS RAiXK AND TITLES 
 
 rulaiM; Selcleri; Camden^ etc. and the statutes of the 
 Garter, are better authorities. 
 
 In Bailey's Dictionary, of the edition of 1707, 
 we find " a gentleman, one Avho received his no- 
 bility from his ancestors, and not from the gift of 
 any prince or state." 
 
 And in the second volume of Bailey's Diction- 
 ary, printed 1728 (I specify the edition, because 
 in later editions variations may be discovered, and 
 these variations show the progressive degradation 
 of the British gentry), we find, " a gentleman is 
 properly, according to the ancient notion, one of 
 perfect blood, who hath four descents (1) of gen- 
 tility, both by bis father and bis mother." 
 
 " In chusing of magistrates, the vote of a gen- 
 tleman was preferred before that of an ignoble 
 person. 
 
 (1) Four descents of gentility arc in Germany called 
 sixteen quarters, or parents; — one descent requires trvo — 
 two descents four — three descents eight — four descenti 
 sixteen, great-grcat-grand parents, and >vhich qualify a 
 gentleman to be chosen a prince-bishop, or knight of the 
 Teutonic order. 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 30 
 
 " It was a punishable crime to take down the coat- 
 armor of a gentleman, or to offer violation to the 
 ensign of any noble person deceased. 
 
 " The reasons why those that are students in the 
 inns of court are esteemed gentlemen, is because 
 anciently none but the sons of gentlemen were ad- 
 iixilted into them. 
 
 " But the students of law, grooms of his IMajesty's 
 palace, and sons of peasants made priests and ca- 
 nons, though they are styled gentlemen, yet they 
 have no right to coat-armor. If a man be a gen- 
 tleman by ofFice only, and loses his office, then he 
 loses his gentility. 
 
 " Gentry — the lowest degreeof nobleness — such 
 iis are descended of ancient families, and have always 
 Ijorne a coat of arms.'' 
 
 This dictionary represented to foreigners the gen- 
 try of England iu an honorable light ; and being 
 used at schools, inspired our youths with a respect 
 for their own families. This dictionary pi'onoun- 
 ccs nobility to be acquired ; gentility never. This 
 also was an axiom in France. The acquirer there 
 of letters patent is styled an ennobli ; his son a 
 
40 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 nohle : but it is undecided among French heralds/ 
 whether his grandsouj or his great-great-grandson, 
 be the first gentleman in the family ; some heralds 
 requiring only three, others five generations of no- 
 blesse to make a gentleman. 
 
 If the foregoing explanation of gentry be cor- 
 rect, that their families must always have borne 
 arms, the descendants of a yeoman can never be 
 gentlemen ; they however may make very respect- 
 able lords. 
 
 Not only the two words, but this pre-eminence 
 of gentility over nobility, is derived from ancient 
 Rome. 
 
 When to the first hundred patrician families, a 
 second hundred were added, the senators of the 
 first were sX-^^o.^ patres majorum gentium; those of 
 the second, patres ininorum genthan. The two 
 classes united were styled patres conscripti. Hence 
 the gentilitas of the patricians. 
 
 But when the capacity of being admitted to all 
 public offices was acquired by the plebeians, this 
 new class of men were styled nohiles and nohilitas. 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 41 
 
 • So Livy after that period calls those meu and fli- 
 niilies that were at the head of the state. 
 
 Both their children and grandchildren were 
 styled nobiles ; hut their nobilttas (as Is stated in 
 the French Encyclopedia under the word Patri- 
 cian) descended not farther. 
 
 Are we then to suppose that the fourih genera- 
 lion lost their pre-eminence ? No; they were not 
 longer considered nohle, hecause they were at 
 length sufficiently well-horn to rank with ihegen- 
 tilltas. 
 
 The citizen, that had the pictures or statues of 
 his ancestors, was termed nohilis ; he that had only 
 his own, novus; and he that had neither, ignohilis. 
 So that their /MS imaginis resembled our right of 
 hearing a coat of arms ; and their novtcs homo is 
 equivalent to a French ennohli, or to our upstart 
 gentleman. 
 
 See Rennet's Antiquities, De Lolme, etc. 
 
 As the word " Gentleman" has at different pe- 
 riods had so many different meanings, no correct 
 historian nor hiographer, particularly if desirous 
 of not puzzling his translator^ should employ It. 
 
 c* 
 
42 RAiXK AA'D TITLES 
 
 Mr. Taylor, in his History of England, lately pub- 
 lished, very properly styles the Genti-y the Minor 
 Nobility. 
 
 Let us hear what intelligent foreigners say of 
 our peerage and nobility. 
 
 Scutifer apud Anglos penullima est nobllitatis 
 descrlptio inter Equltem etGenerosum. — Dti Cange. 
 
 De Lolme says of the King : — " He creates the 
 peers of the realm, as -well as bestows the different 
 degrees of inferior nobility." 
 
 Fex'ri de St. Constant, in his " Londres et les 
 Anglais," published 1814, says: 
 
 '^ The title of gentleman answered formerly to 
 geiitilhomme. The nurse of James the First, who 
 had followed him from Edinburgh to London, en- 
 treated him to make her son a gentleman: (J) 
 ' My good woman,' said the King, ' a gentleman 
 I could never make him, though I could make him 
 a Lord/ 
 
 (1) Seldcn, in his Table-Talk, says that God Almighty 
 cannot make a gentleman. 
 
'cOMPAFiED AND EXPLAINED. A3 
 
 <^' Some persons have pretended that there are 
 iio nobihty in England, because the peers, the only 
 body of citizens Avho enjoy any political privileges 
 or rights, are properly only hereditary magis- 
 trates. Those who have made the assertion, appear 
 not to admit that the peers represent the ancient 
 feudal nobility j but only keep in mind the compo- 
 sition of the present peers, among whom are found 
 very few nobles by descent (extraction). It is by 
 courtesy, they say, that one gives to the members 
 of their families the titles of Lord and Lady. Is it 
 also by courtesy, that one acknowledges the knights 
 of the different orders, as well as the multitude of 
 ])aronets, that the king creates every day? The 
 king creates ihese titles and orders in virtue of his 
 prerogative. Consequently he creates a nobility, 
 Avhich, though it enjoys no political right, is not 
 less constitutional. Thus there exists a nobility, 
 besides the peerage, and which is derived from the 
 same source. 
 
 f As the chief pw^rt of the new peers are monied 
 men, nabobs, merchants, or bankers, who have 
 bought boroughs, and seconded the views of the 
 
44 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 ministry, and wlio, instead of shedding tlieii- blood 
 for the state, have sucked up its marrow (en ont 
 pompe le sue nourrlcier), so the title of baronet, 
 which was formerly conferred on military exploits, 
 is now given to the plunderers of India, to army 
 agents and contractors, to shopkeepers and apothe- 
 caries. 
 
 "■ But, beside the nobility that enjoys political 
 rights, and the nobility that has merely a title, 
 one may distinguish still another nobility, the only 
 true one according to the prejudices of nobility, 
 the most generally received, the nobility of ex- 
 traction. People are very particular in England 
 about the proofs of this nobility. They are depo- 
 sited at the Heralds' Office. There are many peers, 
 who, in the eyes of the college of arms, are not 
 more gentlemen than were in France many dukes 
 and blue ribbons-, (1) among whom IMonsieur de 
 Beaufremont, who was neither a duke nor a blue- 
 ribbon himself, was surprised to find himself the 
 only gentleman in the company. 
 
 (1) Knights of the Holy Ghost. 
 
GOMrARED AND EXPLAINED. 4t) 
 
 " The Welshman, the Scotchman, the Irish- 
 man, who are nohle hy extraction, whatever may 
 he their present situation, think that the king may 
 make as many peers as he pleases, hut that he can- 
 not make a gentleman, nor give to the lords of his 
 creation the arms of known houses. 
 
 " Several of these gentlemen have refused a peer- 
 age, preferring to he the first of the gentry rather 
 than the last of the peers. Of this numl)er is Sir 
 Watkiu Williams Wynne, of an ancient family in 
 Wales, A\ho commands five votes in the house of 
 Commons."' 
 
 So far Monsieur Ferri de St. Constant. — He has 
 in one passage given loose to satire, for the compo- 
 sition of the House of Peers is generally respectahle; 
 and if some few of its members are of low origin, 
 which would he the case also if the new peers al- 
 ways owed their elevation to merit and never to 
 intrigue, on the other hand, there are other mem- 
 bers, whose origin is truly illustrious : hut what lie 
 has said of our untitled nobility or gentiy is per- 
 fectly correct. ■ 
 
 But if titles in England have been disgraced by 
 
46 RANK ASD TITLES 
 
 being conferred on unworthy objects, Monsieur de 
 Marchangj (in bis Gaule Poetique, iv. page 284) 
 informs us, that tbe abuse -was at one period more 
 general in France, for the king by granting no- 
 blesse or coats of arms, -without discrimination, 
 conferred on the vilest persons the right of purchas- 
 ing baronies and marquisates. " What must have 
 been the nobility in Paris, when Charles V. grant- 
 ed it to all the burghers of this capital ? an ill- 
 judged favor, •which several kings confirmed, but 
 which Henry III. thought proper to confine to the 
 mayor and sheriffs. What must have been the 
 nobility in our provinces, when whole corpora- 
 tions, nay the inhabitants of some counties, pretend- 
 ed to be ennobled by some chimerical privilege j 
 Avhen dukes and counts assumed the right of grant- 
 ing nobility and coats of arms? What must have 
 been the nobility, when usurers, capitalists, heavy 
 tinanciersj and the scum of the earth, were seen to 
 buy baronies, marquisates and lordships, and thus 
 ridiculously to deck themselves out with titles^ 
 lately so respected, but noAV resigned to these 
 clownish and insolent upstarts? as court-dresses, 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 4T 
 
 vvhlch have figured at a birth-day, pass to tlie old- 
 clothes shop to tempt the vanity of some black- 
 guard: and must it not excite our pity to see these 
 purchasers of nobility pulTed up with a comical 
 pride, and after some years think themselves noble 
 and privileged ?" 
 
 Thus we see a king of Fi-ance revoking the in- 
 considerate gifts of his predecessors. This is an ex- 
 ample not to be proposed to a king of England. But 
 tlie king is only the first gentleman in his domi- 
 nions J he ought therefore to protect the honor of 
 the gentry. If plebeians were prohibited from 
 usurping a coat of arms, the sovereign might suffi- 
 ciently reward their services by a grant of arms ; by so 
 doing he would place them at the end of the squires; 
 but now he has no honor to confer on them 
 less than knighthood, or by putting them above 
 their betters. Thus, he cannot be gracious, without 
 being unjust. The system proposed would render to 
 chivalry its ancient lustre. 
 
 After listening to a foreigner's opinion on our 
 mobility; it may be curious to hear an old Englissh 
 
48 RANK AKD TITLES 
 
 gentleman express Llmself on the nobility of the 
 continent. 
 
 Sir John Eresby's Travels in 1654. 
 
 '* That which we call a parliament in England, 
 was, when in use among the French, called an as- 
 sembly of the ThreeEstates, or Conventus Ordinum ; 
 which are, first, the Clergy ; secondly, the IN^obility 
 and Gentry ; thirdly, the Plebeians or Tiers Etat. 
 (Page 4.) 
 
 " La petite noblesse, or the lesser sort of gentry. 
 
 (Page 5.) 
 
 " Trading in France both procures and forfeits 
 gentility. Persons, that have got good estates, easily 
 obtaining being ennobled by the king at cheap 
 rates-, when, at the same time, a gentleman born is 
 thought to degrade himself by traffic." (Page 43.) 
 
 Sir John Eresby knew his own dignity j he felt 
 himself the countryman of Sir Philip Sidney, who, 
 though a mere gentleman, was not only chosen 
 king of Poland, but in the spirit of gallantry refus- 
 ed the crown, to serve Queen Elizabeth as a true 
 knight. And how great would have been the in- 
 
 M' 
 
COMrAP.ED AND EXPLAINED. 49 
 
 dlgnallon of any Eiigllsli gcatle;iia:i of quality in 
 Sir John's days, had he read in the Paris news- 
 papers the following adverlisements : — 
 
 " An EngUsh Gentleman, who has had consider- 
 able experience as a Teacher, and can show respect- 
 able certificates, gives private lessons in the Gx-eek, 
 Latin and English languages : terms 20 francs a 
 mouth. Address, post-paid, at the oflice of Galig- 
 iiani's paper." May, 1823. 
 
 '' Un gentleman anglais d'une fliniille honnete, 
 desire la place d'un gouvernear dans une famills re- 
 spectable." Les affiches, 1 Aout, 1822. 
 
