Gentry
Encyclopedia : G : GE : GEN : Gentry
Gentry is a term meaning one thing in the UK: landed gentry. In Europe and the United States, gentry has a wide meaning, ranging from those of noble background to those of good family (i.e. "gentle" birth). Before the Industrial Revolution, the gentry were located between the yeomanry and the Peerage, and were traditionally considered lesser aristocracy if they did not bear arms, or as the lesser nobility if the family was armigerous. Unlike yeomen, the gentry did not work the land themselves; instead, they hired tenant farmers.
In English history, landed gentry were the smaller landowners, and generally had no titles apart from Knighthoods and Baronetcies. Baronets are something of an exception, since they had hereditary titles but, not being members of the Peerage, were also considered of the gentry or lesser nobility. The landed gentry played an important role in the English Civil War of the seventeenth century. The term is still occasionally employed, for example, by the publishers of Burke's Landed Gentry, though they explain that their continued use of that term is elastic and stems, in part, from the adoption of that short title for a series first entitled Burke's Commoners (as opposed to Burke's Peerage and Baronetage). The term county family is commonly deemed to be co-terminous with the terms gentry and landed gentry. See Walford's County Families and gentleman.
In some European countries such as Poland, a tenth of the population corresponded to the gentry; in Portugal the local gentry, the fidalgos, were also numerous.
The Chinese gentry has a specific meaning and refers to the shen-shi or the class of landowners that had passed the bureaucratic examinations. They rose to power during the Tang dynasty when meritocracy triumphed over the nine-rank system which favored the Chinese nobility. The gentry were retired scholar-officials and their descendents who lived in large landed estates due to Confucianism's affinity to agriculture and hostility to commerce.
In American society, gentry is sometimes taken to refer loosely to a highly-educated professional upper-middle class, though this is inaccurate sociological terminology as this group usually lacks the aristocratic roots and values of true gentry. This inaccurate sense of the term is what is often perjoratively referred to in the use of the term gentrification, a term that would more accurately be called bourgeoisification. The Antebellum Southern planters were often younger sons of landed British families and continued the high culture of the British gentry in rural Virginia and in such cities as Charleston, South Carolina, where, in addition to tenant farmers and indentured servants, they also employed chattel slavery. In the north, the gentry included those offshoots of British gentry families that provided the leadership for the establishment of such cities as Boston, Massachusetts, and such institutions as Harvard and Yale Universities. Attitudes stemming from the phenomenon of this historic American gentry inform the current use of the term in U.S. society, and it is still loosely applied to people from old-monied and landed families in the U.S. The epitome of this type of family in the United States is the Bush family. Highly educated, well connected, with a high degree of wealth, and arguably the most powerful family in the United States. They are directly descended from British Gentry and are even direct distant relations of many of the British Peerage.
Being born into power and wealth in Europe during the Middle Ages granted you the title of being an Aristocrat. This was a very small class, but owned most of the land and had an abundance amount of wealth. There were few individuals who had land and money without being an aristocrat, but there was opportunity to advance. Unlike the Aristocracy, the Gentry class was not born into their social position in life. The Gentry class originated around the 1750’s and played a big role in England. This class consisted of wealthy merchants, bankers, and members of the parliament. The parliament allowed these individuals to buy titles into the aristocratic class with the intention of gaining money to defray war costs (taxes were also put into action). These titles were very expensive and once a title had been bought the Gentry class had to live an aristocratic lifestyle. This meant that the Gentry class had less wealth and land than the provincial aristocracy, but still lived a very comfortable and enjoyable existence. Even though the Gentry were now considered to be aristocracy, they were still Capitalists at heart. They still tried to make money and they used their land and agriculture to do so. They needed to have free labor or serfs in order for them to work their land. This allowed them to maintain the land and agriculture without doing the work themselves. While holding these influential positions, the Gentry class was in a good stance of power over everyday life. The Aristocracy was not the only group of people who had authority.
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