0 in the past, a man who was not a servant and who owned and cultivated (= grew crops on) an area of land --
Officeholding could become the preserve of a yeoman oligarchy or it could incorporate a relatively wide spectrum of the population.
This, in combination with a process whereby individual yeomen's holdings were gradually purchased by a few wealthy farmers, had a considerable impact in some parishes.
The state benefited from yeomen who were substantial enough to pay taxes, and won battles as archers.
In both parishes three-quarters of overseers of the poor were yeomen or lesser gentry.
The involvement of yeoman and gentry as overseers of the poor was greater in these parishes.
But he did not believe that once corruption was removed, the king would rule justly, helped by sturdy yeomen like himself.
In rural areas, analysis of occupations shows yeomen well represented, alongside husbandmen and artisans, but labourers almost entirely absent.
In only three of the thirty-one years for which records of churchwardens survive was a yeoman not elected to the office.
