Squires & Esquires

However ultimately it became easier to substitute military service with a money payment. Over the centuries this became a Tax, levied by the king to support his military enterprises and his court and his government of the country. Knighthood became an honour, however it was a privilege, and some manorial lords preferred to avoid this and chose fight instead as an esquire.

From the late 17th century through the early 20th century, in an English village there was one principal family of gentry, owning much of the land and living in the largest house, maybe the manor house. The head of this family was often called "the squire.

Squires were gentlemen with a coat of arms and were often related to peers. Many could claim descent from knights and had been settled in their inherited estates for hundreds of years. The squire usually lived at the village manor house and owned an estate comprising the village with the villagers being his tenants.

The squire would also have performed a number of important local duties, in particular that of justice of the peace or Member of Parliament. Such was the power of the squires at this time that modern historians have created the term squirearchy.

Politically, during the 19th century squires tended to be Tories whereas the greatest landlords tended to be Whigs.

The position of Village Squire was traditionally associated with occupation of the manor house. It is unclear how widely the village squire may still be said to survive today; but where it does, the role is likely more dependent upon a recognition of good manners, lineage and long family association rather than land, which, while relevant, is nowadays likely to be considerably smaller than in former years due to high post-war death duties and the prohibitive costs associated with maintaining large country houses.Much of the West Country was held by the squirachy, each family owning  few acres which they farmed on a small  scale and had little interest in tin or shipping.

They  frequently lived in obscurity on income of between £50 to £100 per annum and were content with their small corner of the landscape. 

Many of large land owners became wealthy and over time rose  to the top of the social tree. The wealthiest  were Courtenays’s, Coplestones, Edgecombes, Fulford, and  Champernown, all of whom had interests in farming and sheep, tin mining and shipping.

The less wealthy of the Devon squirachy were the Bassets, Trevellayans, Yarnscomes, Bamfyldes, Hacces, Carews , Wynslades, Whytings and Halses  all of whom had incomes of more than £100 per annum.

 Less wealthy than them were the families of Monck, Stukely, Tremayne, Yeo, Grenville and Bury who held only one or two manors and who were the minor landed gentry in the 14th and 15th century.

Merchants were the rising class and much despised by the landed classes . Men such as Westcot , born amongst the minor gentry,  loathed them as ‘upstarts , with their ill-gotten gains, possessing neither  valour, learning or wit.’  He regarded them as ‘hugely swollen in their own importance by their riches’ . 

Wealthy merchants in Exeter  were  relatively few , families such as  Coffyn, Drake, Prust of Hartland, Chichester, Arscott, Cary, and the Gilbert became the more successful families.

From some of the obscure landed families came Sir John Wadham, Sir john Cary and Sir Lewis Pollard  were men raised themselves to prominence as successful lawyers and judges,  building fortunes  and gaining themselves knighthoods in the process.