Hi All
In the Middle Ages the word 'gentil' meant 'noble', but 'gentleman' came into use in the fifteenth century to signify a condition between baron and yeoman, or sometimes between knight and yeoman, after a statute of Henry V (his first regnal year) had laid down that in certain legal documents the 'estate, degree or mystery' of the defendent must be stated.
In 1429 the term les gentils was used in an Act of Parliament, of men having freehold property worth 40 shillings per year or more. From the sixteenth century onward, the distinction between gentlemen and yeomen lay more in their way of life than in their relative prosperity. A gentleman did not work with his hands, so his household included personal servants; whereas the servants of a yeoman were his assistants on the land and in the dairy. A gentleman's son was often described as a yeoman while he was working his holding, pending inheritance of his father's lands. Members of the professions, i.e. army and naval officers and barristers, were regarded as gentlemen, some of them being entitled to the description 'Esquire'.
For apprenticing a son to a London citizen a property qualification was required, so many gentlemen's sons entered the more profitable trades of the City. When a man, who during his working life was designated by his occupation (for example, tailor), retired, he would often then describe himself as'Gentleman' as he was no longer gainfully employed.
I make no claims to be the auther of this piece its taken from a great little book called the Dictionary of Genealogy by Terrick FitzHugh
peterbennett