 If this individual were really a gentleman by 
 birlh, he was more than of une faniille honnete; 
 yet being reduced by misfortune to turn tutor, he 
 ought to have concealed his quality. If not, he 
 ought to have styled himself «/i angliis d'une fa- 
 niille honnete. This would have expressed a decent, 
 creditable person, if his modesty forbade him to 
 style himself «» Jiomtne de lettres. 
 
 Any Englishman, gentilhomme de noni et 
 d'armes, who, in a French document, suffers him- 
 self to be styled " un gentleman anglais," either ex- 
 
50 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 poses his ignorance, or seems to acknoAvledge the 
 superiority of a gentilhomme francais, and thus 
 degrades the class to Avhich he helongs. 
 
 So many trades-people, shop-keepers, elc. have 
 lately, instead of going to JMargate in the ho} , 
 sAvarmed over to France in the steam-hoat, and have 
 presumed to call themselves gentlefolks, that the 
 police at Calais and Paris have heen puzzled what lo 
 style them on their passports. They therefore 
 adopted for every nondescript of this kind, the 
 English word gentleman, as if the word would not 
 admit of a translation. This, however flattering to a 
 pseudo-gentleman, is an insult to which no real 
 gentithomine should suljmit. 
 
 King Edward III. in 1300, gave the folloAving 
 answerto a petition of Parliament: — "Such as call 
 themselves gentlemen and men of arms or archers, 
 if they cannot so prove themselves, let them he 
 driven lo their occupation or service, or to the place 
 from whence they came." And King Edward \ I. J 
 nearly two centuries afterwards, complains that 
 'Mhe grazier, the farmer, the merchant, hecome 
 landed men and call ihemselves gent/emeti, though 
 
COMPAP^ED AND EXPLAINED. 51 
 
 they be churls." (King Edward's Picmains In Bur- 
 net's Reformalion, page 71.) 
 
 It was to remedy these abuses, that the heralds 
 went on their visitations in the different coun- 
 ties. 
 
 These yisitations were conducted every thirty 
 years, by Norroy in the north, and by Clarenceux. 
 in the south of England. On these occasions each 
 of these kings, their provincials and marshals, came 
 attended by draughtmen, and summoned the neigh- 
 boring gentry to their county-tOAvn, to have en- 
 registered the births, deaths and marriages, that 
 had occurred in their families since the last visita- 
 tion. Such persons as had usurped titles or digni- 
 ties, or borne ensigns of gentility, which belonged 
 not to them, were obliged under their own hands 
 to disclaim all pretence and title thereunto, and for 
 their presumption were degraded by proclamation, 
 made by the common crier at the market-town 
 nearest to their abode. Under the names of these 
 plebeians, Avho had assumed coats of arms, was writ- 
 ten igmbiles, which sufficiently proves that those 
 who are entitled to arms are nohiles. The earliest 
 
 d2 
 
52 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 visitation was in 1529; tLe latest in 1686. Vlslta- 
 lions nearly similar were usual also in France. 
 
 Wliat an aclmiraljle suLject for a humorous chap- ' 
 ter in a novel would one of these visitations offer 
 to Sir Walter Scott ! What a fuss and hustle must 
 ihe approach of the heralds have caused in the fa- 
 milies of those churls of whom King Edward com- 
 plains ! What an exultation must have reigned in 
 the halls of their right worshipful neighhors, at 
 seeing these usurpers of nohility called over thej 
 coals ! 
 
 But that the heralds would not he unwelcome toj 
 the real gentry of England, we may conclude from! 
 the readiness with whicli they, within a ccnturyJ 
 received an adventurer Avho assumed their func-j 
 tlons. The London Journal (Sat. April 22, 1727)1 
 contains the foUoAving: — 
 
 ''Ipswich, 15 April. One Rohert Harman, anl 
 Irish dancing-master, was convicted as a notorious] 
 cheat and impostor, in assuming the title and func-| 
 tlons of a ting of arms, and alleging that lie wasf 
 authorized hy government to inspect the arms and! 
 quarlerlngs of the nohility and gentry of this and! 
 
I COMPARED AJND EXPLAINED. 53 
 
 14 other counties ; whereby he demanded and re- 
 ceived considerable sums. He was sentenced to 
 stand in ihe pillory, in three several market-towns 
 in this county, on their market-days, to suffer an 
 imprisonment, and to pay a fine." 
 
 The re-establishment of the visitations would 
 replace the gentry on a footing with the noblesse 
 of the Continent. 
 
 Those who deliver passports for the Continent, 
 ought to give the quality of gentleman to those 
 only who are entitled to it; but those, who are 
 entitled to it, should not suffer it to be omitted. 
 The disuse of the word may be of the greatest dis- 
 advantage. If arrived at the place of his destina- 
 tion, his letters of recommendation may indeed 
 prove who and what a traveller is ; but he may be 
 induced to alter his route, his carriage may break 
 down, he may have a dispute at a table-d'hote, he 
 may be mistaken by the police-officers, who are in 
 quest of some offender. Every one who has tra- 
 velled on tlie Continent knows how great a recom- 
 jnendation the quality of a gentilhomme is to the 
 
54 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 protection of an amptmannf or justice of peace, or". 
 to the hospitality of a lord of the manor. 
 
 At Gottingen, where a succession of English- i 
 men have studied, the Prorector usually asks them ; 
 if they are esquires at home ? and on their an- 
 swering in the affirmative, they are entered as 
 Kohles. But at the other German universities, 
 which have less communication with Great Bri- , 
 tain, several young Englishmen, on heing asked 
 the usual question, if they were nohle? unluckily 
 knew as little ahout noLillty as Dr. Samuel John- 
 son, and, like him, always confounded the idea of 
 nohle with the idea of a Peer, and consequently 
 answered, no. Thus they, though perhaps of the 
 most ancient families, have been inscribed in the 
 matricule-hook as the sons of the lowest burghers 
 or mechanics. 
 
 On continuing his travels into Hungary, a slran- , 
 ger's French passport is translated into Latin j thus 
 the gentilhowjne anglais appears as nohilis anglus. 
 And an accidental omission of this title might oc- 
 casionally prevent his receiving those civilities. 
 
COMrARED AND EXPLAINED. i)0 
 
 and that hospitality which he otherwise would 
 receive. 
 
 From their having forgotten what was so w^ell 
 known to their ancestors, that nobility and genti- 
 lity are synonymous, Englishmen run into two ex- 
 tremes. The Scotch and Irish, to do them justice, 
 know their dignity better, and to this may be 
 attributed their better reception on the Continent. 
 But, while the lowest Englishman presumes to 
 style himself a gentleman, the Englishman of the 
 first quality, having unaccountably renounced the 
 ancient pre-eminence of his blood, hesitates to 
 style himself a nobleman. What respect can he 
 claim from foreigners, who scarcely knows his 
 own place in society? Formerly his dignity was 
 esteemed abroad, because it was protected at 
 home. 
 
 In 1350, during the wars of the Black Prince, 
 a number of French gentlemen, having agreed to 
 light the Combat de trente against the like number 
 of English gentlemen, Argentre, in his History of 
 Brittany, says, " both parties had sworn, that only 
 gentlemen should combat on either side ; but Bern- 
 
56 RANK A^D TITLES 
 
 Low could not complete his number ; lie therefore 
 took a soklat de condition roturiere, named Hal- 
 hutieP 
 
 This soldier \ras probably a yeoman. There are 
 other derivations of the "word yeoman, but may it 
 not signify a bowman, and be derived from the 
 yew of their bow? Lord Verulam relates, that 
 Henry YII. formed a body of archers, called the 
 veomen of the guard. It might also signify a 
 ploughman, from jtigum, a plough, which the 
 Germans pronounce yngum. hi those days, when 
 the rank of every one was so defined, no French- 
 man would have spoken irreverently of a gentle- 
 man anglais, nor have disputed his nobilify. W hen, 
 at the meeting of Henry and Francis, on the Plain 
 du Drap d'Or, every Englishman, wbose shield had 
 been examined by the heralds, was admitted into 
 the lists. 
 
 It is only since the gentry permitted the ple- 
 beians to encroach on them, that tbe peers began 
 to disdain the title of gentleman, a title wbich tbe 
 ilrst peers, nay, princes of tbe blood, would have 
 not disdained. The baughty Lord Verulam says, 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 57 
 
 111 his History of Henry the Seventh : " The king 
 dispatched Sir Rohert 'Willoughhy for Edward 
 Plantagenet, son and heir to George Duke of Cla- 
 rence. In case of the hastarding of Edward the 
 Fourth's issue, this young gentleman was to suc- 
 ceed. 
 
 " About this time the Lord Woodville, uncle to 
 the Queen, a valiant gentleman^ and desirous of 
 honour " 
 
 GodAvin, in his Annals (page 163), says: " Cour- 
 tenay Marquis of Exeter, deriving himself from 
 the blood royal of France, participated of the 
 blood royal of England, being son to Catherine, 
 daughter of Edward IV. The king became jea- 
 lous of his greatness, and glad of any occasion to 
 cut off this noble gentleman^ 
 
 A Harleian MS. says : *' These sundry coats ap- 
 pertain to the riglit honorable and most noble 
 gentleman, Henry Earl of Derby, Lord Stanley, 
 Strange, and Man, companion of the Garter, lieu- 
 tenant of Cheshire and Lancashire." 
 
 The Duke of Lauderdale was styled ^\ys>\. gentle- 
 man oi W\Q bed-chamber to Chax'les the Second; 
 
) 
 
 00 RAKK AND TITLIS 
 
 as the Duke of Hamilton was first gentleman of 
 the bed-chamber to George the Second. Some 
 Due el Pair of France is still styled at the French 
 Court " le premier gentilhomme de la chambre;" 
 but in England, the word gentleman has of late 
 become so contemptible, that the same officer is 
 now styled first lord of the bed-chamber. 
 
 Formerly, Avhile all persons of coat-armour were 
 styled noblemen, all gentlemen were styled per- 
 sons of quality. 
 
 A peer is only a person of rank, unless he be a 
 gentleman J but every gentleman is a person of 
 quality, for, in the opinion of a herald, quality and 
 gentility are synonymous. 
 
 Lord Verulam says (page 119): " At the same 
 time there repaired unto Perkin, divers English- 
 men of quality, Sir George ]?sevile. Sir John Tay- 
 lor, and about one hundred moi'e." 
 
 (Page 122.) " Upon All-hallowes day the king's 
 second son Henry was created Duke of York; and 
 as well the duke as divers other noblemen, knights 
 l)achelors, and gentlemen of quality, were made 
 knighls of the Bath." 
 
COilPARED AND EXl'LAI«ED. 5^ 
 
 T'uller's Church History, anno 1546. " The last 
 person of quality who suffered martyrdom in this 
 king's I'eign, was Anne Ascough, alias Kyme. She 
 was worshlpfully extracted 5 the daughter of Sir 
 William Ascough of Kelsey in Lincolnshire, of the 
 age of twenty-five." 
 
 The gentry of Yorkshire thus begin a petition 
 to Charles the First, 1643 : — 
 
 " Those members of parliament lately employed 
 to attend your Majesty from both houses, being 
 all of them gentlemen oi quality and estate in this 
 county." 
 
 During the civil war was published, a cata- 
 logue of all Lords, Knights, Commanders, and Per- 
 sons of quality slain, or executed by law martial 
 to March 25, 1647. 
 
 Proclamation against duelling, Whitehall, 9th 
 March, 1679: — 
 
 " Whereas it has become too frequent, espe- 
 cially among persons of quality^ to avenge their 
 private quarrels by duel." 
 
 Bamfield Moor Carew was born 1693. His Life 
 W'iginally began — ^' Never was there known a 
 
60 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 more splendid appearance of gentlemen and ladles 
 of rank and qnality at any baptism in the west of 
 England. The Honorable Hugh Bamfield, esquire, 
 and the Honorable Major IMoor, ivere both his 
 illustrious godfathers." 
 
 The Life of Bamfield Moor Carew appeared, 
 1807, in the Eccentric Mirror. The above passage 
 was thus altered : — 
 
 "Never was there known a more splendid ap- 
 pearance of persons of the first distinction at any 
 baptism in the county. Hugh Bamfield, esquire, 
 and Major Moor, of families equally ancient and 
 respectable as that of Carew, were his godfa- 
 thers." 
 
