Jennifer Kloester Read online

  Queen Charlotte was a loyal and devoted wife but she often disapproved of her pleasure-loving eldest son.

  A peer could have more than one title but generally used that of highest rank. Most peers earned a lower ranking title first and then added the higher titles to their name as they were conferred. Dukes, for instance, could also hold the titles of Marquis (or Marquess), Earl, Viscount and Baron with each title having its own separate name and style if desired—as in the ‘Most Noble Adolphus Gillespie Vernon Ware, Duke of Sale and Marquis of Ormesby; Earl of Sale; Baron Ware of Thame; Baron Ware of Stoven; and Baron Ware of Rufford’. Titles were hereditary through the male line and, as heir, the eldest son of a duke, marquis or earl could use his father’s secondary title as a courtesy title: thus a son of the Duke of Sale would be styled Marquis of Ormesby until he succeeded to the dukedom. Younger sons and daughters of a duke or marquis used their given names preceded by Lord or Lady, while the son of an earl was styled the Honourable (in writing only) and a daughter used Lady followed by her given name. The male and female children of a viscount or baron were also styled Honourable followed by their name and surname but, again, only in writing as Jonathan Chawleigh in A Civil Contract was chagrined to discover on the birth of his grandson Giles Jonathan Deveril. Mr Chawleigh thought poorly of ‘Honourables’ and was disappointed to learn that the son of a viscount had no title of his own.

  Duke or duchess was the highest rank in the British peerage outside the royal family. The title was conferred by the sovereign in gratitude for great service to the Crown and always included the words ‘of’ followed by a place—usually one which had relevance to the duke’s seat or history, hence the Duke of Salford. A ducal couple were addressed as Duke or Duchess, Your Grace, His Grace the Duke of Salford or Her Grace, the Duchess of Salford or, more formally, Most Noble.

  Dating from the fourteenth century, the title of marquis denoted a man second in rank to a duke. As with a duke’s title, that of the marquis was also followed by a place-name, although this was not used in speech. A marquis’s wife was a marchioness. He would be the Most Honourable the Marquis of Alverstoke in writing, and together they would be Lord and Lady Alverstoke in speech.

  Earl was the oldest title in the peerage, usually followed by a county or city name. The earl would be styled the Right Honourable the Earl of St Erth in correspondence, and he and his countess would be addressed as Lord and Lady St Erth in person.

  The title of viscount was created in 1440 and was the fourth ranking title in the peerage. It was followed only by a name and did not use ‘of’ after the title—as in the Right Honourable the Viscount and Viscountess Lynton or, simply, Lord and Lady Lynton.

  Dating from Norman times, the rank of baron was the most commonly held rank in the peerage and the title Baron was always followed by a place-name or other name. ‘Of’ may or may not be used—as in Baron Carlyon or Baron of Beauvallet. The wife of a baron was a baroness. In writing he would be styled the Right Honourable the Lord Carlyon and in speech he and his wife would be addressed as Lord and Lady Carlyon.

  THE GENTRY

  The ‘Quality’ was a generic reference used by the middle and lower classes to describe anyone deemed to be a member of the upper class. Members of the peerage were automatically included as was anyone recognised as one of the gentry although, unlike the peerage, they might not necessarily retain a title as was the case with the well-to-do Squire in Sylvester, Mr Orde, and the impecunious but well-born Stacy Calverleigh of Black Sheep. Recognition of the Quality by those further down the social scale was usually immediate although, as Amanda Smith discovered in Sprig Muslin, a young lady of good birth travelling alone might not be treated by innkeepers or middle-class women with the degree of deference usually accorded to those of her class. Only the fortuitous arrival of the obviously aristocratic Sir Gareth Ludlow saved Miss Smith from the humiliation of being sent to a much less genteel hostelry down the road. As a group the gentry was less easily defined than the peerage (whose titles clearly set them apart) but it included wealthy landowners who held no title, baronets and knights, esquires and gentlemen. The latter two titles were slightly tricky in that the difficulties associated with determining who held authentic rights to them, together with the changing definition of the word ‘gentleman’, meant that many more people used the term than the upper class was willing to accept as one of themselves.

  Baronet was the sixth ranking title after the five degrees of the peerage and the honour was established in 1611 by James I. A baronetcy was conferred by the sovereign and the title was hereditary in the male line (in Scotland it could pass to a female). The title enabled the holder to call himself Sir followed by his full name and his wife Lady followed only by the surname as in Sir Waldo Hawkridge and Lady Hawkridge.

  Although lower in rank than a baronet, a knighthood conferred a similar right of title to that of the baronet and enabled the knight to call himself Sir followed by his full name and his wife Lady followed only by the surname, as in Sir Harry Smith. In speech he would be addressed as Sir Harry and she would be Lady Smith. Originally a medieval rank of chivalry, by the time of the Regency a knighthood could be bestowed on a man for a wide variety of services to the Crown or State.

  In medieval times the rank of esquire had carried with it a degree of honour almost equal to that of a knight. Over the centuries, however, the title had lost much of its meaning as more and more males outside the gentry attached it to their names in an effort to attain a higher level of respectability. In writing a man could style himself Fred Merriville, Esq., but in speech he was addressed simply as Mr Merriville.

  The rank of gentleman was not conferred but rather applied to those who were obviously genteel or not ignoble but who held no other rank or title. By the time of the Regency a gentleman could be almost any man who did not have to work for a living and the term was often assumed by ambitious men or those with pretensions to class. Although there was no formal title for a gentleman it was not uncommon for a man with social ambition to style himself in his correspondence as, for example, ‘Swithin Liversedge, gentleman’, although in speech there was no distinction and he would be addressed simply as Mr Liversedge.

  THE NEW MIDDLE CLASS, NABOBS AND ‘CITS’

  Many clergymen enjoyed a comfortable life while administering to the needs of their aristocratic patrons or their parish.

  The term ‘middle class(es)’ was not actually used until 1832, well after the Regency, but the group of people it came to include were an important and growing force in the early nineteenth century. Those in the middle classes ranged from professionals such as financiers, bankers, prominent doctors, engineers and lawyers, government place-holders and bureaucrats, factory owners, wealthy merchants, nabobs and the well-endowed clergy at the upper end of the scale; to teachers, innkeepers, artists, master craftsmen, smaller merchants, shopkeepers, lesser clergy, and small freeholders at the lower end; while the doctors, lawyers and merchants of moderate means, yeoman farmers, prosperous builders, small manufacturers, chicken-nabobs and university dons took their places somewhere in the middle. A more elastic entity than the upper class, the middle class was forever shifting and changing, its boundaries and inner distinctions difficult to define. The vulgar but endearing Mrs Floore in Bath Tangle clearly belonged to the new middle class for, although her fortune was large and she had married above her station, her birth was humble and her manners would never be genteel.

  From the late eighteenth century, men returning from India or the Far East with a large fortune made abroad began to be referred to as ‘nabobs’. During the Regency, nabobs were known for buying estates or a seat in parliament, or marrying their daughters into the aristocracy in a (frequently successful) attempt to enter society at a higher level than may have been open to them when they had left England. Unless they were of acceptable birth, like Miles Calverleigh in Black Sheep, most nabobs would climb only as high as the upper reaches of the middle class, and remain there, watching t