Membership of:
The Honourable Company of Esquires
Membership is restricted to those who are in right of English Armorial
Bearings and would traditionally be accepted
as Esquires of England. This requirement has no regard for gender*,
race, creed
or colour.
The Badge of an Esquire of England
In the United
Kingdom
(and its constituent countries) Esquire was historically a title of
rank.
Tables of precedence invariably ended with the ranks of Esquire and
Gentleman,
in that order. A typical definition is:
The eldest sons of knights and their eldest sons, in perpetual
succession
The eldest sons of younger sons of peers and their eldest sons, in
perpetual succession
Those who bear special office in the Royal Household
Sheriffs while in office.
Justices of the Peace while in commission
Commissioners of the Court of Bankruptcy
Masters of the Supreme Court
Deputy Lieutenants and Commissioners of Lieutenancy
Queen's Counsel
Barristers-at-law (but not Solicitors)
Holders of a degree at one of the Two Universities (Oxford and
Cambridge)
Serjeants-at-law (of whom none have been appointed since the 19th
century)
Royal Academicians
Officers of the Royal Navy with rank of Lieutenant or higher, of the
Army with rank of Captain or higher, or of the Royal Air Force with
rank of Flight Lieutenant or higher
Bachelors of Divinity, Law, or Physic, and others (note that these were
all traditionally post-graduate degrees, not first degrees).
Men to whom the title is granted by the Monarch
* The term esquire is historically
restricted to the male gender but in the twenty-first century it would
be crass to exclude females from the membership of an organisation such
as ours. Whilst it is perfectly proper that a member of any gender may
refer to themselves as a Member of The Honourable Company of Esquires,
it is not felt to be appropriate that a lady would wish to
be addressed either formally or in correspondence as esquire.
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Honourable Company of Esquires
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