 The epithet illustrious, applied to tAvo country 
 squires, a\ as exaggeration, and therefore properly 
 omitted- but it shows the high estimation in which 
 our gentry were held so late as in the eighteenth 
 century. But rank and quality were words more 
 expressive of their meaning than that equivocal 
 word distinction. AA^e can form an opinion of 
 what ladies and gentlemen of rank and quality 
 were in the reign of "NYilliam the Third, but it 
 
COMrARED AND EXPLAINED. 61 
 
 ■will puzzle our descendants to divine what were 
 the people of distinction or fashion in the reign 
 of George the Third ; and as these worthies were 
 stjled honorahle during their lives, it is hard to 
 deprive them of it after their deaths. Quality (ac- 
 cording to a dictionary printed 1735), is a title of 
 honor and nohle hirth ; hence, in the New Atalan- 
 tis, and in the plays and novels of Fielding, Sniol- 
 let, etc. and in the magazines, newspapers, and 
 periodical papers, till very late in the eighteenth 
 century, every gentleman and gentlewoman are 
 
 persons of quality. The JMemoirs of Mrs. are 
 
 entitled the Memoirs of a "Woman of Quality; Sir 
 Charles Grandison and Lovelace are hoth men of 
 quality. 
 
 The title " honorahle" was, till lately, given to 
 all persons of quality •, hence the use of it in all 
 parliamentary dehates •, though it Avas undouhtedly 
 confined at first to the knights of the shires, and 
 not conferred on the citizens and hurgesses. Out 
 of parliament it is at present only given to the 
 -children of peers. But custom only has dictated 
 
62 RANK. AND TITLES 
 
 tills courtesy, wliich is probably prescribed by no 
 statute. To olliers, particularly to colonels in the 
 ai'my, it has been discontinued. This title pro- 
 bably followed the course of other things. Being 
 given to so many, it flattered no one, and fell into 
 disuse. It is a title unknown on the continent, 
 and as little understood as the title of a baronet. 
 The daughter of an Irish peer having, at Paris, 
 styled herself on her visiting-tickets " I'honorable 
 Madame ***," called down on her character many 
 ill-natured remarks, which she otherAvise would 
 have escaped. 
 
 Other titles have fallen into discredit through 
 their general indiscriminate abuse. 
 
 Dedication of Virgil's ^neidos by Thomas 
 Phaer, Esquire, and Thomas Twyne, Doctor in 
 Phisicke: — 
 
 " To the right worshipful Maister Robert Sack- 
 will, Esquire, most worthy son and heir apparent 
 to the Right Honorable Sir Thomas Sackwill, 
 knight, Lord Buckhurst ; the rare hope and only 
 expected imp of so noble roots, and heir of so an- 
 ticnt a family." 
 
compahed and explained. G3 
 
 This clcdlcatlon, dated 1st January, 1584, con- 
 cludes — 
 
 " Your worship's most bounden and willing 
 
 '[ Thomas Twvne." 
 
 Thus the title of " your worship" was given to 
 the son of a peer, for lords and gentlemen then 
 enjoyed the same honors, and all persons of quality 
 were styled indlfTerently nohle, gentle, honorable, 
 or worshipful. Afterward " your worship" fell to 
 all the gentry ; but when it w^as given to mayors 
 and trading justices, the gentry preferred "■ your 
 honor." Soame Jenyns, in his Modern Fine Gen- 
 tleman, written 1746, says: — 
 
 Uls Honor posts o'er Italy and France, 
 
 Measures Saint Peter's dome, and learns to dance. 
 
 Another remark on ihc foregoing dedication : a 
 peer being a knig'ul is styled Sir, and his son Mas- 
 ter. Under Queen Elizabeth the whole body of 
 the nobility, or ihe peers, knights, and squires, 
 were styled lords, sirs, and masters. Every rank 
 had Its particular title, and the plebeians then 
 being styled goodmen, master was a title of honor; 
 
\ 
 
 C4 RAKK AND TITLtS 
 
 but It ceased to Le so, wlien given to the lower 
 orders. In Spain the nohihty are styled don, 
 ■which also means master ; for from dotnus, a house, 
 is derived dominus, master of a house. 
 
 It is possibly to he attributed to this circum- 
 stance, their being sufficiently distinguished by the 
 titles Sir or Master, that the gentry under Ed- 
 Avard III. thought it superfluous to retain the de 
 before their names, which, on the continent, dis- 
 tinguishes the nobles from the roturiers. 
 
 Mr. Hallam, in his Middle Ages, says : '^ tliat 
 corl meant originally a man of noble birth, and in 
 the Anglo-Saxon times was opposed to ceorl, as 
 noble is opposed to roturier in France." But as 
 king Edward YI., long after those times, applies 
 the word churl not only to peasants, l)ut to 
 burghers, the erudite historian is premature in 
 congratulating us on any glorious deficiency in our 
 language of any woixl to convey the full sense of 
 roturier. Lands in France were eilher tcrres no- 
 bles or tcrres roturicrcs, as in England they were 
 lield in scutage or in soccagc, that is, held by those 
 who had a shield of arms, or by those who fol- 
 
COMPAHED AND EXPLAINED. Q5 
 
 lowed the plough; and from the plough Ijoth the 
 words soccager and roturicr are derived. But 
 though soccager was never opposed to noljle as a 
 reproach, yet the contradlstuiction of Eorl and 
 Cliurl Avas replaced by that of Gentle and Simple. 
 
 How absurd is of late years the gradation of 
 our honorific titles : worshipful, honoraljlc;, noble ! 
 An individual is styled worshipful, or worthy of 
 adoration, who is not alloAved to be honorable, or 
 worthy of honor ; and another iudivldual is al- 
 lowed to ])e honorable, though not acknowledged 
 to be noble, or Avorthy of notice. Thus Avithout 
 knoAving, Ave are to honor; Avilhout honoring, Ave 
 are to adore. God only is worshipful : but, strange! 
 the Eng^lish gentry, the most vilified noblesse in 
 Europe, disdain a title that should only be given 
 to the Divinity. 
 
 The Avliole system should be reversed ; the new 
 families, the novi homines, should be styled the 
 noble ; for novi fas and nohilitas are derived from 
 the same root. 
 
 The antient gentry should be styled the honor- 
 able, as they at different periods have been. 
 
 D* 
 
60 RANK Ars'D TITLES 
 
 And ihe peers, the hereditary senators, raighi: 
 be styled the woi'shipful, if some olher title, less 
 objectionable, could not be selected. 
 
 The commons ; les commtmes j — and could the 
 English knights, a body of warriors so hardy, so 
 proud of their descent, so full of their own Im- 
 poi'tance, so desirous of distinction, submit to have 
 formed a part of the House of Commons ? No, 
 never, if the House of Commons had signified the 
 house of the ignohles. But the word commons 
 signified not, in parliament, common people, in 
 contradistinction to the nobility, but communi- 
 ties. The House of Commons therefore signified 
 the house of communities. 
 
 The comniunitas terrce, or community of the 
 kingdom, was anciently only the barons and te- 
 nants in capite. (l) 
 
 In 1258, a community thus composed sent a 
 letter to Pope Alexander. These " litterae miss% 
 a communitate Anglise" (2) conclude, " communi- 
 
 (1) Bradjr, Glossary, page 27. 
 
 (2) Ibid. 81. 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 67 
 
 f las comllum, procerum, raagnatum alloi'iimque 
 I regni Angliae," kiss the feet of your holiness. 
 
 In 1258, also, tota terra: communitas chose 
 twenty-four of its memhers to treat for an aid for 
 the king. 
 
 " Ce sont les 24, qui sont mis par le commun, a 
 trailer de aid de roi." (1) 
 
 This communitas terra, or le comimm de la 
 terre, was sometimes styled tota nobilitas ArigUce, 
 or universitas baronagn, and signified the hody 
 of the nohility of the realm : le corps de la no^ 
 hlesse. (2) 
 
 This communitas terrcB was equivalent to the 
 House of Peers, or rather to the Diet of the German 
 Empire. Several of its members, Simon de Mont- 
 ford, de Bohun, de Bigod, were as powerful as 
 a duke of Wirtemherg, or an elector of Hesse. 
 
 On other occasions the sheriiF convoked the com- 
 munitas comitatus, or the hody of freeholders, 
 (3) tenants in capita, in his county. At length, in 
 1265, the citizens and burgesses were first sum- 
 
 (1) Brady, 628. (2) Ibid. 84. (3) Note. 
 
CS RANK AND TITLES 
 
 rnoned to parliament to represent the commnnita^ 
 tes civitatnm, the hodies of citizens or corpora- 
 tions. 
 
 Commnnitas, like societas, means people par- 
 taking the same rights, and was equally applicahle 
 to the most exalted and to the most humhle classes. 
 Therefore, that their assembly was styled the House 
 of Commons, could not offend the haughtiest knight 
 that ever displayed his shield at a tournament. 
 
 The assemljly of knights might possibly have 
 been called the House of Commons Ccommvnitates 
 comitatum), though the plebeians from the towns 
 had never been summoned. When, at his corona- 
 tion, (1) Edwai'd n. was asked, " Do you promise 
 to hold the laws and customs, which the commu- 
 nity of your kingdom shall have chosen (clus) 7^\ 
 there were no citizens nor burgesses present. The 
 community was composed of abl)ots, priors, earls, 
 barons, great men, and the whole body of the te- 
 nants in capite. (2) 
 
 (1) Glossary, 3C. (2) Bfad> 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 09 
 
 It is to be observed tbat a general assembly for 
 the whole kingdom was always styled in the singular 
 la communaute, or le commtm ; but when different 
 communities sent deputies, they were styled in the 
 plural les communmites or les communs, or pro- 
 perly les communes. 
 
 Thus Edward II. in 1318, "Notre Seigneur et 
 Roi, par assent des prelats, comtes, et barons, et 
 communautes de son royaume." (1) 
 
 Our Norman barons soon forgot the genders of 
 words in French, and their lawyers frequently 
 made, in tAVO following lines, the same word both 
 masculine and feminine. Thus they wrote le com- 
 mune, la commun, or les communes, indifferently. 
 But the French always translated the English House 
 of Commons into la chamhre des communes (com- 
 munities), and not into la chamhre des communs 
 (common people). 
 
 By a statute of Henry VI. none but gentlemen 
 born, generosi a nativitate, were capable of sit- 
 
 (1) Rymer. 
 
 \ 
 
TO RANK AND TITLES 
 
 ing In parliament as kuights of the sliire ; and in 
 1460 an election was set aside, Lecause the person 
 returned was not of gentle birth. 
 
 " As the knights of the shire," says Mr. Ilallani, 
 " corresponded to the inferior nobility of other 
 feudal countries^ we have less cause to be surprised 
 that they belonged to the same branch of parlia- 
 ment as tbe Barons, than at their subsequent inter- 
 mixture with men so inferior in station as the citi- 
 zens and burgesses." A complete list of the sheriffs 
 and knights of the shires would form one of the 
 most distinguished nobiliaires in Europe, and 
 though it might offer some exceptions, yet it might 
 vie in purity with the Golden Book of Venice, 
 or with tbe Fasti Consulares of ancient Rome. 
 
 The knights in one respect resembled the citi- 
 zens ; they appeared not on their own account, 
 but as deputies of other tenants in capite. They 
 therefore were assemljled with the citizens, who 
 were the deputies of other citizens. But in other 
 respects the knights or little barons resembled tbe 
 great barons. Like them, they held by a military 
 tenure j therefore, when the citizens paid a Iwcn- 
 
COMPAllLD AND EXPLAINED. 71 
 
 tielliof their goods, for the expenses of the war, (I) 
 the knights, hke the great harons, only paid a 
 tliirticth of their goods to defray theexpenses of the 
 knighting of the king's eldest son. (2) 
 
 Though the knights condescended to sit under 
 the same roof with the citizens and burgesses, they 
 were summoned to appear gladio cincti, and they 
 always maiatamed the dignity of the equestrian 
 order. The most trifling distinction suffices to de- 
 stroy the idea of equality, and the distinction of 
 the spur Is still ohservecl. The military memhers 
 appear no longer In armor, but they alone may 
 wear their spurs as a mark of knighthood. The 
 citizen or burgess, who after a morning ride 
 should inadvertently approach the chamber Avith 
 his spurs on, Is stopt by the usher, and must re- 
 tire to divest himself of this mark of knighthood. 
 And to this humiliation any gentleman of the first 
 quality, any Irish peer, nay the Chancellor of the 
 
 (1) Brady, Appendix 30. 
 
 (2) Edw, I. 3'.. 
 
T2 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 Eschecfuer himself, who, whatever might he his 
 autliority or dignity elsewhere, should sit in the 
 house in the humhle character of a citizen or hur- 
 gess, must suhmit. 
 
