Is the term goodman used to refer to a member of the lower class by a noble? I recall “Goodman Willit” being rewarded after the Battle of the Blackwater. Is this accurate?
“Goodman” is a historical term, a polite way to address a respectable person who was nonetheless below the rank of gentleman. And to get even more complicated, it’s actually a term you would give to someone who was fairly lower-class, but still respectable. A “goodman,” for example, was more lowly than a “Master,” a term originally used for master craftsmen but was then extended outward to all respectable men, and then turned into “Mister.” It’s also a gendered term – “goodman” and “goodwife” (and “master” and “mistress” or “mister” and “mrs”).
“Goodman” was used in England in the late medieval and early modern period, but it eventually fell out of fashion. It stuck around longer in Scotland and especially in Puritan New England, where Governor John Withrop defined it as meaning “worth as a citizen capable of serving his community in civic matters,” although some Puritan ministers insisted that the term could only be applied to church members.
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