What Is: a Yeoman

A yeoman offers a tale in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and he is generally depicted as wearing a green jerkin and carrying a bow.  Over the centuries, the word yeoman carried many meanings even as the men who were call yeoman had varying functions. 

The word yeoman is probably a corruption of young man.  The first mention of yeoman was as attendants in a royal or noble household.  These men were known as Yeomen of the Crown and performed a wide variety of functions, from soldiers and bodyguards to personal attendants.  Such usage survives today as in Yeoman of the Guard or Yeoman Warders.  Being in royal service held many perks.  One of which might be the reward of land for service performed.  Yeoman were thus men who held their own small parcels of land.  They ranked below landed gentry but above husbandmen or petty farmers.  They could serve on juries or hold minor royal posts such as bailiffs or constables.  They also performed service in the army, ranking below knights and squires and above knaves or common peasants.  Because they owned their own land, they were required to possess a long bow and spend time practice with it.  Yeoman were known as proficient archers, hence the common depiction of a yeoman as being an archer.  The original Yeoman of the Guard were archers.  Later, bands of yeoman formed to defend larger cities and towns, such as the City of London Yeomanry. 

Later, in the 17th century, with the rise of navies, a yeoman was a petty officer in charge of supplies and later became an early form of ship's steward, taking care of duties in the mess or serving as a ranking officer's personal assistant, a theme carried over by the yeomen in Star Trek.