Help with difference between elder/younger and senior/junior

[gloveg]

Can anyone please help me with the difference in the use of the terms elder and younger as against the terms senior and junior.
I come against these terms used in wills and other documents, especially around the 1500s, and am not sure what the relationship between the people using them means.
EG. Does Senior and Junior, only refer to father and son or could it also refer to uncle and nephew or even grandfather and grandson. Was there any set rule to this?
Does Elder and Junior refer to father and son, uncle and nephew and/or elder and younger siblings within the same family?
So are the terms elder/younger and senior/junior used in the same way or differently?
Would really appreciate some help with this.
Thanks, Gloveg

[Craclyn]

You cannot assume that either set of terms specifically relates to a father/son relationship. Both can be used to differentiate between two people of the same name in the same location.

[pinefamily]

Craclyn is correct. The terms can be used to differentiate between two individuals of the same name, usually but not always related.
As far as I am aware, the terms have the same meaning.
I found a case of three undividuals of the same name in the one parish, grandfather, father, and son. The first was called the elder in the burial register, the second who was buried a few years later the younger, and the youngest was termed junior.

[Maiden Stone]

I tried to identify "Thomas the Elder", "Thomas the Younger", "Thomas the Clerk", "Thomas the Tailor" and "Thomas (Town)" in a parish in 18thC. The first 2 seem to have been farming land in the same area about a mile out of town. I think the other 3 all lived in town. I thought "Thomas the Younger" might have been my 6xGGF but he wasn't.

[KGarrad]

Growing up in a town of approx. 5000 people (when I was young!), my paternal grandmother and my mum used the same butcher.

Mum was always known as Mrs. Garrad Junior; Nan was Mrs Garrad Senior.

So, related by marriage, and not by blood.

[JohninSussex]

Can anyone please help me with the difference in the use of the terms elder and younger as against the terms senior and junior.
I come against these terms used in wills and other documents, especially around the 1500s, and am not sure what the relationship between the people using them means.

I'm not sure what this question is actually asking.

Senior is a Latin word, meaning "older".  Junior means "younger".  If you are studying documents from the 1500s you may well be reading translations from Latin originals and whoever made the translations may have chosen to translate those two words or leave the Latin forms.  Even if the documents were written in English the scribes might have written common Latin words like these two in Latin or rendered them in English.

So you can treat the two forms as identical.  They would be used to distinguish two people (inevitably males) of the same name.  So they could (most commonly) be father and son but equally you should not assume that, as they might be cousins, uncle/nephew as you suggest, or even a more distant connection.

[gloveg]

Thank you for all your replies, especially the Latin wording as some of the wills are in Latin. I think that understanding will help me better determine the relationship between the respective parties.

[aghadowey]

In Irish records, and I suspect other places, the designation junior and senior are moveable.

For example, John Smith, Sr. (born 1800) has a son John, Jr. (born 1825) and son William (born 1826). William has a son John Smith (born 1850). Then John Sr. dies and John Jr. becomes John Sr. and William's son John Smith (born 1850) becomes John Jr.

Of course there doesn't have to be any blood relationship between Jr. and Sr. ...

[ThrelfallYorky]

Perhaps the American "Neville Splodgbucket III" sort of designation might be more helpful in showing a direct line. Must admit I've found Elder and Younger, but not - as yet - Junior and Senior in Britain.And no, it doesn't imply / prove a direct line relationship, just may be a bit of a help.