Jessie,
In itself, Richard Newman's age had nothing to do with his being recorded without a
title. Titles such as Mr/Mrs and Goodman/Goodwife were related to social rank. If we
infer that Richard Newman and Goodwife Newman were a couple, then Richard did have a
title—Goodman. But since most men in early New England were yeomen, the corresponding
title of Goodman was a poor basis for distinguishing one man from another and was seldom
used.
I can conceive of a situation in which the title of Goodman was perhaps more likely to
have been made explicit: when, in the same town or congregation, there were two men—one a
yeoman and the other a true husbandman—of the same name. (Although the two terms were
sometimes used interchangeably, a husbandman was technically a farmer who worked someone
else's land—a tenant farmer or share cropper—whereas a yeoman owned the land he
farmed.) To distinguish one from the other in such a case, the yeoman might, I suppose,
be recorded as Goodman while the husbandman would have no title. It's far more
likely, however, that the distinction between them would be based on their relative ages.
The elder would be referred to as Sr. and the younger as Jr.—whether or not they were
related.
Once in a great while you'll find same-named women in a town distinguished from each
other by the use of Sr. and Jr. Goodwife/Goody, however, could have been useful in
distinguishing among same-named women of different social and/or marital statuses: a woman
married to a yeoman (e.g., Goodwife Newman); a woman married to a magistrate (e.g.,
Francis Newman's wife [Mrs.]); a spinster (a never-married woman, regardless of age);
and a widow (she, too, might be called Goody, however).
Gene Z.
---- Original message ----
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:55:05 -0600
From: Jessie Deith <jessydeith(a)aol.com>
Subject: [CARPENTER] Titles
To: Carpenter mailing list <CARPENTER(a)rootsweb.com>
Message-ID: <95E75797-9F43-4658-B78A-BC8075FA944C(a)aol.com>
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Thanks to both John R. and Gene Z. for your answers. Although there
was no reference to the faith of that "meeting house", it was in the
city of Derby, New Haven, Ct. Just for the fun of it I did a
comparison search on some of the names in the list (husbands and wives
did not sit together), and Mr. Malbon, who is identified as a
magistrate has a wife titled "Mrs."The Newmans were a little more
puzzling. There was a Mr. Francis Newman and a Francis Newman's wife.
So they went together but then there was Elder Newman's wife and Mr.
Newman ,magistrate. Perhaps he was an elder as well as a magistrate.
But then the last two Newmans were Richard Newman (no title) and
Goodwife Newman. Could Richard be too young to called anything? It is
of no importance to Carpenter research but just curious.
Jessie