Judge Dodaridge, his law of nobility and peerage wherein the antiquities, titles, degrees, and distinctions, concerning the peeres and nobility of this nation, are excellently set forth : with the knights, esquires, gentleman, and yeoman, and matters incident to them, according to the lawes and customes of England.

Gentlewomen have the same additions. vide Dyer, 88.

IF one be a Gentleman by office, and looseth his of∣fice, then he doth also lose his gentility, 28. H. 6.2. Estopel 47.

By the Statute of 5. Eliz. cap 4. intituled an act touching divers orders for Artificers; Labourers, Ser∣vants of husbandry, and apprentices; amongst other things, It is enacted, that a Gentleman borne, &c. shall not be compelled to serve in husbandry.

If any Faulcon be lost, and is found, it shall be brought to the Sheriffe, who must make Proclamation, and if the owner come not within foure moneths, then if the Finder bee a simple man, the Sheriffe may

keepe the Hawke, making agreement with him that tooke it, but if hee be a Gentleman, and of estate to have, and keepe a Faulcon, then the Sheriffe ought to deliver unto him the Faulcon, taking of him reasona∣ble costs, for the time that hee had him in custody, An. 34. E. 3. cap. 22. and anno 37. E. 3. cap. 19.

A Commission is made to keepe chrildren into Cathedrall Churches, where children be instructed to sing for the furnishing of the Kings Chappell: These generall words by construction of Law have a reasonable intendment, viz. That such children who be brought up and taught to sing, to seeke and sustaine their living by it; Those may bee taken for the Kings service, and it shall be a good preferment unto them to serve the King in his Chappell; but the sonnes of Gentlemen, or any other that are taught to sing for their ornament, delight or recreation, and not thereby to seeke their living, may not bee taken against their will, or the consent of their Parents and friends, and so it was resolved by the two chiefe Iustices, and all the Court of Star-chamber, anno 43. Eliz. in the case of one Evans, who had by colour of such Letters Pa∣tents taken the sonne of one Clifton a Gentleman of quality in Norfolke, who was taught to sing for his re∣creation, which Evans was for the same offence grie∣vously punished, Cook, 8. Reports, fol. 46.

And to the end, it may withall appeare what de∣grees of Nobility and Gentry there were in this Realme, before the comming in of the Normans, and by what merits men might ascend, and bee promoted to the same; I will shew you the copie of an English or Saxon antiquity, which you may reade in Lamberts

Perambulation of Kent, fol. 3 64. and Englished thus, viz.

It was sometimes in the English Lawes, that the people and lawes were in reputation, then were the wisest of the people, worship-worthy in his degree, Earle and Chorle, Theyne, and under Theyne: and if a Chorle so thrived, that had fully five hides of land of his owne, a Church, and a Kitchin, a Bel-house, and a Gate, a seat, a severall office in the Kings Hall; then was hee from thenceforth the Theines right worthy, and if a Theyne so thrived, that hee served the King on his message, on his journey-ward in his houshold, if he then had a Theyne, which him followed, who to the Kings experience had five hides, and in the Kings Pallace his Lord had served, and thrice with his er∣rand had gone to the King, hee might afterwards with his foreoath, his Lords part play at need; and if a Theyne that hee became an Earle, then was hee from henceforth the Theynes right worthy; and if a Scholler so thrived through learning, that he had degree, and served Christ, he was thenceforth of dignity and peace: so much worthy as thereunto belonged; unlesse hee forfeited, so that he, the use of his degree ne might, Mils 73. Nobility, Politicall, and Civill.

It is observeable, that the Saxons out of all these trades of life, which be conversant in gaine admitted to the state of Gentry, such onely as increased by honest husbandry, or plentifull merchandize; of the first of which Cicero affirmeth, that there is nothing mee∣ter for a Free borne man; and of the other that is prayse-worthy also, if at the length being satisfied with gaine, as it hath often come from the sea to the

haven, so it changeth from the havens into lands and possessions; and therefore, whereas Gervasius Tilbu∣riensis in his observations of the Exchequer, accoun∣ting it an abasing for a Gentleman to occupy Publi∣cum mercimonium, common buying and selling, it ought to bee referred to the other two parts of merchandize, that is, to negotiation which is retay∣ling or keeping of an open shop, and to invention which is exercise mercery, or some call it to play the Chapman, and not to navigation, which (as you see) is the onely laudable part of all buying and selling.

And againe, whereas by the Statute of Magna charta, cap 6. and Merton cap. 7. It was a discourage∣ment for a ward in Chivalry, which in old time, was as much as to say, a Gentleman to bee married to the Daughter of a Burgesse, I thinke it ought to bee restrained to such onely as professed handy crafts, or those baser arts of buying and selling, to get their living by. But this matter I leave to the He∣raulds.

And in this place, it may bee remembred, that King Hen. 8. thought it no disparegement unto him, when hee tooke Anne, Daughter of Thomas Bullen, sometimes Major of London to his wife.

The Statute of Westminster, 2. cap. I. which was made, Anno 13. E. 1. was procured, especially, and purposely at the desire of Gentlemen for the preser∣vation of their lands and hereditaments, together with their surnames and faculties, and therefore, one called this Statute, Gentiliteum municipale, and the Lawyers call it, Ius taliatum & taliabile.

The children onely of Gentlemen were wont

to bee admitted into the Innes of Court, and there∣by it came to passe, that there was scant any man found within the Realme skilfull and cunning in the Lawes except hee were a Gentleman borne, and came of a good house; For they, more then any kind of men, have a speciall care to their Nobility, and to the pre∣servation of their honour and same; for in those Innes of Court are vertue studied, and vices exiled; for that for the endowment of vertue, and abandoning of vice, Knights and Barons with other States, and No∣blemen of the Realme, place their Children in these Innes, though they desire not to have them learned in the Lawes, nor to live by the practice thereof, but onely upon their Fathers allowance, vide Fortescue de laudibus Anglorum, cap. 49.

But the Statute of An. 3. Iac. cap. 4. amongst o∣ther things it is enacted, that if any Gentleman or Per∣son of high degree, shall hereafter goe or passe volun∣tarily out of this Realme to ferve any forraine Prince, State, or Potentate, before that hee or they shall become bounden with two sureties, as shall bee allowed of the Officers, by that act limited to take the said bond unto the King his Heires and Succes∣sours in the summe of twenty pounds of currant English money at the least, with condition to the ef∣fect following; hee shall bee a felon, (viz.) That if the within Bounden, &c. shall not at any time then after bee reconciled to the Pope, or Sea of Rome, not shall enter into, or consent unto any practise, plot, or conspiracy whatsoever against the Kings Majesty, his Heires, and Successours, or any of his, or their estate or estates, Realmes and Dominions, but shall with∣in

convenient time after knowledge thereof had, re∣vealed and disclosed to the Kings Majesty, his Heires and Successours, or some of the Lords of his, or their Privy Counsell, all such practises, plots, and conspi∣racies, and that then the said obligation to bee void, &c.