Also α. ’squirearchy, squire-archy. β. squirarchy, ’squirarchy. [f. SQUIRE sb. after hierarchy, monarchy, etc. The spelling with e has been by far the more usual.]
1. The collective body of squires, landed proprietors, or country gentry; the class to which squires belong, regarded especially in respect of its political or social influence.
α. 1804. Spirit Public Jrnls., VIII. 55. We look to the admiration and support of the Squirearchy of Old England.
1854. Warter, Last of Old Squires, xvi. 167. He had lived amongst the OLD SQUIREARCHY of the midland Counties, to whom the ‘Hunt’s-up’ and the Hunting-field was one of the great Businesses of Life.
1899. Baring-Gould, Bk. of West, I. ii. 40. A very large number of old mansions, belonging to the squirearchy of Elizabethan days, remain.
β. 1819. Syd. Smith, in Edin. Rev., March, 308. The new class of punishments which the Squirarchy have themselves enacted against depredations on game.
1861. FitzGerald, Lett. (1889), I. 277. We are split up into the pettiest possible Squirarchy, who want to make the utmost of their little territory.
b. Without article.
1858. P. J. Bailey, The Age, 5.
| Beside the Crown, the peers, and cleric hierarchy, | |
| Law, army, navy, physic, state and squirearchy. |
1885. Illustr. Lond. News, 14 Feb., 184/1. Keeping upon good terms with Squirearchy.
c. A class, body or number of squires.
1830. Examiner, 789/1. A gorgeous aristocracy, a pampered squirarchy, and a magnificent parson-archy.
1853. W. Jerdan, Autobiog., IV. 146. The surrounding Cheshire gentry, about the … best informed squirearchy in the kingdom.
1874. Green, Short Hist., iv. § 2. 167. To check this growth of a squirearchy the statute provided [etc.].
2. The position or dignity of a squire. rare.
1854. Warter, Last of Old Squires, xii. 118. Always ready to explode when thwarted in his Squirearchy, be not only could, but did, look inward continually.
3. Rule or government by a squire or squires.
1861. J. Pycroft, Agony Point (1862), 127. The form of polity in Brendon was a kind of Squirearchy.
