Talk:George Devereux (MP for Montgomery)

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I should say this man is a good example of those who were not defined by serving as an unpaid member of the House of Commons for a few years. Essentially he was George Devereux (gentleman) or George Devereux (landowner), surely? Also, for me "MP" in the 17th century is an anachronism, as well as being obscure for those from countries who do not use the term. Moonraker (talk) 23:51, 30 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There is one reason and one reason only that I have created an article for this individual and that is that he was elected to the House of Commons. There is an article about another George Devereux, and therefore he needs to be differentiated from this and any other George Devereux. The reference Williams (1895) notes that he was MP. If he were at Oxford, the Alumni Oxonienses would note him as MP. If he were at Cambridge, Venn would note him as MP. If he were a city alderman, the British History Online records would note him as MP. These are all very authoritative sources and so you can level the accusation of anachronism at them. In the 17th century, the representatives were actually referred to as Knights of the Shire or Burgesses which are even more obscure terms and our four sources have set a good precedent in using a timeless abbreviation. He was indeed a landowner and gentleman, but so were dozens of other George D's who do not earn WP articles on that account and thousands of other English landed gentlemen who earn articles for many other reasons. Anyway the internal name of the article is simply a computer address and we do not even need a meaningful qualifier to separate different identities - we get to articles by linking from other articles, lists etc. But if I were to do a lookup and I knew someone sat in the House of Commons I would add MP to the search string and not gentleman or landowner. I am sure even members of the Church of the Latter Day Saints in Utah have a good idea of what MP means in English politics.Motmit (talk) 18:37, 31 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]