dominus or sir in 1642 Visitation?

Question

So I'm reading thru the 1642 visitation of Nottinghamshire and I notice a strange thing in one of the pedigrees written in Latin (Clifton of Clifton). There are a lot of people titled "dominus" (dns) as one would expect, but there is someone called the widow of Dni Nicholai Byron militis.

OK, all the Nicholas Byrons I know of were militis and titled Sir, but none were dominus, if by dominus is meant "Lord" as it usually does. So is this just an error, or is someone using "dominus" in some unusual sense to mean Sir?

Comments

I don't believe any language besides English has a term of address reserved for knights. If you put "sir" into Google Translate and ask for it in Latin, it gives "Domine" (i.e. the vocative form of "Dominus").

---

Yet there are others in this pedigree called "miles", not also Dominus.

I just zeroed in on the one name I was well familiar with

Answer 1

The English rank of knight was always rendered in Latin as miles (genitive militis). I'm not sure what Dominus is being used for exactly without seeing some examples but probably Lord of the Manor or just informally to describe a squire. This is not the same as a knight's assistant but a significant landowner of high social standing but without a formal title.