Ancestors who were landowners, gentlemen, or pillars of the community

[coombs]

I know Danny Dyer's WDYTYA has sparked an interest in royal ancestors. While many of us cannot prove a direct link, I imagine there must be Rootschatters with ancestors who owned estates, were gentlemen or more simply a yeoman. Or even ones who were doctors or lawyers.

I have found a few landowners in my family tree such as the Simons family of Elmstead, Essex. They married into the Hempson family, and they seemed to be gentlemen and I traced the Hempson line so far back to Roger Hempson born c1620. I also descend from the notable Yate family of Burford, Oxfordshire.

This alone may not prove a link back to royalty as people can acquire wealth and become gentlemen but it is nice to trace lineage back to people who had an estate.

[lizdb]

It is nice, simply because people who were landowners, gentlemen or pillars of the community left more records and so are easier to trace.  The average ag lab (once you get pre 1837) probably only and a few recorded incidences in his/her life - christening, marriage, christenings of children and burial.  As you get further back, when Parish registers are harder to read, some haven't survived, and of those that have the info is minimal ("John Bloggs married Jane Smith" "John Bloggs married Jane Brown" John son of John and Jane baptised" etc) , so it becomes hard to put together accurate families.
People in "higher" classes tended to leave Wills, which often make relationships so much clearer. And often give more detail of property held and who lived where, so making it easier to sort out relationships.  They may have paid land tax.
Even in more recent years those that have done something warranting a mention on the net that comes up on google (I've just found a couple of mine who wrote books on plant cultivation that are still available) are easier to research , than the average person who doesn't do anything that warrants any record being made beyond being born, marrying and dying.

And it never fails to amaze me how two branches from the same family can move in completely different directions on the social scale.   It really is such fun researching them all - lowly or landed!

[Josephine]

I had to go back about 300 years but I found some, LOL.

 

Regards,
Josephine

[coombs]

I descend from Elizabeth Amis born 1670 in Gt Oakley Essex, her parents William and Elizabeth (Nee Cole). Eliz b 1670 and her sister Mary are mentioned in a will in 1679 as is Rachel Cole, daughter of Humphrey Cole. Also, Elizabeth Amis had a sister Rachel who died in infancy.

Very likely that Rachel Cole and Eliz Cole were sisters. A Humphrey Cole was a rector/vicar in Tillingham and seems his family were connected to Gt Oakley.

[sallyyorks]

No royalty, landowners or gentlemen.

Most of my early ancestors seem to have been some kind of agricultural labourer/or small farmer/hand loom weaver and also a few metal workers/blacksmiths. Then later, the industrial working class. Coal mining, industrial textile mills, metal rolling/tool making.

Two of my gt grandfathers, a colliery electrician and a worsted spinner/loom mechanic, were both very involved in the early years of the official trade unions. Both very keen on workers rights. They weren't the only ones of course but yes, I like to think they could be described as "pillars of the community" 

[ThrelfallYorky]

Sounds pretty similar to mine - farmers, husbandmen, small tradesmen, craftsmen, shipwrights, carpenters, silk weavers, an odd few Innkeepers, ministers, backbone stuff, but rarely history-makers. Most seem to have been pillars of their communities, at least in that I've found no criminal records to attach to any. Think there was a workhouse master in there, too, somewhere ...... hmmm.

[Greensleeves]

My County Durham ancestors were millers and farmers, so probably pretty comfortable in life.  Later ancestors were well represented in Hartlepool as sextons, parish clerks and suchlike.  And then finally they moved to Middlesbrough where it all went horribly wrong in the 1930s slump.

My earliest Suffolk ancestor (1540) was a Yeoman and Parish Officer.  There seems to be an  unwritten rule with my FT that they all gradually eased themselves down to penury, which is what happened with this line too.  By the late 1800s my direct ancestor was languishing in the workhouse, whilst for some reason two of his sons had shared out the farms between them. 

[Maiden Stone]

My yeomen were grandma's ancestors. My 4xGGF&M came from 2 lines of same family, one farmers, other innkeepers. 3 children in 1 family had Lady Jane of the Manor, an Earl's daughter, as godmother. Some children had gentry as godparents.
 4xGGM's relative, Capt. William Latham, was gentry. He inherited a Hall. He was Militia Captain in Napoleonic Wars. His interests were sketching & history. He wrote a short history of my ancestors' village and recommended staying at 4xGGF's hotel! Collections of his sketches are in archives, including National Library of Wales & Isle of Man.  Lancashire & Cheshire historical society journal published an article about him 100 years ago when a library bought a collection of his sketches. My 4xGGM was mentioned in article.
A grandson of 4xGGF&M became no.2 to bishop in 2 dioceses. He commissioned new churches. Pugin designed some of them. Pugin was in a libel case. My clergy relative was a witness. Cleric was a fine singer & composed church music.  He was director of music at funeral of exiled son of Napoleon 111. He composed music for Cardinal Wiseman's funeral. I found music for sale on a website. He got a name check in a thesis.
Clergyman's aunt, who left him a bequest, was " a proprietor of houses" in a fast- growing Lancashire industrial town. I hope she wasn't a slum landlady. She lived in a respectable street next to the Square where Quality resided. A stone's throw in another direction were my 4xGGF&M belonging to my granddad. Their eldest daughter was "a poor Singlewoman, big with child", according to her Resettlement Order.
Younger sister of poor, pregnant lass was my 3xGGM. She married a shoemaker. Shoemakers' Union was very militant. Many were Chartists. Cue frequent demos, strikes, the odd riot. I know what my shoemaker was doing & saying on a certain evening in 1849 because it was recorded in a court case. 2 of his fellow strikers were convicted under the anti-union Combination Act & imprisoned.
Business failures led to decline in fortunes of  yeoman family offspring. My GGM worked in cotton mill from early teens. Signed her marriage certificate X. Her maternal granddad died in workhouse. Her son-in-law, my granddad, was blacklisted after striking against a wage cut.

I'm proud of my granddad & his G granddad for their union work. I'm also proud of the yeomen for hanging on & making a success of their lives in spite of nearly 300 years of religious discrimination.

[clairec666]

My ancestors get more and more "common" (or working class) the further back I go... which means most of my lines are stubbornly stuck in the late 1700s. Like lizdb says, posher people leave more records, so they're much easier to trace than your average ag lab (especially mine who seem rather fond of the name John).

Two of my great-great-grandfathers became pillars of the community later in life, despite coming from humble backgrounds. One was born out of wedlock into a rural family of... guess what... labourers, was working as an errand boy aged 13, but while his relatives stayed in their village, he moved to London, became a successful baker, invented a father on his marriage certificate, and was later a churchwarden and president of the bowls club, as well as a respected local businessman. As a result, I have more photos and newspaper cuttings about him than any other family member. He didn't forget his roots though - there are plenty of photos of him with his mother and half-siblings later in life, and he named his house (in the leafy Surrey suburbs) after the village where he was born.

That's what fascinates me most about this hobby - seeing people's fortunes rise and fall through the ages.