Franklin

A franklin is a medieval English freeholder of non-noble birth holding extensive property.

Friar

A friar was one of four Orders: the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Carmelites, or the Augustinians. Unlike the monk, who lived a life of study, work, and prayer, separate from the world, the friar exercised his ministry among the people. The monk could be either an ordained priest or a lay brother. The Orders were expected to support their works by begging.

A manciple is the official title of the caterer at a college, an inn of court, or other institution. Sometimes he was also the chief cook. The medieval Latin manceps, formed from mancipium, acquisition by purchase, meant a purchaser of stores, and mancipium became used of his office.

A monk is a member of a community of men, isolated from the outside world, living and working in prayer. St. Benedict established the rules of monastic life about 529 AD. The Benedictine Rule was established in the England by St. Augustine when he arrived with his Christian missionaries in Kent in 597 AD and began the evangelization of the Anglo-Saxons at the behest of Pope Gregory the Great. The daily life of the monk was one of hard physical work, scholarship and prayer. Some orders encouraged the presence of "lay brothers", monks who did most of the physical labor in the fields and workshops of the monastery so that the full-fledged monks could concentrate on prayer and learning. Some better known orders of monks are: the Benedictines, the Cluniacs, the Cistercians, and the Trappists. Monks were different from friars in that monks retired from the world and lived in solitude. Additionally, while friars were priests, monks could be either priests or brothers (i.e., members of the community who had taken vows but were not ordained).

A pardoner is a medieval ecclesiast authorized to raise money for religious works by granting papal indulgences to contributors.

Prioress

A prioress is a superioress in a monastic community for women. The term prioress is properly applied only to a superioress in a convent which has the papal approbation and whose members make solemn profession, that is, to convents which belong to an order in the strict sense of the word. In some places, however, it is customary to apply the title of prioress also to a superioress in a convent. The office of a prioress in an order for women corresponds to that of the prior in the same order is an officer responsible for the general management of a manor (usually selected from among the manor's tenants). The lord's official on the manor who supervised labor dues and renders owed by peasants.

Reeve

A reeve is an estate manager.

"Let the reeve be all the time with the serfs (peasants) in the lord's fields.....because serfs neglect their work and it is necessary to guard against their fraud......the reeve must oversee all work...........if they (serfs) do not work well, let them be punished." -- by Walter of Henley c. 1275.

Later, reeves were employed to manage large areas of land called shires. A shire is an English county. The term "shire reeve" eventually became the "sheriff."

Summoner

A summoner is an ecclesiast who summoned sinners to a church court.

A Yeoman is a class in English society. The term generally means a freeholder of a lower status than gentleman who cultivates his own land. With the breakdown of medieval systems of tenure, the numbers of this class increased and formed the basis for a rural middle class. Certain retainers of a fairly high rank in noble households were also called yeomen, and thus the name was given to specific branches of the royal household, e.g., Yeomen of the Horse or Yeomen of the Guard . The yeoman foot soldiers of the Hundred Years War were the troops most personally in the service of the king.