ppl. a. [See BORN B. 1 d. Cf. Da. velbaaren, Du. welgeboren, G. wohlgeboren (MHG. wolgeborn).
The lack of examples in ME. is noticeable.]
1. Of good birth or lineage, of gentle blood.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Luke xix. 12. Monn sum wel-boren [L. nobilis] foerde on lond un-neh.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Deut. i. 15. Ic nam wise menn and welborene [Vulg. nobiles].
1595. Shaks., John, II. i. 278. As many and as well-borne bloods as those.
1633. Earl Manch., Al Mondo (1636), 146. To see well borne men to despise honest callings.
1667. Dryden, Secret Love, I. iii. (1668), 13. My Cousin is … Valiant and wise; and handsome; and well born. Qu. But not of Royal bloud.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XIII. xii. There is a something in persons well-born, which others can never acquire.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xlix. Mrs. Crawley is not very well born.
1905. R. Bagot, Passport, xiii. 120. You would not be considered well-born enough nor rich enough.
b. absol.
The well-born: a nickname formerly given to the Federalists of the U.S., derisively adopted by their opponents from the serious use of the term by J. Adams (see quot. 1787).
1787. J. Adams, Def. Const. Govt. U.S., Pref. I. p. x. The rich, the well-born, and the able, acquire an influence among the people, that will soon be too much for simple honesty and plain sense, in a house of representatives.
1787. Independent Gazetteer (Philad.), 28 June, 3/1. He [John Adams] may mean to argue thus, when he introduces his well-born; ‘I am an Ambassador, and therefore all my descendants should necessarily become Ambassadors, or obtain the same rank with them.’
1788. Amer. Museum, June (1792), 527. Under such a government, men of education, abilities, and property, commonly called the well born, will be the most likely to get into places of power and trust.
1841. Helps, Ess., Domestic Rule (1842), 52. The well-educated or the well-born.
1883. McMaster, People U.S., I. 469. In most of the squibs and pasquinades that filled the papers the Federalists were reviled under the name of ‘the well-born.’
2. Having the personal qualities naturally associated with good birth; noble in nature or character, (In early use after F. bien né.)
c. 1450. Knt. de la Tour, xii. 16. He herde that the king of Denmark had .iij. faire doughtres well born [moult bien nées].
1697. Dryden, Æneis, II. 455. Heav’n, that well-born Souls inspires, Prompts me … To … rush undaunted to defend the Walls.
1857. Emerson, Poems, Celestial Love, 45. Counsel which the ages kept Shall the well-born soul accept.
