gentry
gentryA term applied to the stratum immediately below the peerage (see upper class) in the social hierarchy of late medieval and early modern Britain. Untitled, the gentry were a grouping whose wealth lay in landholding, mineral rights, or rents from urban property. They were tied loosely to the nobility by marriage ties and similar lifestyles, and to the middle class by family ties and their interest in farming. At various times this rather diffuse stratum has been held to have played a decisive part in English history; for example, by sponsoring the agricultural revolution and the commercialization of farming during the 17th century, and (conversely) offering a ‘gentlemanly ideal’ to the sons of 19th-century industrialists (a factor which is sometimes said to have contributed to Britain's relative lack of success in manufacturing). The term continued to be used into the 20th century to describe old...
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