OXFORDSHIRE-L Archives

Archiver > OXFORDSHIRE > 2002-09 > 1030891482


From: Eve McLaughlin <>
Subject: Re: [OXF] Word Definition
Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2002 15:44:42 +0100
In-Reply-To: <3D7204AB.AD2A5B61@ca.inter.net>


In message <>, Carol Gelette
<> writes
>Not strictly Oxfordshire I know but could someone help with the
>definition (c.1700 Oxfordshire) for the word "Yoeman" used to describe
>a man on his marriage.
Yeoman, at the date normally meaning a substantial farmer owning his own
property freehold, normally having a vote (which was property based) and
employing local labourers. (The definition in 1400 was different,
linked to its origin of 'young man', serving a knight as his free
military servant; and by 1800 had widened to include the larger and more
important tenant farmers to the gentry -it was a staus in the community
thing). But in 1700, look for wills, freehold land transfer, voting,
general influence on the community.

--
Eve McLaughlin

Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians
Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society

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