A-Z BLOGGING CHALLENGE 2023 : FAMILY TRAITS - Y for YEOMAN

Theme for the A-Z  Challenge 2023 

 Family Traits, Quirks d Characteristics

Y for YEOMAN

My great great grandfather Henry Danson (1806-1881)

 

The birth certificate of my great grandfather James Danson (1852-1906) first brought to light the names of his parents - mother Elizabeth Calvert and father Henry Danson, described as a "YEOMAN FARMER"- with the address Trap Farm, Carleton near Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire. 

Trap Farm  is still named on the current Ordnance Survey Map, but when I saw it c.1998, although occupied, it was a sorry sight, situated amidst fields on what is now a busy road, it was run down and dilapidated.

 

 In the 1851 census  it was a  the household of 13  - my great great grandparents Henry and Elizabeth;  eldest daughter (now married)  Elizabeth was there  with her husband Thomas Bailey; four  other daughters, Mary,  Margaret, Ellen and Jane, and two sons - Johh and  Henry;  plus Henry, senior's  older brother  Peter, aged 58, and  a  male farm servant and female house servant.    

 

How did they all fit into what looked a small farmhouse?  Would the servants be living in the outhouses?  My great grandfather James, was born there at Trap in 1852  to    complete the family.

 

Some years later,  I returned to Carleton,  fully expecting Trap Farm to be wiped off the map and replaced by a modern housing estate.   To my surprise it was still there, but was undergoing a transformation into a modern home.

 

 

But returning to my great  grandfather's birth certificate where his father was described as a Yeoman  Farmer: 

But who/what was  a "Yeoman Farmer"?

• The Oxford English Dictionary defines a "yeoman" as "A man holding a small landed estate, a freeholder under the rank of gentleman....a countryman of rspectable standing, especially one who cultivates his own land."
   
• The British Genealogy website defines it:  "A yeoman is generally used to mean a farmer who owns his own piece of land (however small) as opposed to being a tenant farmer. It may have been as simple as him wanting to sound a bit grander than his neighbours." 
   
• Other websites  indicate it was a farmer of the middle classes, who cultivated his own land, often with the help of  family members i.e.  in the social structure of the times, above  a tenant farmer, but below the gentry and nobility. 
  

So definitely not to be confused with  the  ceremonial Yeoman of the Guard at the Tower  of London in their Tudor costume. 

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To end on a fun note - below is  Henry Danson's great great grandson, my brother  winning a prize in a fancy dress competition as a Yeoman of the Guard . It was a testimony to my mother's creative skills - adapted from a red suit of hers, my 1950's waspy belt and my father's war medals. I cannot imagine how my brother ever agreed to wear tights dyed red, and rosette garters.   c.1958

                                      

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Onto Z for ZEALOUS 

IN CASE YOU MISSED

A for ADVENTUROUS, B for BIGAMOUS, C for CRIMINAL,  D for DEVOUT

E for ENTERPRISING  & ESTEEMED,   F for FEISTY

  

G for GENIAL & GOOD LOOKING,  H for HEROIC    I  for INSOLVENT  

 J for "JOINER", K for KEEPER OF THE FAMILY ARCHIVES,

 

L for LONG LIVING,  M for MYSTERIOUS, N for NE'ER DO WELL 

 

O for ORPHANED, P for POETIC,    Q for QUESTIONABLE BEHAVIOUR 

 

R for RESILIEN, S for STOIC  T for TRAGIC,  U FOR UNETHICAL 

 

V for VALIANT , W for WELL TRAVELLED, X for eXPERT

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