•A gentleman was defined by his pedigree and family history=birth
•…or by whom he was known (that is, powerful alliances) = rank
•
Gentility was increasingly
characterised by behaviour and less by birth or wealth. Austen’s tellingly
named Mr Knightley in Emma (1816) is among the last of a series of
what Gerard Barker has called "Grandisonian heroes." No longer of
noble birth, he is a member of the landed gentry, though of an old family, a
born gentleman: "You might not see one in a hundred, with gentleman so
plainly written as in Mr Knightley." (Austen, Emma 33)