 In all human institutions there are contradictions, 
 and what contradictions strike the foreigner In the 
 honorable house ! Evil communication corrupts 
 good manners : and it seems that neither gentle nor 
 simple have been improved by their approximation. 
 Now the haughty spirit of chivalry seems to have 
 taken possession of citizens and burgesses, and 
 they, by insisting that a Briton should on his knees 
 Jjeg pardon at their tribunal, degrade the people 
 that they represent ; and now the knights, as if de- 
 generated in the society of the representatives of 
 plebeians, seem to have forgotten the glory of their 
 race, and however proud of their spurs on their 
 own dunghill, submit in a conference of the two 
 houses to sit cap in hand, Avhile the peers are per- 
 mitted to sit covered. 
 
 When the ancient Cortes assembled in Spain, or 
 the national Diet in Hungary, or when a German 
 prince convoked a Diet of his vassals, two members 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 73 
 
 of tlie kniglilliood or RitterscliaiTt were deputed 
 from every cauton. These deputies are equivalent 
 to llie knights of the shire ; these must he all no- 
 ble, I)ut no gentleman erer represents the towns or 
 pleheians. 
 
 And great was the cry against Miraheau for be- 
 coming a member of the Tiers Etat in the National 
 Assembly. It was indeed an innovation ; Miraheau 
 was a gentleman, and ought to have represented 
 th? noMesse of his canton j but our gentry, who, 
 instead of becoming knights of iheir shire, first 
 deigned to represent cities and boroughs, were also 
 innovators. 
 
 The three estates of France, which Sir John Eres- 
 Ly has already explained, had, except the number 
 three, no analogy with the three branches of the 
 English legislature. Still the three estates of France 
 subsist, but they were never legislators ; the legis- 
 lature there consists at present of thi^ee branches 
 like our own. ' 
 
 They who, whatever their motives may hfive 
 Jieen, have been active in spreading the unfounded 
 opinion, that the peers are the only noJjles in Great 
 
 E 
 
 
74 r.AIvK AND TITLES 
 
 Britain; take a pleasure in applying to all who are 
 not peerS; tlie term commoncrs; thinking therehy 
 to degrade them. But first let them explain what 
 they mean by commoners. The word commoner 
 has three significations. 
 
 In a parliamentary sense, as the counts and ba- 
 rons used to style themselves the common or com- 
 munity of the kingdom, they might he styled com- 
 moners of the upper house; but in being styled the 
 peers, they have gained nothing, for a commoner, 
 a fellow, and a peer, mean the same. As to the 
 counties and towns, those only who choose, or are 
 chosen, are commoners. They only are active ci- 
 tizens, or members of the commonwealth. 
 
 lu a Irgal sense, all are commoners who are sub- 
 ject to the common tribunals ; the peers are not 
 commoners, as they are their own judges. This is 
 a privilege, but no proof of exclusive nobility, for 
 many persons, "vyho have precedency over peers, 
 are subject to the common courts of laAV. Not onlj 
 the younger, but elder sons of dukes and mar- 
 quesses, who are ranked above half the peers, but the 
 princes of the blood, and the sous of the king. 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 75 
 
 "would, if accused before they were created peers, 
 be tried by the common juries also. Therefore, as 
 nobility is not confined to the peerage, being a 
 commoner is no stain to nobility, and no reproach 
 to a gentleman. The prince Leopold of Saxe-Co- 
 bourg, having refused a peerage, is the first com- 
 moner. 
 
 The word commoner has only of late years crept 
 into circulation. Our ancestors did without it. 
 Neither Sir Thomas Smith, nor Camden, nor 
 Milles, introduced it into their accounts of England. 
 I see not why in the Court Calender it has been iu- 
 ti'uded into the table of precedency, or why it has 
 been placed where it is. A duke's eldest son is not 
 less a commoner than the Speaker, though the 
 Speaker be the first within the House of Commons. 
 If any chief of opposition affects the character of a 
 commoner, it is to ingratiate himself with the rab- 
 ble ; as the late Duke of Oi'leans, to gain the af- 
 fections of the canaille, stjled himself Citoyen 
 Egalite. 
 
 , In a humiliating sense, the word commons, in con- 
 tradibtiuclioa to birth, rank, nobility, dignity, etc 
 
 e2 
 
76 RANK AKD TITLES 
 
 is not applicable to the gentry, tliough it may be to 
 the plebeians or citizens. 
 
 To show that the gentry are distinct from the 
 commons or plebeians, the following citations may 
 suiEce. 
 
 In one of the battles between the houses of York 
 and Lancaster, the king (Richard III. but I write 
 from memorj) ordered that quarter should be 
 given to the commons, but that all gentlemen 
 should be put to the sword. 
 
 Lrs'Ds AY of Pitscottie's Hist, of Scotland. 
 
 " Henry VIII. wrote to the Earl of Surrey, that 
 he should raise the whole body of England, both 
 genllemen and commons." 
 
 " Lord Lindsay, in his speech to the Scotch lords 
 Ijefore the battle of Floddon, says, For if we lose 
 the king, we lose the whole nobility thereof, for 
 none, my lords, have remained but gentlemen; the 
 commons are all departed from us for lack of 
 victual." 
 
 In these two passages commons mean yeomen. 
 
 The necessity of the British gentry's asserting 
 ihclr nobility increases as the connexion of Great 
 
COMPARl^D AND EXPLAINED. TT 
 
 Britain with the continent increases. The Seven 
 Ishinds are under British protection. They have a 
 numerous nohllltj, and when a governor or lord 
 Gommissloner arrives at his post, without doubt the 
 first question that the inhabitants ask is : '' Is his 
 excellency noble?" He is possibly of one of the niost 
 illustrious families in Europe, but he may be no peer ;; 
 and people have taken it into their heads, that in 
 the British Empire the peers only are noble. The 
 inhabitants, conceiving the appointment of a ro- 
 turier or plebeian an insult offered to themselves , 
 scarce stifle in public that disdain, to which they 
 give loose in their coteries. If this be disadvan- 
 tageous to the governor, what must it be to those 
 TPho hold military or civil posts under him ? Every 
 petty noble in every paltry office will hold him- 
 self superior to our gentlemen, the antiquity of 
 whose families would have qualified them for Doges 
 of Venice. 
 
 Hanover now is an independent kingdom, and 
 subject also to our king ; and under his authority 
 Hanoverian bourgeois are ennobled witli the same 
 facility, with which a wealthy citizen or nabob may 
 
78 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 purchase a coat of arms •, and these new-hakecl 
 harons, though they would not he received into 
 gentle company in Hanover, have heen hy ignorant 
 people directed to take the precedence over our 
 most ancient gentry in London ; and this forsooth 
 hecause these men of yesterday are styled harons, 
 and our gentry are merely squires. But the manors 
 of these squires may be in the Doomsday-hook, and 
 consequently their ancestors were ranked among 
 the lesser harons several centuries ago. And a 
 German baron, even an ancient one, is only a lesser 
 baron, and may not be classed with the magnates 
 and proceres, as a British baron may^ 
 
 The Hanoverians are an enlightened and a hos- 
 pitable people. Our ti-avellers Avho have visited 
 not only tlieir capital, but their provinces, must do 
 justice to the good qualities of every rank of their 
 society: and consequently Hanovei-ians of every 
 rank have a claim on our esteem, benevolence, and 
 liospitality. In every polished company the place 
 of honour should be given to the stranger; but this 
 distinction is the mere dictate of courtesy, and the 
 foreigner; if a man of sense, would altrlbule it to 
 
 -«l 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 79 
 
 Uie politeness, and not to the Inferiority of the com- 
 pany. But shouU! he settle In England, this deference 
 should cease, and German letters of iiohlllty should 
 he considered equivalent with a British coat of arms 
 of equal antiquity. A German haron whose an- 
 cestor flourished under Henry the Lion, may rank 
 with the English gentleman Avhose ancestor fought 
 under Richard Coeur de Lion-, hut the new haron 
 of yesterday should have no precedence over the 
 parvenu, who had purchased a coat of arms at the 
 Heralds' Office. 
 
 The nohlesse of Europe may he considered on a 
 level J but one title is common in one country, an- 
 other in another. If In a number of individuals, in 
 Germany, E.ussla, etc. there are fifty barons and 
 a count; and In the same number of individuals, in 
 Great Britain, there are fifty squires and a baronet ; 
 and if the title of a baron is as easy to be acquired 
 on the continent as a coat of arms here; and 
 the title of a count as easy to be acquired there, 
 as a baronetage here, a continental baron is not 
 superior to our s([ulre, nor the continental count 
 to our baronet. 
 
80 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 A Sicilian Comte cannot be classed with an Eng- 
 lish Earl, who is a peer of the realm ; and the Pope's 
 hanker, the Duke of Torlonia, had he accumulated 
 his immense fortune in England, might possibly 
 have been created a baronet. 
 
 If neither Britons visited the continent, nor fo- 
 reigners Great Britain, it would be indifferent what 
 titles they bore. The common people in England 
 pay as much respect to their superiors as the com- 
 mon people in any other country. The shop- 
 keepers in London are as civil behind their counters 
 as the shopkeepers In Paris or Vienna. In the inns 
 liis honor or his worship is waited on with as much 
 servility as his grace in Germany, or his excel- 
 lency in Italy. A landlord in England, with the 
 title of baronet, is of not less Importance among his 
 tenants, than a landlord in Sicily with the title of 
 prince among his vassals ; and a squire in his ancient 
 hall In Lancashire, might vie with any baron in his 
 moated castle in Languedoc; but should they travel, 
 the advantage would always be in favor of the con- 
 tinental noblesse. A foreigner in England usually 
 passes for apcrsonofgTcaler dignity tluin he is; and 
 
COMrARED AND EXPLAINED. 81 
 
 llie Englishman abroad loses of his impoi^tance,r 
 And this because our gentry bear more modest 
 titles, and seem to have forgotten, that they are 
 nobles. 
 
 The knights and squires of England, without 
 doubt, preferred being styled the gentry, to being 
 styled the nobility, and being men of birth, no one 
 could contest their right to the superior denomina- 
 tion. They Avere logicians enougli to know the 
 axiom, omne majus continet minus }^ and they, 
 being allowedly gentlemen, could never dream that 
 their nobility could be contested. And the peers 
 were styled the nobility, not because they were the 
 only nobles, but because, as there were many peers 
 who were not gentlemen or men of quality, they 
 could not collectiA-ely be styled the gentry of the 
 upper house. They however were all persons of 
 distinction, though they all were not persons of 
 quality. A plebeian could he raised to the peerage, 
 and this very justly, because the peerage compose 
 a council or tribunal, and the state may require his 
 advice. He is summoned not so much for his own 
 sake, as for his country's sake. He thus became of 
 
82 EA^K AND TITlES 
 
 liitjlier rank; tliougli he remained inferior in qual/lj 
 to the ancient gentr}'. Every gentleman of eight 
 quarters was admissihle into the order of the Gar- 
 ter, for a knight of the Garter must undoubtedly 
 be sufiiciently well horn to Ijreak a lance at a tour- 
 nament. Therefore, " when Lord Paget was in 
 1552 degraded from the order for divers offences, 
 and chiefly because he -vvas no gentleman of blootl, 
 neither of the father's nor the mother's side; (1) or 
 as it Is expressed in the Latin, qtioniam a neutro 
 parente nohiles hahehat natales ; he still continued 
 a peer of the realm. (2) 
 
 The statutes of the order (Henry VIIT. an. 1522) 
 thus describe " a gentleman of blood :" it is declai'- 
 ed and determined that he shall be descended of 
 three degrees of noblesse, ihat is to say of name and 
 of arms, both of his father's and his mother's side. 
 
 When, on the death of a knight, a chapter of the 
 
 (1) Ilayward's Hist, of EdvT. VI. Ashmole's Ord. of the 
 I Garter, page G21. 
 
 I (2) On ttie accession of Queen Jlary, Lord P:'g^' t v^ns 
 
 reinstalled into the cidcrr 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 83 
 
 order was convoked to give away his garter, every 
 knight received a paper, on which he was to write 
 the names of nine candidates; these names were 
 distrlLuled in three coUimns ; the first cohimn con- 
 sisted of sovereign princes and earls ; the second of 
 3>arons ; the third of gentlemen of quality. 
 
 The Duke of Buckingham, in 1451, voted thus : 
 
 Pllncipcs. Baroncs. Mll'des. 
 
 Ttie Emperor, Lord Ilungerford, Sir Edvv. Hall, 
 
 The Duke of Exeter, Lord Lovell, Sir Edw. Hunger- 
 
 ford, 
 TheEarlofWillsliire, Lord Lisle, Sir Robt Shotes- 
 
 broke. 
 
