A yeoman was a worker in feudal times who served his lord - not as a menial, but in honourable employ. Later the term came to mean a free man below knights and esquires in wealth, though not necessarily in birth or legal status. The law formally defined a yeoman as someone who held a freehold of 40 shillings annual value.
A yeoman was a member of middle class English society. The term connotes someone who is upright, sturdy, honest and trustworthy. Yeoman is also a naval occupation, roughly equivalent to a secretary.
