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SQUIRE

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 747 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SQUIRE , an abbreviated See also:

form of " See also:esquire " (q.v.), originally with the same meaning of an attendant on a See also:knight. In this form, however, the word has See also:developed certain See also:special connotations. Thus in See also:England it is used partly as a See also:courtesy See also:title, partly as a description of the See also:chief landed proprietor, usually the See also:lord of the See also:manor, in a See also:parish the lesser proprietors being " gentlemen " or yeomen. In some parts also it is not uncommon for the title of " squire " to be given to small freeholders of the See also:yeoman class, known in See also:Ireland See also:half contemptuously as " squireens." In the See also:United States the title has also survived as applied to justices of the See also:peace, See also:local See also:judges and other dignitaries in See also:country districts and towns. In another sense " squire " has survived in its sense of " attendant," " to squire " being used so See also:early as See also:Chaucer's See also:day as synonymous with " to wait upon." A " squire of dames " is thus a See also:man very attentive to See also:women and much in their See also:company.

End of Article: SQUIRE

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