Esquire - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition esquire

Definition :

Esquire [fr. escuyer, Fr.; scutum, Lat.; Gk., hide of which shields were made and afterwards covered], he who attended a knight in time of war, and carried his shield; whence he was called escuyer, in French, and scutifer or armiger, i.e., armour-bearer, in Latin. No estate, however large, conferred this rank upon its owner.

Esquires may be divided into five classes:

(I) The younger sons of peers and their eldest sons in perpetual succession.

(II) The eldest sons of knights and their eldest sons in like successiorr.

(III) The chiefs of ancient families are esquires by prescription.

(IV) Esquires by creation or office. Such are the heralds and serjeants-at-arms, and some others, who are constituted esquires by receiving a collar of S.S. Judges and other offices of state, justices of the peace, and the higher naval and military officers are designated esquires in their patents and commissions. Doctors in the several faculties, and barristers-at-law, are also esquires. None of these offices convey gentility to the posterity of the holders.

(V) The last kind of esquires are those of Knights of the Bath, each of whom appoints three to attend upon him at his installation, and at coronations. See Jac. Law Dict.

A title of courtesy commonly appended after the name of a lawyer, Black Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 566.