My ancestor was . . . a husbandman

A Husbandman with his herd
(Image from: www.wikipedia.org,
Painter: Paulus Potter (1625-1654),
1648, accessed 24th May 2014)

A husbandman is a Middle English occupation for a free tenant farmer or small landowner. The dictionary definition is a person who cultivates the land or a farmer.

A husbandman was socially lower in status than a yeoman who was a farmer who owned no less than 100 acres of land.

My ancestor and 7x great grandfather, William Brown c1725 was from Cowling in Yorkshire and on the Kildwick Parish Church registers of the baptism of his daughter, Elizabeth, he is described as being a Husbandman.


Information from:
Wikipedia - Husbandman
Oxford Dictionaries - Husbandman
Wikipedia - Yeoman