 The relailve importance of every rank in society 
 may be judged from the following distinction. On 
 the grand festival of the order, the knights receiv- 
 ed a robe powdered over with embroidered gar- 
 ters, and the niolto of the order wrought in gold. 
 The sovereign's robe Avas powdered wilh an unli- 
 mited number of garters, the duke's with 120, the 
 marquess's with 110, the earl's w^ith 100, the vis- 
 count's with 90, the baron's with 80, the banneret's 
 with 70, the gentleman's with 60 garters. Thus 
 
84 RANK AKD TITLES 
 
 the distinction between a banneret and a baron was 
 not greater than between a baron and a viscount. 
 So little was the idea of any exclusive noblKty in 
 the House of Lords. 
 
 If untitled gentlemen are no longer knights of the 
 Garter as formerly, it is not because they arc less 
 eligible, but because the peerage now being more 
 numerous, the individual, who is invested with the 
 ribbon, has probably been already promoted to the 
 peerage. 
 
 Lord Paget remained a nobleman, because any 
 individual can be ennobled 5 but presumed not to 
 style himself a gentleman, gentility being an here- 
 ditary quality. 
 
 Mr. ILillam says, IL 477 — " No restraint seems 
 ever to have lain on marriage, nor have the chil- 
 dren, even of a peer, been ever deemed to lose 
 any privilege by his union with a commoner." 
 Mr. Hallam will allow me to observe, that restraint 
 has seldom been laid on marriage by any govern- 
 ment whatever. In no country would a man be 
 sent to prison for contracting a misalliance, but 
 in several he would be sent to Coventry : and this 
 
COlirARED AND EXPLAINED. 65 
 
 woultl liave been the case, not only in France, but 
 in England a century ago. Sir Jolin Feme, in 1586, 
 has espressedhis ojilniononthis subject, which was, 
 without doubt, the opinion of his contemporaries j 
 and the contempt with which, during the Com- 
 monwealth, the republican Mrs. Hutchinson, in 
 her Memoirs, mentions her relalives, avIio had 
 married henealli themselves, is not less decided. 
 But I wish that the learned historian had used a 
 word less equivocal than Commoner; but what- 
 ever he meant by the word, he would have heea 
 right so far as the peerage was concerned ; for as 
 it Avas not necessary that a peer should be a gen- 
 tleman of blood, his children would have suc- 
 ceeded to the peerage, though Jie had married a 
 yeoman's daughter ; but if their mother was noi 
 a gentlewoman, the children of a peer would 
 neither have been received as a Templar, a knight 
 of Rhodes, a knight of the Gax-ter, nor even ad~ 
 misslble at a tournament. 
 
 " In France," says I\rr. Ila'ilam, I. 209, " an off- 
 spring of a plebeian mother was reputed noble for 
 tlie purposes of inheritance, and of exemption from 
 
S6 BANK. AND TITLES 
 
 tribute ; but tbey could not be received ialo any 
 order of chivabj, though capable of simple knight- 
 hood ; nor were they considered any belter than 
 a baslard class, deeply attainted with the alloy of 
 ' their maternal extraction." This account of the 
 
 ancient French noblesse would have equally re- 
 sembled the British gentry tAVo centuries ago; but 
 since ihejei'imers generauae and Mississippi adven- 
 turers have amassed extravagant wealth in France, 
 and since Nabobs have returned lo England with 
 the plunder of the East, things have altered, and 
 misalliances are frequent in both countries. Bui 
 / not so in Germany. Should a Count or Baron 
 
 there, after having" been married to a plebeian," 
 I'e-marry to a woman of qualily, though llie chil- 
 dren of both marriages would all inherit his titles, 
 
 I and equally share his possessions, yet the childi-en 
 
 of his second wife woidd consider those of his first 
 nearly in the same light in which a West Indian 
 
 I considers his mulatto brothers. "While the chil- 
 
 dren of the second marriage might be figuring at 
 
 I every court, no man of quality, wilh any regard 
 
 to his sixteen quarters, -would form an alliance 
 
 ■I 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 87 \^ 
 
 with llielr half-sisters •, and iheir half- brothers 
 might vegetate on their manors : hut to represent 
 these manors they would not he permitted to sit or 
 vote at the provincial diet, more than a plehelan 
 would have been eligible formerly in England as a 
 knight of a shire, or a mulatto, at present, be ad- 
 missible into the assembly of Jamaica. 
 
 An EngVisli plehelan, who should settle on the 
 contincntj might in France solicit for letters of no- 
 bility, or in Germany for the title of a baron j but 
 no gentleman of ancient coat armor should in Ger- 
 many accept any title inferior to that of a count, 
 for by being created a baron, he would only be 
 placed on alevel with the ncAV-baked barons, as they 
 are called. If however, though of ancient genlillty, 
 he be unable or unwilling to support the dignity of 
 count, he, by proving his pedigree, may have him- 
 self received on a level with the ancient barons ; 
 as a graduate from one of our universities may be 
 received ad eundem gradum at the other. 
 
 A German lawyer, having acquired a fortune 
 during the existence of the imperial chamber at 
 Welzlar, was about to marry the only daughter of 
 
/ 88 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 a hrollier lawyer. lie sent therefore to Yienna a 
 Iiundred ducats or a hundred Louis (for people de- 
 sire to make with the Heralds' Ofiice the hest bar- 
 gain that they can), and solicited for letters patent 
 of nobility. The father of the bride, ]>eing also am- 
 bitious of having his daughter a baroness, sent aa- 
 other sum to another agent at Yienna, who also 
 procured letters of nobility for bis future son-in- 
 law. The ceremony being over, bride and bride- 
 
 'l groom, equally impatient to produce an agreeable 
 
 surprise, presented each other their respective di- 
 plomas, bound as usual in crimson velvet, printed 
 
 I on vellum, and furnished with arms, coronet, and 
 
 supporters; '* Je yous salue, Monsieur le Baron"— 
 '' Je vous salue, Madame la Baronne," they Cried 
 in one breath, each expecting the thanks of the 
 other ; when, to the mwtification of both parties, 
 to the amusement of the wags of Wetzlar, and to 
 tlxe emolument of the heralds at Vienna, it was as- 
 certained that the bridegroom had been ennobled 
 twice over. 
 
 The respect paid to ancient gentility can in Gcr- 
 jnauy only be equalled by the contempt of new 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 89 
 
 uoLllity, particularly that nobility which has been 
 purchased for money. An exception is sometimes 
 made in favor of that which was conferred on me- 
 x'it. A foreigner dining once at a castle in Fran- 
 conla, complimented the landlord on the age of 
 his hock. ''True," answered the baron, " they 
 are both old, my wine and my coat of arms." (Ja 
 •cvold, alle heide sind alt, mein zvein nnd meiri 
 wappcn.) And whenever in any German theatre 
 Schiller's celebrated drama, " Cabal and Love," is 
 performed, and the son of the minister protests 
 against the imputation of a dishonorable act, by as- 
 serting that his coat of arms is five hundred years 
 old, the words " mein wcqypen eiii halb Jahr- 
 tansend" — almost electrify the boxes ; and a stilful 
 physiognomist might perhaps divine, by the dif- 
 ferent degrees of approbation that they express, the 
 century from which every baron, or baroness, no 
 less susceptible of all noble enthusiasm, deduces her 
 escutcheon. 
 
 In one of the German towns, a plebeian who had 
 purchased nobility, was pointed out to the stranger. 
 Without being admitted into-the society of the no- 
 
90 RANK AND TITFtS 
 
 htesse, lie either disdained the bourgeois, or they, 
 jealous of his uewly acquired pi-e-eminence, avoid- 
 ed him : he Avas generally seen alone in the most 
 crowded streets, communing with his OAvn thoughts, 
 and was humorously compared to the elephant in 
 tiie menagerie, the only animal of his kind. 
 
 In France, when a plebeian wishec. to be enno- 
 bled, he purchased the place of secretary to the 
 king. This gave him the right of soliciting for a 
 coat of arms. At the revolution there were 206 se- 
 cretaries to the king, beside 46 honorary or titular 
 secretaries : so that the facility of acquiring nobi- 
 lity may be conceived. Hence the place of se'cre- 
 laire du roi was styled in derision une savonnette 
 au vilain, or a wash-ball for a ])lackguard. He, 
 however, was only an anohli, though his son was 
 noWCfOiVLfJiXm grandson Si gent ilhomme ; nor could 
 his descendants for several generations be admitted 
 as officers into the army. 
 
 But when in France the gentility of an Indivi- 
 dual was acknowledged, it was a matter of indlfie- 
 rence whether his title was marquis, comle, vi- 
 comte, or baron j or whether he had any title or 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 91 
 
 not. Frequently the eklestsou was comte, the se- 
 coud marquis. Iii several families that possessed 
 the titles holh of marquis and comte, they succeed- 
 ed alternately ; so that the father, helng styled 
 comte, styled his eldest son marquis j Avhich marquis 
 slyled his eldest son comtC; and so forth ; the two 
 titles heing considered so equal, that it was not 
 worth while to change them ; and this prevented 
 confusion, as every Individual retained the title hy 
 which he was known In the world, or presented at 
 court. In other houses the titles succeeded as In 
 England. These variations were optional, and de- 
 pended on caprice. The only Important question 
 Was, not Avhat title any individual hore, hut 
 whether he really was a gentilhomme, or man of 
 ancestry. 
 
 When, about theheginnlug of the reign of Louis 
 XVI. an ordinance appeared, that no individual 
 should be presented at Yersallles, unless he could 
 prove four hundred years of gentility, or that his 
 ancestors were already noble before the year 1400, 
 a multiplicity of comtes and marquises were reject- 
 ed) though many an untitled gcnllemanj ancient 
 
92 RAKR AKD TITLES 
 
 as our squires in llieir halls in Lancasliire and Nor- 
 ihumberland, left their towers and chateaux in Bri- 
 tany and fjanguedoc, and posted up to Paris to show 
 llieir pre-eminence. Every gentleman, his pedigree 
 heing certified, was, on the first hunting-day, in- 
 vited to mount with the king into his carriage, and 
 accompany his majesty to the spot where thehomids 
 were turned out. This privilege was termed le 
 droit de monter dans le carosse du roi. The plain 
 squire, to whom this right was allowed, was consi- 
 dered as superior to the count or marquis, whose 
 claims were rejected. Were this ordeal of gentility 
 introduced at Carlton Palace, while the old English 
 smiirc and the lairds and Highland chieftains would 
 hear away the palm of ancestry, many a noble peer 
 would, as at a tournament, he obliged to ride the 
 barriers. 
 
 Tlie profusion of counts and barons has ahvays 
 been increased in France by brevet titles. OITicers 
 in their commissions of colonel or general are styled 
 counts, as in England justices of peace are styled 
 esquires. These titles however are only for life. 
 The canons also of the cathedral at Lyons were 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 93 
 
 styled counts : and the chanoinesses of several noble 
 chapters are likewise comtesses; and frequently, 
 when a demoiselle de qttalite has no desire or pros- 
 pect of marriage, ihe king confers on her also the 
 title of comtesse. She henceforward is styled Ma- 
 dame instead of Mademoiselle, and in company can 
 serve as chaperon to other unmarried ladies. 
 
 The whole hody of the ancient noblesse, it is 
 true, are dislinguishedhy the parllcle de before their 
 names j but without these brevets there wovdd be 
 no title for unmarried women, however exalted 
 their rank or quality. The daughter of a duke and 
 peer, as well as the daughter of a plain gentleman, 
 is only Mademoiselle j as Mademoiselle de la Roche- 
 foucault, Mademoiselle de Montmorency. 
 
 When Buonaparte composed his new nobility, (1) 
 
 (1) Those who would form aa opinion of the birth, pa- 
 rentage, and educalion of this Imperial Nobih'ty, I may 
 refer to the " Prisoner of Peace, or Englishman at Verdun," 
 a drama which I wrote during my detention Ihere. Facit 
 indignaiio versus: and who could abstain from satire, when 
 
\ 
 
 > 
 
 94 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 he usually conferred Uie title of count on llic 
 licutenaut-generals, and that of harou on the major- 
 generals, and colonels of regunents. As he never 
 created a marquis or vicomte, these two titles are 
 the most respected since the return of the Bour- 
 hous. 
 
 In France the heralds might not gi-ant nohilily 
 or coats of arms to every postulant. It was ueces- 
 sarv, that the petitioner should hold some place 
 mider government ; hut as these places were avow- 
 edly to he purchased, the oidy difference was, that 
 the chief part of the fees in France went to the 
 state, A\hercas in England they go entirely to the 
 College of Arms. 
 
