What class would a yeoman be in?

Answer 1

Here is my understanding: It depends on the century, but generally speaking Yeoman are middle class landowners who do not have tennants. They may have owned between 300 and 1000 acres. Those who did much of the labor themselves may have been looked on by upper middle class landowners- those with tennents and between 1000 and 3000 acres- as privilaiged members of the working class (rather than the middle class) because of the type of labor they performed. Wealthier Yeoman could afford to higher laborors to do most of this work, and were probably regarded as respectable by the gentry and enviable by the working classes. They may have typified middle class English identity in the countryside.

It is worth noting, however, that I stumbled on this question because I have been trying to come up with a satisfactory answer to this question myself and all of the above claims should be checked with further research.

Answer 2

Yeomen were mostly farmers. They were considered to be a step above freemen or tenant farmers, who paid rent in money, who were, in turn, a step above most serfs. The yeomen were actual owners of small holdings of land, but land holdings small enough that they were not landlords themselves. They had laws requiring them to train for warfare, to own a longbow and sword, and so on.

There is a link below to an article on yeomen.