566 Constitvtional History. [chap.
century come in the better-known names of families which have
risen on the support of the dynastic factions ; quite at the
close of the middle ases are found the men of the baronage1.
A single example will suffice : In Yorkshire the first stage is
marked by the election of a Balliol and a Percy, Fitz-Randolf,
S. Quentin, Hotham, Ughtred and Boynton ; the second by
names like Barton, Thornton, Clotherholm, Bolton, Malton1
with a sprinkling of Nevilles and Fairfaxes ; the third, begin-
ning half way in the reign of Edward III, includes Scrope,
Pigot, Neville, Hastings, Savile, Bigod, Grey and Strangways.
In Yorkshire the knightly element continued strong enough
to hold the representation until modern times ; the Saviles,
Fairfaxes, Constables and AVentworths, succeeded one another
generation after generation, and before the sixteenth century
closed these families had won a place of equality with the
titular nobility.
From the
lists of
sheriffs.
Bise of the
knightly
class to
nobility.
The same conclusion may be drawn from the lists of sheriffs ;
and, in fact, from the time at which the annual appointment of
new sheriffs was forced upon the crown, the two lists are of
very much the same complexion. The act of 23 Henry VI,
in 1445, requiring ⅛θ election of ‘notable squires, gentlemen
of birth, competent to become knights,’ attests the high
importance which the ruling class was setting on the county
representation ; but as a matter of fact it did not change the
character of the elected knights. It is in the second class of
the gentry that we find the more notable cases of a rise to
nobility through long political labours : a Bourchier is chan-
cellor to Edward III ; his descendant becomes a viscount under
Henry VI, partly by prowess, mainly by a lucky marriage : a
Hungerford is speaker in 1377 ; Iiishouse becomes ennobled in
1426 ; but the promotion to the rank of baronage is very slow ;
and most of the families which have furnished sheriffs and
county members in the middle ages have to wait for baronies
return are still a desideratum. The lists of sheriffs are still to be found
only in the several county histories, or in Fuller’s Worthies.
1 The first recorded precedent for the heir-apparent of a peerage sitting
in the house of commons, is that of Sir Francis Ivussellj son of the earl of
Bedford, in 1549 ; Hatsell, Precedents, ii. 18.
XXI.]
The Gentry.
567
and earldoms until the reigns of the Tudors and Stewarts,
to whom they furnish the best and soundest part of the new
nobility.
478. The household of the country gentleman was modelled Household
, 1 ° 1 0t'a coπntr.
on that of his great neighbour; the number of servants and gentleman,
dependents would seem out of proportion to modern wants ;
but the servants were in very many cases poor relations; the
wages were small, food cheap and good ; and the aspiring cadet
of an old gentle family might by education and accomplishment
rise into the service of a baron who could take him to court
and make his fortune ɪ. In the cultivation of his own estate
the lord of the single manor found employment and amusement;
his work in the county court, in the musters and arrays,
recurred at fixed times and year by year ; he prayed and was
buried in his parish church ; he went up once in his life
perhaps to London to look after the legal business which seems
to have been a requisite of life for great and small. His Lifeof the
neighbour, somewhat richer, had a larger household, a chaplain, tiem‰Γ
and a steward to keep his courts ; he himself acted as sheriff or
knight of the shire, and was often a belted knight; if he were
fortunate in the field he might be a banneret ; he built himself
a chapel to his manor-house or founded a chantry in his parish
church : he looked out for a great marriage for his sons, and
portioned off his daughters into nunneries ; he mingled some-
* The estimate of the outlay of the knight and squire, in the Black Book
of Edward IV, shows how largely both were expected to live on home-
grown produce. In the knight’s house are drunk twelve gallons of beer
a day, and a pipe of wine in the year ; fourteen oxen are allowed for beef,
sixty sheep for mutton, and sixteen pigs for bacon : these are bought.
Out of the home stock are required twenty pigs, thirteen calves, sixty
piglings, and twenty lambs, besides twelve head of deer, taken by my
lord’s dogs, which cost more than they bring in. Geese, swans, capons,
pullets, herons, partridges, peacocks, cranes, and smaller fowls, either
kept at home or taken in hawking, and a hundred rabbits, are required ;
Ordinances of the Household, p. 34. The squire’s household is more
thrifty : for every day are required eighteen loaves of household bread,
eight gallons of mean ale, cyder Withoutprice ; Avepence a day is allowed
for beef, twopence for mutton, sixpence for an immense variety of things
produced at home ; bacon, veal, venison, lamb, poultry, eggs, milk, cheese,
vegetables, wood, coal, candles, salt, and oatmeal. In all twentypence
a day. Fish-days must have come very often, by 1 help of rivers and ponds,
&c. ; Item to make verjuice themselves, &c. ; ’ p. 46. See more particulars
below, p. 572.