[or-roots] Why the given name squire

[wm0g at comcast.net]

I believe the given name of "Squire" had to do more with the idea of it's original meaning as an "arms bearer". Originally, S quires were the arms and shield bearers for knights and not a title for the "landed gentry" as denoted in English titleage later on.  

So why so many named "Squire"? Well, in England and Scotland and Ireland the right to bear arms was by law only allowed the land-owners and not for the commoners. It is not a passing fancy that written into our Constitution by these Scots-Irish revolutionaries  is "The right to bear arms". Therefore, the "arms bearers" or use of "Squire" for a given name, were probably more of a statement of their new found freedom for them and their sons. The name gets passed  down as per European namimg traditions.  

That's my sto ry and I'm sticking to it! 



Jack Ciaccia 

Erie, CO 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marilyn Schwartz" <familyismytreasure at comcast.net> 
To: "or-roots mail list" <or-roots at listsmart.osl.state.or.us> 
Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2010 9:05:15 PM 
Subject: Re: [or-roots] 



Erie, CO 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marilyn Schwartz" <familyismytreasure at comcast.net> 
To: "or-roots mail list" <or-roots at listsmart.osl.state.or.us> 
Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2010 9:05:15 PM 
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I have a “Squire Crume” in my family tree, born 1798 in Kentucky.  I believe the family was of Scottish heritage, or Scots-Irish.  I missed the first part of this discussion, so someone may have already mentioned that Daniel Boone’s father was named Squire Boone (and I may be wrong, but I believe they were Scots-Irish).  I just did a quick search on “WorldConnect” entering ONLY “Squire” as the given name (no surname entered), and I got about 50,000 hits.  Looking quickly at them, some are surnames or titles.  But, many have the given name “Squire.” 






From: or-roots-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us [mailto:or-roots-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] On Behalf Of Barbara Wulf 
Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2010 6:54 PM 
To: or-roots mail list 
Subject: Re: [or-roots] Why the given name squire 




You might want to check the family tree for a sir name of Squire. Often the strange first names were a maiden name from somewhere in the family. 





Barb 




----- Original Message ----- 


From: Leslie Chapman 


To: Bonnie B. Combs ; or-roots mail list 


Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2010 1:26 PM 


Subject: [or-roots] Why the given name squire 




I think the "delusions of grandeur"  answer is probably closest; I don't know exactly what got into our ancestors with regards to given name, perhaps in response to the confusion of twenty generations of "John son of John son of John"  they decided to be original in a fairly outrageous way.  





In today's world Manlove is kind of an unfortunate choice but I have a family in my file where that was one of the better ones, Patience was another one that works for me, but most of the family must have cringed every time they were asked for their given name. 





I was attempting to find the file and seem to have locked up FTM so am going to post this without the listing of names I found offensive, but I am sure most of you who have traced any line back to the 17th century know the types of names I mean. 





Les C 





PS Wiki and other online info sites don't address the issue of Squire used as a given name at all, 20,001 baby names only refers to the age of chivalry meaning and it's metamorphosis into aide-de-campe. My dictionary doesn't even list it. 





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