How can I recognice if my ancestors did belong to the class of Esquires?
Things to look for
1. There is proof of an coat of arms, has every free man was entitled to use one. The word "Free" in this sentence should be read as "Folkfree", what ment free in the eyes of his folk (people). The freedom to take a seat in the civic court and to judge in name of their (over)lords. It concludes that someone could be still bounded to the territory of his Lord, whoever this lord was (Knight, King, Baron, Monastery or Knighthood Order). 2. There is proof of authority. The proof of authority means that they were seated in the civic (territorial) courts as alderman or at least had the right on such. Or they represented their lords on another way in the district like as an military or police force. Somethimes acting like Churchwardens, Guardians of the Gates, Bridges and so on. In these they represented the highest level of their society in wich you can speak of the peasant aristocracy. 3. There is proof of an country house. This country house could be relative small and even been given as an leasehold. Some of them even would be more likely an farm than an manor house, but the size should be between the 10 and 15 hectare (between 24 and 37 acres of land) and on the house itself were some hunting rights involved. Mostly such an house also had an name of it´s own from what the family name did derive. 4. There is proof of some taxfreedom. Although they had to pay tax like all of the peasants, there will be evidence that for some time or in some form they had some tax freedom. 5. There is proof of armigerious behaviour. It ment that they were allowed to bear weapons and in this you can conclude that they also had the training to used these weapons. Often they appear at the Archer Festivities in the rank of an Corporal. 6. There is proof of official tasks. As already mentioned they appear in their society as the lower officials in their district. 7. There is proof of feodal titles. Dependable to the country where these ancestors are located they carried in their society an feodal title, like we will name some; Gentry, Gentleman, Ereman, Schildboortige, Gens de Arms, Schildknaap, tUasal, Erbherr, Wehrbauer, Hovetling, Scholtenboer, Meier, Hommes de Lineage, Dienstman, Armigeri, Wappengenosse, Jonker, Schulte, Schout, Drost, Knape, Eigenerfde, Hoofdeling,...........
If one of these marks is visable in your ancestry, it could very well be that your ancestor did belong to this social group of Esquires. In this case we believe that "You" as one of their descendants should join our Brotherhood to defent the inherited right of your ancestors.
For those of you, who still are not sure if your ancestors did belong to this group, we would recommend to watch our Historic pages. On 29 august 2007 we started the Project Describeretur Universus Orbis, in what we will try by an extreme historic research to map all those families with the rank of Esquires connected to the Hospitaller Commandries in the World.
1. There is proof of an coat of arms, has every free man was entitled to use one. The word "Free" in this sentence should be read as "Folkfree", what ment free in the eyes of his folk (people). The freedom to take a seat in the civic court and to judge in name of their (over)lords. It concludes that someone could be still bounded to the territory of his Lord, whoever this lord was (Knight, King, Baron, Monastery or Knighthood Order). 2. There is proof of authority. The proof of authority means that they were seated in the civic (territorial) courts as alderman or at least had the right on such. Or they represented their lords on another way in the district like as an military or police force. Somethimes acting like Churchwardens, Guardians of the Gates, Bridges and so on. In these they represented the highest level of their society in wich you can speak of the peasant aristocracy. 3. There is proof of an country house. This country house could be relative small and even been given as an leasehold. Some of them even would be more likely an farm than an manor house, but the size should be between the 10 and 15 hectare (between 24 and 37 acres of land) and on the house itself were some hunting rights involved. Mostly such an house also had an name of it´s own from what the family name did derive. 4. There is proof of some taxfreedom. Although they had to pay tax like all of the peasants, there will be evidence that for some time or in some form they had some tax freedom. 5. There is proof of armigerious behaviour. It ment that they were allowed to bear weapons and in this you can conclude that they also had the training to used these weapons. Often they appear at the Archer Festivities in the rank of an Corporal. 6. There is proof of official tasks. As already mentioned they appear in their society as the lower officials in their district. 7. There is proof of feodal titles. Dependable to the country where these ancestors are located they carried in their society an feodal title, like we will name some; Gentry, Gentleman, Ereman, Schildboortige, Gens de Arms, Schildknaap, tUasal, Erbherr, Wehrbauer, Hovetling, Scholtenboer, Meier, Hommes de Lineage, Dienstman, Armigeri, Wappengenosse, Jonker, Schulte, Schout, Drost, Knape, Eigenerfde, Hoofdeling,...........
If one of these marks is visable in your ancestry, it could very well be that your ancestor did belong to this social group of Esquires. In this case we believe that "You" as one of their descendants should join our Brotherhood to defent the inherited right of your ancestors.
For those of you, who still are not sure if your ancestors did belong to this group, we would recommend to watch our Historic pages. On 29 august 2007 we started the Project Describeretur Universus Orbis, in what we will try by an extreme historic research to map all those families with the rank of Esquires connected to the Hospitaller Commandries in the World.