One of my ancestors was a yeoman, what is or was a yeoman?

Question

One of my ancestors was a yeoman, what is or was a yeoman?

Answer 1

A yeoman was a small freeholder of common birth,

who owned and cultivated his own land, a farmer.

And from a 200 year old dictionary that I own, which was probably current at the time of your yeoman ancestor :-

"Crabb's Universal Technological Dictionary" (1810)

YEO'MEN (Law) from the Saxon ;yemen, common; the first degree of the commons or freeholders who have lands of their own, and live by husbandry.

YEOMEN (Mar.) careful persons selected for keeping the storerooms, &c. clean.

YEOMEN of the Guard (Mil.) a certain description of footguards., one hundred in number, who always attend immediately on the person of the King. They bear partisans, and are clad after the manner of Henry the Eighth's time.

YEO'MANRY (Mil.) collective bodies of the yeomen who were formed during the war of the. French Revolution into volunteer corps for the protection of the country.

Answer 2

It can be one of several occupations;

a. An attendant, servant, or lesser official in a royal or noble household.

b. A yeoman of the guard. Beefeater

2. A petty officer performing chiefly clerical duties in the U.S. Navy.

3. An assistant or other subordinate, as of a sheriff.

4. A diligent, dependable worker.

5. A farmer who cultivates his own land, especially a member of a former class of small freeholders in England.

Answer 3

Yeoman is a term used to indicate a variety of positions or social classes. In the 15th century, a yeoman was also a farmer of middling social status who owned his own land and often farmed it himself; an equivalent term in Germany is Freibauer ("freehold farmer"). In this context the term is similar to the Russian kulak.

In the Middle Ages, a yeoman was identified as a rank or position in a noble or royal household, with titles such as Yeoman of the Chamber, Yeoman of the Crown, Yeoman Usher, King's Yeoman, and various others. Most duties were connected with protecting the sovereign and dignitaries as a bodyguard, such as the Yeomen of the Guard, attending the sovereign with various tasks as needed, or duties assigned to his office.

As such, yeoman may refer to several general meanings:

A man holding a small landed estate, a minor landowner

A freeman, or man born free

A small prosperous farmer, especially from the Elizabethan era onwards (16th-17th century)

A freeborn servant in a noble or royal household (12th-15th century)

A deputy, assistant, journeyman, a loyal or faithful servant

Answer 4

www.dictionary.com says: YEOMAN means

1.a petty officer in a navy, having chiefly clerical duties in the U.S. Navy; "naval petty officer in charge of supplies" is first attested 1669.

2. British :a farmer who cultivates his own land.  

3. History/Historical. one of a class of lesser freeholders, below the gentry, who cultivated their own land, early admitted in England to political rights.  

4. Archaic. a. a servant, attendant, or subordinate official in a royal or other great household.  

b. a subordinate or assistant, as of a sheriff or other official or in a craft or trade.

5.  A diligent, dependable worker.

6. the third order of fighting men (1375, below knights and squires, above knaves),

For longer description, see the article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeoman.

Answer 5

Not necessarily a noble person as per the previous answer.  I always thought it meant someone of a nominally higher standing within the community but not a gentleman.

Answer 6

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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For other uses, see Yeoman (disambiguation).

Yeoman is a term used to indicate a variety of positions or social classes. In the 15th century, a yeoman was also a farmer of middling social status who owned his own land and often farmed it himself; an equivalent term in Germany is Freibauer ("freehold farmer"). In this context the term is similar to the Russian kulak.

In the Middle Ages, a yeoman was identified as a rank or position in a noble or royal household, with titles such as Yeoman of the Chamber, Yeoman of the Crown, Yeoman Usher, King's Yeoman, and various others. Most duties were connected with protecting the sovereign and dignitaries as a bodyguard, such as the Yeomen of the Guard, attending the sovereign with various tasks as needed, or duties assigned to his office.

Answer 7

According to the Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable:

"yeoman   a man holding and cultivating a small landed estate; a freeholder; 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. The term is recorded from Middle English, and probably comes from young + man."

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Answer 8

A yeoman is a petty officer in a navy, having chiefly clerical duties in the U.S. Navy. or a British farmer who cultivates his own land.

Answer 9

It was an attendent or servant in a royal or noble household