 Since the new formation of the House of Peers 
 in France, the French have learned to comprehend 
 the British constitution- and to Louis XA'III. the 
 
 a ci-devant hair-dresscr was elevated to a Duke, a postilion 
 lo a Grand-Duke, and as to the Princesses, 
 
 'Twns but a step betvveen 
 
 Palais- Royal and tlie Tuilciies. 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 93 
 
 Biilisli gentleman on hii travels is mucli luJcLtctl 
 for the heterogeneous materials of which he lias 
 composed his upper house. Before the revolution, 
 the French called every British gentleman a milord, 
 and if his modesty disclaimed the title, they set hira 
 down as a pleheian ; but at present there are so many 
 nohle French peers, who have not the least pre- 
 tension to he gentilshomines, and in the Chambre 
 des Deputes so many persons of quality, that the 
 French now say of our two houses of parliament, 
 apparemment c'est comme cJiez nous. 
 
 The Chamhre des Deputes contains a numhcr of 
 marquises, comtes, barons, and untitled gentlemen; 
 these, though inferior in parliament, consider 
 themselves equal elsewhere to the peers ; and to- 
 ward those peers that were not noble before their 
 elevation to the peerage, the ancient gentleman 
 affects the same contempt that Squire "Western 
 expressed for an upstart loi'd. 
 
 Of the relative importance of French titles, 
 some idea may be formed from the IMajorats, or 
 property that, by an ordonnance of 1821, is en- 
 tailed on every titulary. In future a title is to be 
 
^ ^ 
 
 96 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 granted to a French subject only for life, unless 
 the grantee makes a settlement in favour of his 
 successor, in •which case it is to he liereditary. 
 The settlements may he fixed at any amount, hut 
 the minimum of each title is 
 
 
 Peers. 
 
 
 Not Peers. 
 
 
 Trancs. 
 
 Sterling. 
 
 Francs. Slerlin;. 
 
 Duke 
 
 .30,000 
 
 12481. 
 
 
 Marquis 
 
 or 
 Comte 
 
 j 20,000 
 
 8321. 
 
 10,000 AlGl. 
 
 Vicomte 
 
 or 
 Baron 
 
 H0,000 
 
 4161. 
 
 5000 2081, 
 
 Thus every peer must inherit a property double 
 to that of a mere noble of ihe same title. 
 
 But, lest his vanity should sacrifice his younger 
 children, an individual can only settle the third of 
 Jiis property on the title. Thus the haron, "who 
 constitutes a majorat of five thousand, must pos- 
 sess a revenue of fifteen thousand francs ; and the 
 comte, who constitutes a majorat of ten thousand;, 
 must possess a revenue of thirty thousand, and so 
 forth. 
 
COMrARED AND EX^L-\I^'ED. 9T 
 
 An incllvidual may be created Conite for life, 
 but If not rich enough to settle on the title a ma- 
 jorat of Comte, he may constitute a majorat of 
 Baron, in which case liis successors will be only 
 barons. 
 
 t. The immense overgrown fortunes of several 
 Englishmen have proceeded, not from entails, but 
 from the want of strict entails. When the eldest 
 son has only a daughter, he cuts off the entail, and 
 deprives his brother, or the next male heir, of the 
 property acquired by their common ancestor. The 
 daughter carries it Into another family; and as 
 heiresses usually marry heirs, the fortunes of six 
 families are frequently united. Thus, to swell one 
 family to a Leviathan, five have been disinherited 
 by a fiction of the law, as if justice should ever 
 descend to fiction. Five mansions, once the seats 
 of hospitality, now belonging to non residents, 
 have become farm-houses, or ai-e falling into de- 
 cay ; and the proprietor, with a string of names, 
 and drawing his revenues from a multiplicity of 
 counties, is considered a stranger by his tenants in 
 them all. In Scotland it is diflerenl : there the 
 
98 RANK A^•D TITLES 
 
 strict entails ensure to every one his own. Every 
 one has a sufficiency to support his rank in society. 
 Hence, to whatever country he may emigrate, the 
 Scotchman remains attached to his own. He never 
 loses sight of the Laird. He knows ihat his patri- 
 mony must eventually fall to him. Majorats, such 
 as in France, should he attached to every British 
 title, porliculorly to peerages. PVom this want of 
 strict entails, while one peer is powerful enough 
 to hully the minister, another peer is a pensioner 
 of government, and a hurden to the state. 
 
 The British House of Peers is the most illustrious 
 senate in existence, and the peerage and gentry 
 ought to hear each other a mutual good-wilh the 
 privileges of the peerage are the highest reward for 
 the exertions of the gentry, but the peers cannot 
 deny the nohllity of the gentry without degrading 
 their OAvn. For, heside that there Is not a duke 
 who Is not hy some alliance related to some private 
 gentleman', nor any gentleman of quality, who is 
 not related to some peer; If the gentry are not noble, 
 the ancestoi's of the peers were not nolile : and if 
 all the generations anterior to their elevation to 
 
 \ 
 
compahed a]\d explained. 99 
 
 the peerage were lopt off from their genealogical 
 trees, few peers would be considered as gentlemen 
 in the opinion of the continent; and is it probable 
 that a multiplicity of nobles of the first families in 
 Europe, nay of princely origin, such as the Percys, 
 the Courtenays, the Fieldings, would, in a cen- 
 tury, when so much respect was paid to Ijirth, have 
 settled in England, if their nobility was to lie dor- 
 mant, till some accidental circumstance raised them 
 to the peerage? 
 
 The honor of the peers is in this question not 
 less interested than the dignity of the gentry. 
 Would any of the peers prefer a nobility of fifty, 
 of a hundred, or of two hundred years, to a no- 
 bility of eight centuries, and whose origin is loit 
 in the clouds of antiquity ? 
 
 The first families in Germany pride themselves 
 on their tiralt adel, or aboriginal or ante-docu- 
 mental nobility. Every candidate for the order 
 of Saint Michael of Bavaria must not only prove 
 sixteen quarters of nobility, but that his own pa- 
 ternal family had been noble from time immemo- 
 rial, and that no document recorded at what period 
 
 r2 
 
i 00 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 lliey had Leen ennobled. Several Frencli and Ita- 
 lian gentlemen hare been received, and theautiqulty 
 of many an Englisliman's family would qualify him A 
 to present himself as a candidate ; but not a peer 
 of the realm could presume to offer himself, if his 
 elevation to the peerage was considered as an a7iO' 
 hlissemeyit. Every Grosvenor or Fortescue, de- 
 scended from tlie Grand Huntsman or Shield- 
 bearer of the Conqueror, might pretend to the 
 cross of Saint Michael j but the Earl Grosvenor and 
 the Earl Fortescue, were their nobility only coeval 
 with their peerage, would be rejected Avith con- 
 tempt. Let therefore every new peer, if by birth 
 a gentleman, protest against the expression of se- 
 veral ignorant journalists, that he had been en- 
 nobled j raised to the peerage, ought to be the 
 term. 
 
 As our own writers fall into such mistakes, si- 
 milar blunders may be excusable in foreigners. In 
 fact, our system of rank is not less puzzling to them 
 than theirs is to us. 
 
 Hence Ave read in " Loudres en 1820: " Sir 
 Joseph Banks '* rccut du roi, en 1779, Ics hon- 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 101 
 
 neurs de la noblessCj et la qualite cle chevalier ha- 
 ronetj'' and in " Les Contemporains" we fiad 
 " William Eden, d'une ancienne famille, anoblie 
 par Charles II." 
 
 The first writer might possibly not have known, 
 that Sir Joseph was of an ancient family, and con- 
 sequently was noble before he was raised to the 
 baronetage ; but the absurdity of the second writer 
 was greater t if Willam Eden's family was ancient, 
 why should Charles ennoble it, though he might 
 raise it to the baronetage ? To say that a sovereign 
 ennobles an iodividual, is to say, that he was not 
 a gentleman before. 
 
 If a foreign herald were asked, whom he con- 
 sidered as the noblest families in England, he would 
 answer, first, those that were settled there before 
 the Conquest; those that accompanied the Con- 
 queror j those that engaged in the crusades; those 
 that had pi'oduced Templars or Knights of Rhodes; 
 those that had combated at tournaments. Many 
 descendants of these families are members of both 
 houses of parliament. When in the house of Peers, 
 should they date their nobility from their elevation 
 
102 HANK AND TITLES 
 
 to the peei'age, may the spectres of their iron an- 
 cestors haunt them in their dreams ! But more de- 
 scendants of these families have remained as their 
 ancestors were, untitled gentlemen, and they re- 
 fpire no parchment to ennoble them. But not 
 only a I'cspect to their ancestors, hut a love to their 
 posterity, should induce the peers themselves to 
 protest also against any exclusive nohility in the 
 House of Peers ; for if their ancestors were not nohle 
 till raised to the peerage, their children will not 
 he nohle unless they succeed to it. There would 
 not he a nohle family in the tlu-ce kingdoms, 
 tliough individuals of this or of that family might 
 he nohle. We must then cejise to say, llie noble 
 liouse of Howard, of Hamilton, of Fitz-Gex'ald, 
 etc. ; each of these illustrious families must consent 
 to be considered as a herd of roturiers, with a Duke 
 at their head. 
 
 Such must 1)6 the consequence of styling the 
 ])eerage the nobility. 
 
 The hereditary shield that belongs to ever}^ in- 
 dividual of a family, is a sufficient proof of its 
 nobility. 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 103 
 
 But the peer is not always at the head, he may- 
 be at the tail of his family. Many a yomiger bro- 
 ther has been promoted to the peerage, while the 
 elder remained a knight or squire. These gentle- 
 men would bear their arms without any diminu- 
 tion, whilst the peer, as cadel of his house, must 
 consent to bear a mullet, a cinq-foil, or any other 
 mark of inferiority. A peer, without any dis- 
 honor, might alloAV the superiority of an untitled 
 gentleman ; but to bear a mark of inferiority to a 
 plebeian would indeed be a heraldic anomaly. 
 
 Mr. Hallam conceives it particular to a British 
 peerage, that its privileges are confined to the ac- 
 tual possessor- but this is the case with a French 
 peerage also. The son of the Due de Montmo- 
 rency enjoys no privilege beyond any other French 
 gentleman. Both he and the son of the Duke of 
 Norfolk are destitute of any legal right beyond a 
 barren precedence : but precedence and not pri- 
 vilege is the essential of Nobility. 
 
 It is only in Great Britain, that trades-people 
 recommend their shops to the nobility and gentry; 
 in other countries they address their customers or 
 
104 RANK AND TITIES 
 
 the public in general. But if it be necessary to 
 recommend their lucky lottery-offices, or patent 
 blacking, to every rank in society, according to 
 the precedency of the realm, let them in future 
 adopt the style, "the peerage and the nobility/' 
 or, as their design is to flatter their customers, 
 '^ the. peerage, the gentry and nobility j" as by this 
 address they -would flatter the ancient gentry, by 
 distinguishing them from the new nobility, who 
 had lately received their arms from the Heralds' 
 Office. A petition to Parliament from any county 
 might begin, '' We the peerage, nobility, clergy, 
 and others." A ma gnat of Hungary is styled a 
 magnat 5 a grandee of Spain, a grandee 5 a peer of 
 France, a peer. None of these are styled the no- 
 bility; for the equitcs, the hidalgos, the chevaliers, 
 are noble also ; as in ancient Rome, the equestrian 
 order was noble, as well as the senate. The Bri- 
 tish peerage ought likewise to be called the peerage, 
 and no title could be more dignified or expressive. 
 Two centuries ago, ere the title gentleman was so 
 profaned, that title might have been refused oc- 
 caiionally to individuals among them; but uoiv, iQ 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 1 05 
 
 style the peers the nohllity, is not only to detract 
 from their dignity, in the eyes of foreigners, among 
 whom nobility is so common, hut, if meant ex- 
 clusively, is an insult and an injustice to all their 
 countrymen entitled to bear arms. 
 
 The peerage very properly enjoys so many pri- 
 vileges, that it IS poiideribus librata suis; it requires 
 no epithet to raise its importance j but if any epithet 
 be requisite to his dignity, let the peer he styled 
 the illustrious; this epithet would distinguish him 
 from every other noble; it would be respected on 
 the continent. It has been given to the Order of 
 St. Patrick, and cannot be thought too exalted for an 
 hereditary Senator of Great Britain, when it is 
 allowed to a Senator, Counsellor, or Judge, in the 
 Ionian Islands. 
 
