Esquires and Gentlemen

I would ask your correspondent (No. 27. p. 437.), whether he has ascertained *the grounds of distinction* made in the seventeenth and in the early part of the eighteenth century, between *esquires* and *gentlemen*, when both were landed proprietors? We find lists of names of governors of hospitals, trustees, &c., where this distinction is made, and which, apparently, can only be accounted for on this ground, that the estates of the gentleman were smaller in extent than those of the esquire; and, consequently, that the former was so far a person of less consideration. Had the bearing of coat ar…