And for once I'm early for the 15th November.
My 4 x g.grandparents married in 1768.
When my 4 x g.grandfather made his will in 1811 he described himself as a yeoman, however, in a book about the village where he lived, it states that he built the oldest inn in the village in 1777. In 1811, 7 years before his death, he passed the inn on to the second of his three sons. Perhaps that explains why in his will he said he was a yeoman. When he died his personal estate and effects when the will was proved "don’t amount to more than £600" (Using average earnings that would be worth £430,000 in 1818). Around 1830 the inn and the land were purchased by a large land owning family. Later on the public house became the vicarage.
I've always had in mind that a yeoman was only just above an ag.lab in the scheme of things, but I've just looked up the definition and it seems it was a man with some money.
A man holding and cultivating a small landed estate; a freeholder. or -
A person qualified for certain duties and rights, such as to serve on juries and vote for the knight of the shire, by virtue of possessing free land of an annual value of 40 shillings.
