Gentlemen

Gentlemen as members of the nobility

Gentlemen possess gentility, that is, the condition corresponding to untitled nobility on the Continent. A grant of arms, at least in the English sense, does not confer gentility but rather confirms that it has been earned or demonstrated by the recipient. The evalutation of eligibility for a grant is, in fact, a test of gentility. Practically, this means that a grant of arms will consolidate gentility which has been acquired under one of the above definitions and turn it into a hereditary quality that is henceforth demonstrated by the grantee's descendants by proving the right to inherited arms (or, in Scotland, to matriculate a differenced version of his arms).