ABSTRACT
In England in the sixteenth century, “Master” was the usual title for upperclass men. All members of the élite in Ro. Ba.’s Life of Syr Thomas More, for example, are given this style: More himself, his sons-in-law, his friends, and members of the government and court. For the last, the title might be attached to the office: “Maister Attorney”, “Maister Secretary”; otherwise it was joined to the second name. The same practice is found in the Lisle letters. In describing the dignitaries present at the arrival of Anne of Cleves on the outskirts of London in 1540, for example, an observer referred to “Master Baynton, Vice-Chamberlain”, “Master Dennys, her Chancellor”, “Master Carew”, and so on. According to Serjeant Doderidge in 1588, “Whosoever studieth in the Universities, who professeth the liberal sciences, and…who can live idly and without manual labour and will bear the countenance of a gentleman, he shall be called Master.” The term was still a normal form of address in the seventeenth century. A Puritan preacher who died in 1645, for instance, was known as “Master Dod”.43 The title seems also to have been in use from wife to husband, for another Puritan called in 1642 for this particular usage to be abandoned.