 Learned etymologists have given the derivation 
 of the word Lord; may I venture to suggest a new 
 one? May it not be derived from the French 
 Lourd, gravis 7 A count, in Germany, is styled 
 a Graf or Grav, which some authors derive from 
 grau, grey or old, as seigneur is derived from 
 senior, and senatus from senex; but others derive 
 
i 
 
 106 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 gro/ [rom gravis, a man of gravity, or digultj.'VMiile 
 theSaxouivas liie language of England, tliemagnats 
 ■were also called gmv. From this word, corrupted 
 into reeve, is derived Sheriff, Borough-reeve, etc. 
 But the Kormaus, •whatever miglit have ])een the 
 origin oi gmv, concluded that it signified gravis, 
 and translated it l&urd. The modern signification 
 oHotcrd would, it is true, he " heavy, unwieldy^" 
 and would he an epithet of derision, rather than 
 of honor ; hut other words in the process of cen- 
 turies have changed their meaning. Gros, in an- 
 cient Freuch, meant grand. Thus Grosvenor meant 
 le Grand Veneur, and Charles le Gros meant 
 Charles the Grand; Lnt wnal.^ver Louis le Gros, 
 two centuries afterwards, might ha\c meaiit, it 
 would mean, in modern French, Louis the Fat. 
 Thus the word lourd might evidently have meant 
 dignified, or of importance ; and as the Optiraates 
 in Spain have hecn called the Grands, in Hungary 
 the 3Iagnais, in Germany the Grossen, all which 
 words signify also physical qualities, why should 
 they not have hccn called in England the Lourds ? 
 But tlic contempt, v. hich our Norman entertained 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAIiNED. 1 07 
 
 of our Saxon ancestors, is admirably depictured in 
 the romance of Ivanhoe ; and they miglit have 
 styled the Anglo-Saxon Count lourd, out of pe/67'- 
 jlage. But in the course of a revohrtion, a name 
 of reproach often becomes a Loast ; and as the 
 American repuLlicans, in their successes, gloried 
 in the nickname Yankee, so, Vv^hen the Anglo- 
 Saxons recovered their importance, lourd hecamc 
 a title of honor. 
 
 I perfectly agree with Mr. Ilallam, that " no 
 part of the British constitution is so admirahlc 
 as the equality of civil rigtits j" nor is it desired 
 that a single privilege he added to the privileges 
 
 to which ihe gentry ai-e by law entitled. A 
 modern i:ieer can no longer be compared to 
 a Simon de Montfort, or to the king-making 
 Earl of Warwick; but an English scfuire is of 
 as great, or in many respects of greater import- 
 ance, than a squire five centuries ago. His no- 
 bility, which, no one knows how, when, or 
 where, has slipped through his arms, is no favor 
 to be obtained, but a right to be maintained. 
 The title may have lain dormant, but no statute 
 
'I 08 HANK AND TITLES 
 
 has cancelled It. It is invested in him. If, as 
 has been shown, an English gentleman was con- 
 sidered noble in the reign of James I., he must 
 be equally so in the reign of George IV. In the 
 days of Cressy and Azincourt, when our Angevin 
 Sovereigns possessed so much of France, the Eng- 
 lish genti-y and the French noblesse were equal, 
 not only in power ])ut in title, at the courts of 
 Bordeaux or of Poitiers ; and have their descen- 
 dants not the spirit to maintain their equality with 
 the Hanoverian nohlesse at the court of a Guelph ? 
 The present degradation of the British gentry 
 was accidental, and, by a strange fatality, chiefly 
 proceeded from the great privileges that they for- 
 merly enjoyed. There is an ebb and flow in all 
 human affairs; let them hope that the tide will 
 turn in their favor. Two centuries ago, all the 
 honorable posts in the law and army were, as was 
 then the custom all over Europe, confined to the j 
 
 gentry. A gentleman only could be an oflicer in 1 
 
 the army, or a barrister in the inns of court; hence 
 the coats of arms that decorate the halls of the 
 Temple and of Lincoln's Inn. But in other coun- 
 
COMrARED Ai\D EXPLAINED. 109 
 
 tries, wlien the tiers etat, or pleljelans, were be- 
 come too important to he excludecl from these 
 offices, the law that excluded them was usually 
 repealed; but in England a different course was 
 pursued ': the law was maintained, but broken 
 through on every occasion; and as officers and law- 
 yers still maintained, that none but gentlemen 
 could be admitted, barristers and captains were at 
 length styled esquires, and ensigns and attorneys 
 gentlemen. These, howeyer, were not considered 
 noble hj the heralds, unless they had procured a 
 grant of arms. 
 
 Nor should this grant of arms have been re- 
 fused, for every family must have a beginning. As 
 ancient houses become extinct, ne^v ones arise. 
 And though honors should rather be conferred as 
 rewards of actions achieved, than as a testimony 
 of a desire to achieve them ; yet the warrior, who 
 fights the battles of his country, and the lawyer, 
 who consecrates his exertions to the cause of jus- 
 tice, is as deserving of nobility as any of the pha- 
 lanx of the king of France's secretaries. The only 
 absurdity in the English syslenj is, that these indi- 
 
'J 10 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 vlJuals are stylctl gentlemen, wliereas tliey should 
 be styled nol)lemen. Fit nohilis, nascitur gene-- 
 rostis. " rsoLle" ought to be the word used in 
 patents. It is so comprehensive, that though it may 
 be without disrespect applied to the Sovereign, it 
 is merely the due of every individual worthy of 
 notice. 
 
 Thus iheir ancient privileges have been turned 
 against the gentry ; but the estimation in which 
 they formerly were held, has also contributed to 
 diminish their present estimation. Some centu- 
 ries ago, the higher orders alone were distinguish- 
 ed by a suavity of manners. Hence a polished 
 man was said to have the manners of a gentle- 
 man; and no doubt the LarLarlty of the lower ranks 
 might have induced the higher ranks' to maintain, 
 that there was no polished man but a gentleman. 
 "When, however, the benefits of education had de- 
 scended lower, and plebeians had become polished, 
 the saying should have been disused ; but here 
 again, the inferioi's turned the tables against their 
 superiors, by retorting, that if there were no po- 
 lished man but a gentleman, every polished mau 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED, 41 I 
 
 was a gentleman. Had the axiom been, that every 
 polished "man was a nolileraan, it Avould have con- 
 tained some truth ; for elegance of manners may 
 render a man worthy of notice, but cannot alter 
 his birth. He ought, as in other countries, to have 
 been styled a polite, elegant, agreeable man, but 
 not a gentleman. But not only in regard to man- 
 ners, but to morals, Ave aLuse the Avord. A man 
 of laudable conduct or sentiments is called a gen- 
 ileman. Are we to conclude from this, that the 
 lower classes are rascals ? Other nations would 
 call him an honest, a virtuous, upright, respect- 
 able, worthy man. 
 
 On the continent, the title of a man of letters is 
 sufficiently honorable ; but in England, we are in- 
 formed, that a work is to be published by a set of 
 literary gentlemen. 
 
 Physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries, are noAV 
 styled medical gentlemen. Why is not a man- 
 midwife styled a gentleman-midwife, as in several 
 kitchens a man-cook is styled a gentleman-cook ? 
 
 I would not insinuate, that a profession so bene- 
 ficent to mankind, tliat requires so much talent, 
 
 I 
 
112 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 and foi' wliicli some pei'soiis are l)orii with parti- 
 cular dispositions, would degrade a man of Lirtli; 
 but the word gentleman can only he vised, or 
 abused, in three senses — in regard to manners, 
 morals, or Lirtli. In the two first senses, may it 
 not be taken for granted, that a man, who has had 
 an academical education, is both a moral and a po- 
 lite man? but in the last sense, what can it sig- 
 nify, in the commmi occurrences of his profes- 
 sion, whether a medical man be a man of birth or 
 not? 
 
 If, indeed, a marriage had been concluded be- 
 tween him and any young lady or dowager, it 
 might be some satisfaction to her relatives to hear 
 that the doctor was a medical geiitleiiian. 
 
 It is only in London that avc see advertised, 
 lodgings for single gentlemen: in other countries, 
 it is for single messieurs. And shoes or stockings, 
 etc., for ladies ; and shoes, stockings, etc, for 
 gentlemen : these articles, in Paris, are pour les 
 femmes, or pour les homines. 
 
 '< 
 
COMPARED AND EXI'LAINED, 113 
 
 When tlie King of France holds a court at the 
 Tullerles, it is thus announced : — 
 
 " Demain matin le Roi recevra les homines, et 
 le soir les femmes." 
 
 Among these me7i are the first dukes and peers ; 
 among these women, the first duchesses and ladies 
 of quality. 
 
 There is no degradation to persons of quality 
 to he called men and women; hut hy following a 
 different system, and calling a mixed society gen- 
 tlefolks, low people in England have heeu put on 
 a level with persons of quality. 
 
 How superior to our ladies and gentlemen is 
 this designation, les hommes et les femmes : it is 
 like the ar?na virumque of Virgil. We have la- 
 dies and gentlemen in the shilling gallery. 
 
 The King of England addresses the two Houses 
 of Parliament, " My lords, and gentlemen.'' 
 
 The members address their constituents, and 
 the promiscuous rabble at the hustings, Gentle- 
 men ! 
 
 F* 
 
114 RAxNK AND TITLES 
 
 The rabble return to tbeir pot-houses, and ad- 
 dress each other, Gentlemen ! 
 
 The word gentlemen re-echoes from one end of 
 the kingdom to the other. 
 
 "We have gentlemen of the whip, gentlemen of 
 the quill, gentlemen of the scissars, gentlemen of 
 the razor, gentlemen of the comb. 
 
 All these ranks in France, from llie highest to 
 the lowest, would answer to the word messicux's. 
 The king of France addresses the united peers and 
 deputes, Messieurs. 
 
 Properly to translate into French the word gen- 
 tleman, may he considered the proof of an Eng- 
 lishman's knowledge of the two languages. Hoav 
 Tarious its significations, — Galant-homme, homme 
 aimahle, gentilhomme, monsieur ! 
 
 Every rider Avho travelled with his book of pat- 
 terns, has, during his stay in England, so often 
 been called a gentleman, that on his return to 
 Hamburgh or Frankfort, he considers himself on 
 a footing with every Englishman of the first qua- 
 lity, and would accost him, hail fellow, well met ! 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 1 1 5 
 
 A German baron, in London, having waited for 
 his barber, a journeyman arrived in his stead, and 
 informed him, that the old gentleman had been 
 taken 111, but that he would have the honor of 
 shaving him! This anecdote the baron used to 
 relate whenever any Englishman was presented at 
 his master's court, to insinuate that the English 
 gentry were a set of barbers. 
 
 But it is rather from the lower rank abroad, 
 who are not competent judges In the matter, than 
 from persons of quality, that our travelling gen- 
 try are likely to be treated with disrespect ; who, 
 should this happen, would not forget that their 
 ancestors were not only admissible at courts, but 
 at tournaments. 
 
 Should, however, the title of a gentleman thus 
 become more prostituted every day, to give it to a 
 man of family might at length be rather an insult 
 than a compliment. In this case what must he 
 do ? he must reassume the title of nobleman, to 
 which he has a lawful right, and which his an- 
 cestors, two centuries ago, only laid aside, because, 
 at that period, they preferred the title of gentle- 
 
1 16 RA.NK AAD TITLES 
 
 man, -which is iuconteslihly the superior title, 
 though a train of unforeseen circumstances have, 
 in this kingdom alone, raised the title nohleman 
 ahove it. 
 
 As, in France, a gentilJiominerausibehomnohle, 
 Bonaparte, in the plenitude of his power, though 
 he created dukes and grand-dukes and kings, never 
 ventured to make a gentleman. Only persons of 
 ancient nohlesse are there styled gentlemen. Yet 
 these persons in England, when they see the qua- 
 lity of a gentleman so degraded there, make up 
 their minds, during their stay, to style themselves 
 nohlemen. The gentry of the united kingdom 
 should follow their example. 
 
 And let it not Lc thought impossible, tliat the 
 title of gentleman coukl, in the course of things, 
 become an insult : a change nearly similar has 
 occurred in Germany. 
 
 The German iiohility arc composed of two 
 ranks, counts and harons. If an individual he 
 created a haron, all his descendants become ha- 
 rons and baronesses. If a haron be raised to u 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 1 IT 
 
 count, all his descendants become counts and 
 countesses, and this to the most distant posterity. 
 Every count was styled in the directions of letters 
 and other documents, the high-born count: every 
 baron, the noble-born baron. 
 
