Yes, Esquire trickled down to a use on envelopes, often containing
invitations or something quasi-official, addressed to young persons, and it
betokened their status as honorary or junior members of the adult world, or
it invited them to treat themselves as honorary adults or as fully persons
with a kind of "estate" and right to respectful treatment, despite their not
being adults. The comradely and colloquial use of Squire, chiefly among
buddies who consider themselves equals, is English (and sometimes Canadian,
I believe), and it denotes respect, familiarity (as between Squires as
members of the yeomanry), and mock-deference. "Guvnor" is something of an
equivalent, perhaps, though perhaps more ironic. Sometimes things addressed
to a "Squire" can be slightly admonitory or have an edge to them, yes? ("The
next round of drinks will be on you, Squire").
--Jim N.
On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 18:13:49 -0400
John K Leonard <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I grew up in London, England, and had exactly the
> same experience as Sean with "squire." I also
> recall the colloquial use of the term to convey mock
> deference, as in "right you are, squire." On the
> other hand, some people (a few eccentrics) took the
> term very seriously, giving it archaic overtones of
> class snobbery. When I was a student at Cambridge
> in the late 1970s, there was a pub in the village of
> Madingley, known as the Tickell Arms, the host and
> proprietor of which presented himself as "Squire
> Tickell" and was commonly referred to (though not
> always with the seriousness he expected) as "the
> Squire."
>
> John Leonard
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>From: Sean Gordon Henry <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 5:58 pm
> Subject: Re: 'one'
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
>> On the same off-Spenser question of "Esq."--when I
> was growing up,
>> my working-class northern English great aunts and
> uncles would
>> always add an "Esq." to my name on the envelope (I
> graduated
>> mysteriously about the age 12 from "Master Sean
> Henry" to "Sean
>> Henry, Esq." with ne'er an LLB or BCL).
> Exotic-seeming to a young
>> Canadian, but surely an example of the term being
> used
>> democratically from very democratically-minded
> Labour-voting
>> people?
>>
>> I fear that "Citizen" carries a whiff too much of
> Robespierre and
>> co. for my taste, Citoyenne Prescott--but, then, I
> think I'd likely
>> be a candidate for a ride in the tumbrel off on a
> date with Mme
>> Guillotine if it came to that.
>>
>> Sean Henry, Gent.
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: [log in to unmask]
>> Date: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 1:37 pm
>> Subject: Re: 'one'
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>
>> > For what it's worth, and this is not relevant to
> Spenser, when
>> > my brother
>> > was working in the West Wing for President
> Clinton (those were
>> > the days!)
>> > I was told by his secretary, after I asked his
> full address,
>> > that he was
>> > "Anthony Lake, Esq." As an American I find this
> offensive--what
>> > happenedto our tradition of the republican cloth
> coat? He was no
>> > lawyer, either,
>> > just a PhD. And what would happen if a cabinet
> member didn't
>> > have a BA?
>> > Me, I could go for calling everyone "citizen,"
> but I don't think the
>> > present administration would go for it. Anne P.
>> >
>> > > Wikipedia notes that "[i]n practice, [the
> title of 'esquire']
>> > is used
>> > > almost exclusively by lawyers, and so it may
> generally be
>> > assumed when it
>> > > appears on business cards or stationery that
> it indicates that
>> > the person
>> > > is a member of the bar (in this context, its
> use by women in
>> > the U.S. is
>> > > not unknown)."
>> > >
>> > >> "being called to the Bar entitles one to be
> called an
>> > 'esquire'", says
>> > >> Richard Ramsey.
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >> All 'ones' or only a male 'one'?
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >> Penny.
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >
>> >
>>
>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Sean Gordon Henry
>> Doctoral Candidate, Department of English
>> The University of Western Ontario
>> London, Ont., Canada
>>
[log in to unmask]
James Nohrnberg
Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
Univ. of Virginia
P.O Box 400121
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121
|