Esquire

es·quire ( P ) Pronunciation Key (skwr, -skwr)
n.
A man or boy who is a member of the gentry in England ranking directly below a knight.
Abbr. Esq. Used as an honorific usually in its abbreviated form, especially after the name of an attorney or a consular officer: Jane Doe, Esq.; John Doe, Esq.
In medieval times, a candidate for knighthood who served a knight as an attendant and a shield bearer.
Archaic. An English country gentleman; a squire.

The "junior member of the English gentry" rank called an Esquire disappeared (many) centuries ago. Nobody is one, and nobody can become one. Except as follows:-

In the UK "Esquire" is just an alternative way of addressing a letter or note to any man, not just attorneys or consular officers. The word is usually abbreviated to "Esq." Instead of writing "Mr J Smith", you can write J Smith Esq. on the envelope. You can have Mr at the beginning or Esq. at the end, but not both.

There is no equivalent for women I believe. In Britain, "Jane Doe Esq." would get hoots of laughter, it would be like Master Mary Jones or Miss George Bush or Ms Charles Atlas. In fact, if you had a couple, John and Jane Smith, one way of making sure John got the note, would be to address it to J Smith Esq.

Thanks! From now on i will be esquire on every letter I address!

As anouther point, do you know if there is a female equivilent of Esquire?

No.

Esquire is also used in the US after attorneys' names. Even female attorneys, although I always found it silly, although it does quickly brand one as a lawyer.

I actually wrote that there is no equivalent. I suppose because in the 13th Century, only men could be esquires. (Sexist times, them olden days!)

Actually you did say that, my apologies! Well thanks for settling that for me, Ill just have to break the news to my jealous friend! Haha, I am the victor! Simple things amuse simple minds eh?

I remembered a few more things about squires and esquires.

In the 1950s the UK branch of Ford had a model called the Squire, it was a small 2 door estate car, a van with windows with fake wood stuck on the sides. My dad had the sedan version, the Anglia.

While it is OK to address a letter to someone else as Mr J Smith or J Smith Esquire, (or Esq.), it is definitely not OK to sign a letter that way. You can sign a letter as J Smith, or John Smith, or Jane Smith, but never, ever, Mr J Smith or John Smith Esq, or Mrs J Smith or (very bad) J Smith (Mrs) I have even seen J Smith (Miss)!

I knew a guy, fairly middle class and stuck-up, who went to live in the country, in a village, I found out that the locals sarcastically referred to him as "The squire". They weren't being polite.

contrex, it used to be, when Emily Post was the big time etiquette macher, that widowed or married women were supposed to sign their names as Mrs. <their husband's name> <last name>, such as Mrs. John Smith, and divorcées were allowed to reclaim their first (but not their last) names and so they could sign Mrs. <her first name> <his last name>, e. g. Mrs. Mary Smith, although initials, even in Emily Post's time, were often used by women trying to make it in a male-dominated business or where admitting they were female could be dangerous (a woman living alone was expected to use a first initial for listing herself in the telephone directory) or where admitting to femininity could cause you to not be taken seriously (e. g. as in showing authorship of a book).

So it really was proper, at that time, for women to sign as Mrs. John Smith or Mrs. Mary Smith. My mother did this a few times when she would write an excuse note for some school absence or another. I think when I was about ten, I called her on it, as to why she'd sign Mrs. S. G___ (Mrs. B. G ____) when the school probably didn't care. She stopped doing that soon afterwards.

I have always responded to law-dogs who tell me their name is so-and-so, Esq. by asking if they keep horses. They are never amused, which, of course, is the point.

Well, I did find it useful to sign My name, Esq. while I was practicing, as otherwise correspondents would think I was a paralegal.

You got horsies, Jes?

Cool . . . can we come visit?

Sure. The horsies are very small, plastic ones, made by Breyer:

Actually, I don't have all of those, but I do have this guy:

And I thought it was just a men's magazine which Hugh Hefner emulated in text but included fold-in nudes.