Servants

Servants in a great house were divided into two groups, indoor and outdoor.

Domestics

Domestic help began with a daily girl or charwoman. The first living-in servant would be a 'general' maid-of-all-work, almost always a young girl often of only thirteen or fourteen: the next addition a house-maid or a nurse-maid, depending on the more urgent needs at the time.

The third servant would be the cook, and these three -- either cook, parlour-maid and house-maid, or cook, house-maid and nurse-maid -- then formed a group which could minimally minister to all the requirements of gentility.

At this point, the first manservant would usually appear, whose duties would combine indoor work such as waiting and valeting with care of the horse or pony and carriage; J. H. Walsh placed the income level necessary for this at £500 a year in 1857.

Beyond this, the progression was not so predictable. The fifth servant might be a lady's maid or a kitchen-maid to act as assistant to the cook, or a nursemaid if there was not one already. The sixth would almost certainly be another man, acting as butler and releasing the other as a wholetime coachman or groom, which would be necessary with ownership of a four-wheeled carriage and an income of £1,000 a year.

Beyond six servants, increases would follow as a result of increasing specialization -- on the male side footmen, valets, a chef and a housesteward, and on the female a housekeeper, a governess, more lady's-maids, upper and lower parlour-maids, a laundry-maid and additional kitchen- and scullery-maids.

The butler's jobs were to supervise the footmen, be in charge of the wine cellar, taking care of the "plate" and announcing visitors when occasion called for it.

The housekeeper's jobs were to supervise the maids, make preserves, serve tea and coffee, order and keep the household accounts and was responsible for the linen.

The maid's jobs were to wash the dishes, clean house, wash clothes, and carry water. There were many dishes to wash, too; an eighteen guest dinner party could generate as many as 500 items to be washed.

The footmen had jobs in and out of the house. Outside they attended the mistress when she went calling and family members when they went to the opera, and they also rode on the back of the carriage to discourage young boys from jumping on to get a free ride. Inside the house, they were basically the male equivalent of maids.

Thus, in a very wealthy town house there might be up to about twenty servants, and on a country estate up to thirty or forty. Great establishments like this could still form in the nineteenth century very much the same kind of total communities they had in the Middle Ages, highly structured, authoritarian and inward-looking, largely self-sufficient and independent of the rest of society.

Outside Servants

On landed estates, there would, of course, also be outside staff such as gardeners and gamekeepers, as well as many more men and boys working about the stables.

The outdoor servants were the coachman, groom, and in the country, a gardener and gamekeeper. The coachman maintained as well as drove the coach. The groom looked after the horses and the gardener was in charge of landscaping and indoor plants.

The gamekeeper was responsible for raising and protecting the game and taking the master and guests hunting and shooting. Indoor servants consisted of a butler, housekeeper, maids and footmen.

Being a servant was not a high paying job, but all servants materially helpful to visitors expected tips or 'vails' as they were called when a guest left. This was one of the only times that a servant could make decent money. A servant's pay just from vails could amount to ten shillings a day, while on regular pay, they would only earn a few pounds a year.