]

] From the royal.uk site:

] "Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, appointment to the Orders of chivalry in England was restricted to members of the aristocracy and high-ranking military figures. "

Thanks for the quote. I think that this was more the ideal than the actual event. However, I am not sure what type of knighthood was granted to all those artists and to Sir Isaac Newton, among others, and I should refrain from commenting further.

]business, and/or rendered significant public service. Sir William made his money in trade (business in modern terms?), and was Mayor of Meryton. However, you couldn't make it to a knight bachelor these days just by having a small business and being mayor of a small town.

You couldn't, indeed! But mayors of larger towns were and sometimes still are knighted into the present day.

] If only there was a list of such knights from the time. It might give us a reference point (eg if Sir Isaac Newton were a knight bachelor, Sir WL would be in good company).

As I said, good luck with finding such a list. I have had no such luck. As I once mentioned (I think), there is somewhere in cyberdom, a list of all the knights of the Garter. I don't even now whether that same person has compiled a list of all the knights of the various Orders of Chivalry, let alone knights bachelor. To compile such a list would be a mammoth undertaking.

Actually, that could be an interesting dissertation topic as well - comparing the social backgrounds and official reasons for knighthoods of persons knighted (as knights bachelor, or as knights of orders of chivalry) in two or three eras. Maybe this has already been done?!

Shinjinee