Talk:Landed gentry
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[edit] Landed gentry vs. gentry.
As it has grown, this article seems to me to have veered at times away from its subject, landed gentry, into discussion of the separate topic of the gentry, landed or not. Shall we edit to put this right? This will involve some deletion. There is already a separate article on gentry. Chelseaboy 14:49, 4 April 2006 (UTC)
This article is a bit of a mish-mash. Firstly, many titled people have always appeared in the lists of Landed Gentry (whilst some titled people were not at all landed - notably a lot of barons and baronets). Whilst the vast estates had tenant farmers or direct labour with overseers, smaller farms, especially in the 20th century, were usually farmed by the owner. I know several Landed Gentry on farms of up to 3000 acres which their families have personally farmed for at least 150 years. The only difference is that up to, say, 1920, they had a lot of agricultural labourers on their land.
Also, this article as it stands is a bit of a put-down for the yeomen farmers, who would be regarded at least since Burke's started their publications in the early 19th century, as 'Landed Gentry'. Many yeomen, depending on their holdings and what they were farming were earning more than a Vicar! A glance at the 20th century Burke's Landed Gentry editions show, particularly after World War II, that many entries are for people who have actually lost their properties (probably to Death Duties), and others, upon checking the records, have tiny bits of land. I am surprised to see that there is a separate article for gentry! What next! Sussexman 18:03, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
This article, and some of the comments [above]], makes the fatal mistake of confusing the 'landed gentry' (who were a specific social elite within the British upper class, and who were also described as the 'great commoners') with plain 'gentry' persons who happened to own land. As a start, the landed gentry can be identified as having the following four characteristics: possessing hereditary estates; leading a leisured lifestyle; enjoying social pre-eminence (rather as celebrities do in the present); and the right to armorial bearings. Raskado (talk) 22:45, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Squirearchy
"Squirearchy" redirects to this article, which does not indicate the power of the British Landed Gentry, for instance in selecting MPs, supplying High Sheriffs and JPs, running Workhouse Unions etc. Can this be improved, please? Vernon White . . . Talk 22:49, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