 At length, plel)eians w^ere admitted Into offices^ 
 •which were usually confined to the nobility, and 
 some persons directed to them also, to the noble- 
 born counsellor, to the noble-born chancellor. 
 The barons at this took fii'e : they assembled, and 
 agreed lo assume a new style; and leaving to the 
 plebeians the style of noble-born, determined that 
 their letters should be directed, to the high-well- 
 born baron. 
 
 Thus plebeians, who made not the least pre- 
 tension to nobility, were styled noble- born; and 
 gentlemen, whose birth was uucontestably noble, 
 would have challenged any man who should direct 
 a letter to them, noble-born. 
 
 In process of time, the title noble-born fell so 
 loAV, that even the higher plebeians became asham- 
 ed of It ; and they were indulged by the court 
 
1 18 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 ultlx a new style, Trell-born, uhicli, without en- 
 croaching on the gentry, distinguished them from 
 their inferiors among the burghers. 
 
 Thus at present the different ranks in Germany 
 are styled: — 
 
 Counts, High-Loru. 
 
 Barons, Higll-^Ycll-boru. 
 
 Counsellors, Professors, 
 
 Physicians, Judges, }WeIl-born. 
 
 Clergymen, Burgoiiicnsters, etc. 
 
 Surgeons, Apothecaries, 
 
 ^lerchauts. Shopkeepers, clc. 
 
 ! Noble-born. 
 
 An English gentleman at a German court, hav- 
 ing received from the prince a letter directed to 
 
 the well-born INIr. , directed his answer to 
 
 His Excellency the Duke. On the next court-day, 
 the duke asked him, if he knew so little of cti- 
 quellc. " By no means," answered the English- 
 man, " but I consider myself equal to your barons ; 
 so, when you style me hlgh-wcll-born; I will style 
 you serene highness.". 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 1 19 
 
 Many an Eugliiiliman would be not displeased 
 at being styled the well-born, and would be highly 
 flattered by the style noble-born ; an insult for 
 which a German gentleman would run the writer 
 thi'ough the body. 
 
 There are absurdities in every country •, hut I 
 hare been more particular here, because every 
 Englishman on the continent runs the risk of being 
 told, that la noblesse anglaise nest qxCnne canaille: 
 ])ut if, in Germany, it should be thrown in his 
 teeth, that in England every barber styles his mas-- 
 ler a gentleman, though he cannot deny the abuse, 
 he may retort by citing a similar abuse in Ger- 
 many, that every barber there receives his letters 
 addressed to him, to the noble-born. 
 
 This treatise may be useful to Britons, who visit 
 the continent, particularly to those who may pur- 
 chase property there, who may enter foreign ser- 
 vice, or may be candidates for foreign orders of 
 knighthood; nor is it perhaps entirely undeserving" 
 of the attention of our countrywomen . It would 
 inform them to what degree of distinction difle- 
 rent foreigners are entitled. In their arrangements 
 
120 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 of assemLlIes and invitations, they pay too miiclx 
 attention to some, too little to other strangers. A 
 Gei'man haron, a French count, an Italian mar- 
 chese, are nearly equal In rank ; and when of good 
 quality, are all highly respectahlej hut not more 
 so than an English squire was, even since the Re- 
 storation ; and would still he, if the visitations of 
 the heralds, and the regulations of the courts of 
 honor, were properly enforced. Consequently, 
 when a British gentlewoman marries one of them, 
 she only marries her equal. On the continent, 
 more respect is paid to quality than to rank. An 
 ancient gentleman, without a title, looks down on 
 a new count without a pedigree; and yet an Eng- 
 lishwoman oflen hopes, hy giving her hand to any 
 man with a tille, lo Ijecomc a high and mighty 
 dame : in this, however, she will he disappointed. 
 In countries where only equals associate, nohlesse 
 is an essential, hut no distinction. In Germany, 
 for Instance, every man that she will meet In com- 
 pany, is a haron, every woman a haroness ; hut 
 only an ancient haron will he considered a gentle- 
 man. She, if of a good family, will he received 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 121 
 
 there on a footing of equality ; if not, they may 
 possibly refuse to receive her. 
 
 As every plebeian in England, who lives above 
 the vulgar, has of late years presumed to style 
 himself a gentleman, plebeians from the continent 
 have, on their arrival in England, been, to their 
 great surprise, styled gentlemen also • and this 
 quality they aftervpards assume without further 
 scruple. These foreigners have sometimes paid 
 their addresses to Englishwomen, perhaps to la- 
 dies of rank, or to gentlewomen of quality •, and 
 many a bride, without inquiring the real rank of 
 her suitor, or no doubt imagining that every indi- 
 vidual on the continent is at liberty also to style 
 himself a gentleman, gives him her hand : hut on 
 her arrival at his home, how grievous is her dis- 
 appointment ! She has married a roturier, a mere 
 plebeian; all his connexions are Aowr^eo/s. At no 
 court on the continent the wife of a plebeian woiJd 
 be received, though she were the daughter of a 
 duke. Nay, the more elevated her birlli, the 
 greater the contempt to which such a mis-alliance 
 
122 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 ivould expose her. Day after day offers some new 
 mortlfieation. She reads in the court gazette, that 
 some of her compatriots have heen /eted according 
 
 to their rank ; that Lady has dined at court ; 
 
 that Mrs. had heen invited to the whist-table 
 
 of some potentate J that Miss had danced at 
 
 a gala, or figured at a traineau party- She, alas ! 
 poor madame, tout court, must renounce all these 
 pomps and vanities; but however she may alFect 
 to despise them, she, if not strongly-minded, will 
 feel their loss. Amid the dissipation of Paris, Vi- 
 enna, or Naples, she might indeed find some re- 
 source •, but in a provincial town, or the residence 
 of a prince, her privations would be aggravated. 
 Some country-sroman, pcrhapa of licr owu neigh- 
 bourhood, of her acquaintance, perhaps her rela- 
 tive, has there married to a count, a baron, or to 
 an untitled gentleman of quality 5 this country- 
 woman would perhaps turn her back on her, or 
 receive her with an air of protection, or perhaps 
 only receive her at all, Avhcn the noble relatives of 
 Monsieur Ic Comtc, and all persons of quality, were 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 123 
 
 absent from her hotel. Such would be her mor- 
 tifications Avho should marry a plebeian. It may 
 therefore be laid down as a rule, that no female of 
 family, who wishes on the continent to be received 
 into company, should marry any man who is not 
 of noble birth, it matters not with or without a 
 title. 
 
 But would her chagrin be less, who has given 
 her hand to a new noble ? In Germany, every 
 gentleman is styled a baron, as in England every 
 gentleman is styled an esquire ; but though, in 
 Germany, no individual presumes to style himself 
 a baron without being noble, yet every noble is 
 not a gentleman, and, consequently, is neither 
 presentable at court, nor admissible into every 
 company. Any plebeian, who has made a fortune 
 by trade, a lucky speculator, a winner in the lot- 
 tery, may, by sending from fifty to one hundred 
 pounds to Vienna (or, since the establishment of 
 the German confederacy, to other courts), pro- 
 cure the title of noble or baron, which are almost 
 synonymous; but his grandson, or, in places where 
 
124 RANK a:s'd titles 
 
 the gentry are tenacious of their pre-eminence, liis 
 great-grandson would scarcely he considered as a 
 gentleman. Even at those courts, where the eti- 
 quette was the least severe, there would, during a 
 length of time, be some distinction between hiia 
 and the ancient gentry. These distinctions, how- 
 ever trifling in the eyes of philosophy, would be 
 suflicient to mortify his vanity, and to keep alive 
 the memory of his inferiority. At one court, the 
 new noble is permitted to make his bow at the 
 levee, but will not be invited to dinner; at another 
 court, he will be Invited to dinner, but neither he, 
 nor his wife, would be Invited to appear at the 
 card assembly In the evening, among the quality 
 of both sexes. At a third court, tliey might even 
 he invited to the card assemblies or balls, ])ut 
 neither he nor she would be selected to compose 
 the card party of the sovereign ; nor would he be 
 invited to dance with any royal or serene highness, 
 to which honor every gentleman of blood may pre- 
 tend. There have been Instances of persons lately 
 ennobled being Introduced into the assemblies of 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLA1^•ED. 425 
 
 the noblesse, by the sovereigns of the country, who 
 honored them with their countenance ; Ijut no gen- 
 tleman, no gentlewoman would speak to them. 
 For a man in this predicament, if it be difficult for 
 him to find a partner at a ball, it xnust be still more 
 difficult to find a partner for life. A gentlewoman, 
 by giving him her hand, must consent to partici- 
 pate in his equivocal nature, neither fish nor flesh ; 
 and should he marry a bourgeoise, he would retard, 
 by a generation, the gradual progress of his de- 
 scendants to gentility j he therefore comes to Eng- 
 land to look for a wife, and is too successful in his 
 search after some gentlewoman of quality. 
 
 A squire's daughter, ignorant of the comparative 
 value of titles, thinks, by marrying a baron, to be- 
 come a peeress of Germany ; for as a baron is a peer 
 in Great Britain, no doubt a baron is a peer all the 
 world over. Poor woman I she has married a ba- 
 I'on , but a new-baked baron ; for such is the nick- 
 name given to ennobled plebeians. She leaves the 
 ancient hall of her ancestors, the envy of the 
 bride-maids j and axTives in Germany, confident in 
 
42G RA^K AND TITLES 
 
 the length of her purse, hoping to show off, and 
 charltahly disposed to eclipse all the haronesses of 
 the holy Roman empire ; but if an opportunity is 
 allowed to her, as a special grace, of displaying the 
 court dress that had figured at St. James's, far 
 from attracting the admiration of a German court, 
 the elegance of her toilette, and the value of her 
 jewels, would only awaken the jealousy of some 
 high-born dame, wlio would have the good-nature 
 to let her into the secret, that 3Ionsieur le haron 
 rCetait qu'un parvenu, only tolerated at court, to 
 the honors of which he had no right or claim. 
 
 Disgusted by these repeated humiliations, this 
 couple would make up their mind to fix their re- 
 sidence in England, where they would mount an 
 equipage, with a coronet and supporters, and on 
 the strength of their baronial title, would pretend 
 to a precedency above the first gentry in the 
 
 land. 
 
 When a titled foreigner, having maiTied an 
 Englishwoman, settles in England, they probaljly, 
 on accouut either of his or of her want of birth, 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 127 
 
 have Leea ill-received abroad. A British gen- 
 tlewomarij who marries a roturier ; or a low-born 
 Englishwoman, who marries a foreigner of qua- 
 lity, are equally liable to disappointment. 
 
 Since the restoration of the Bourbons, a number 
 of such marriages have taken place, together with 
 several suitable alliances that oflPer greater pros- 
 pects of happiness. The marriage, when in Eng- 
 land, ought always to have his ambassador's sanc- 
 tion, lest the bridegroom should not be what he 
 pretends to be. 
 
 Several of our richest heiresses of long-descended 
 names and estates, have married foreigners, re- 
 commended by a splendid title. Could the squires, 
 ■\vhose ancestors might have been lorda of the neigh- 
 boring manors before the conquest, have conferred 
 on their brides the title of Altesse or Excellenza, 
 their immense fortunes would have remained at 
 home. What damsel would become a sheriff's 
 wife, as her mothers during centuries have been, 
 when she may be saluted princess? What daughter 
 of a Aveallby citizen or nabob would give, for a 
 
 I 
 
 
128 RANK AND TITLES 
 
 bloody hand, tlic plum wLicli can procure her a 
 
 coronet ? 
 
 It would be no bad speculation, for an adven- 
 turer to purchase, at Rome or Naples, the title of 
 prince or duke, as a bait for an heiress in Great 
 Britain. 
 
 It may not be Avithout advantagn for our coun- 
 trywomen, to inform them, that the laws on the 
 continent are more favorable to married women 
 than in Eui^land. In France, the disposal of her 
 own property is usually secured to the wife, by 
 the marriage-contract, during her life, and de- 
 scends immediately to her children during the 
 father's life, or, if she leaves no children, it reverts 
 to her family, unless slic bequeath it elsewhere; 
 for a married woman in France may make a will. 
 If their properly were well secured to ourheiresses, 
 fewer foreigners would be dying in love for them, 
 or, at least, would find it their interest to treat 
 them well after marriage. 
 
 Unless the gentry of the British empire be assi- 
 milated to the continental noblesse, these advan- 
 
COMPARED AND EXPLAINED. 129 
 
 tages will be favorable to foreigners ; but at any 
 rate, our persons of quality ought to know the 
 value of foreign titles, as our bankers know the 
 value of foreign coins ; and a French comte is as 
 inferior to an English earl, as a livre tournois to a 
 pound sterling. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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