ARE YOU "ESQUIRE?"

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 273, 18 November 1930, Page 6

ARE YOU "ESQUIRE?"

Public attention was recently drawn by a leading article in the "Morning Post." London, to the increasing habit of appending "'Esq./' or "E-squire," to the name of a man who has no legal claim to the title. To-day all professional men look upon it as their right to be addressed as esquire. Indeed, all who are not actual manual workers are often given the title as a courtesy, especially when the writer wishes to get on the right side of hie correspondent. The possibility of correcting the matter may be dis-misced at once. Yet in its artk-le the "Morninrr Post"' says that something might be said for the order of chivalry which is thus profaned, but adds, apparently in despair: "It really would do no particu- : lar harm if we. were to address all our male correspondents as 'The Lord So-and-eo," or if we were universally to give every male acquaintance the style of Captain or Major, or if we were to inscribe after their names the letters D.5.0., M.£\. or even V.G. We do not do this; it has not come as settled practice." Indeed., in Xew Zealand a few years ago there was quite a controversy as to whether a certain gentleman should be styled "Colonel."' The easiest and most sensible solution of the '"esquire" problem, especially in a country like Xew Zealand, is to drop the use of the affix altogether in favour of the unimpeachable prefix "Mr." It is difficult to define exactly who in strict law is now entitled to the designation esquire. The original meaning of the "word, was one who acted ae shield-bearer or armour-bearer to a knight. At the end of the Middle Ages the word underwent a change of meaning. Sir William Blackstone. the great commentator on English law, quotes with approval the sixteenth century historian, William Camden's, definition of four classes of esquires: "'First,, the eldest sons of knights and their eldest sons in perpetual succession; secondly, the eldest sons of the younger sons of peers, and their eldest sons in like perpetual succession: thirdly, esquires created by the King's letters-patent or other investiture and their eldest sons; fourthly, esquire's by virtue of their offices, as justices of the peace, and others who bear any offices of trust under the Crown."' "To these," continues Blackstone, "may be added the esquires of Knights of the Bath, each of whom constitutes three at his installation, and all foreign, nay. Irish peers." The mention of Irish peers arises from the fact that prior to the union they were legally 'foreigners. Camden's third class no longer exists, creation by letterepatent or investiture having long ago ceased. Christian, in his notes to Blackstone, would limit the holders of "offices of trust under the Crown" to those who are styled esquires by the Kinsr in their commissions, and he remarks the omission in Blackstone's enumeration of barristers who have been held by the Court of King's Bench to be esquires by office. Xo esquires to Kniarhts of the Bath ha%'e been appointed since ISI2, and by the statutes of 1847 these knighte have no longer the power to nominate them. Mayors are among those who can legally claim the title, but only during their terms of office. The position is that it is quite impossible for the man in the street to know who is an "esquire." On the other hand, he cannot go wrong in the use of the plain "mister," although' there was a gentleman in England who not so very long ago brought a law suit because in a communication he had. not been described as esquire, a title to which he had a legal right. —W.M.L.