Ancestors At Work
What daily life was like for maids of all work
The vast majority of our female servant ancestors did not work in wealthy houses or on country estates where large numbers of staff were employed. Instead, they toiled in the homes of the middle classes and lower middle classes where just one or two maids were kept; for these employers, keeping servants was a status symbol. In 1871 almost two-thirds of British females in domestic service were categorised as ‘general servants’ in households with one or two servants, and this remained the most common setup in Victorian and Edwardian middle-class homes.
‘Maid of all work’ was a term
used for a ‘general’ where no other servant was employed. These maids undertook all of the work of the house singlehandedly – their duties encompassed everything a cook, housemaid and nurserymaid would have done, and much more besides. This often included the dreaded ‘big wash’, which was an extremely arduous and unpopular task.
Most maids of all work were employed by tradesmen, clerks and shopkeepers of the lower middle classes who could only afford one servant. Often, girls went straight from leaving school or a Poor Law institution to be general servants at the age of 13 or 14, or sometimes younger.
They lacked experience so they were cheap to employ; in effect, they were undergoing a kind of apprenticeship. But as the only servant in the household, they suffered because there was nobody to show them the ropes unless they had considerate, understanding employers.
According to Mrs Beeton in her Book of Household Management (1861), the maid of all work was “perhaps the only one of her class deserving of commiseration: her life is a solitary one, and, in some places, her work is never done… She is also subject to rougher
‘Workhouses found places in service for young inmates’
treatment than either the house or kitchen-maid, especially in her earlier career: she starts in life, probably a girl of thirteen, with some small tradesman’s wife as her mistress, just a step above her in the social scale.”
Finding A Position
A job as a maid of all work could usually be found locally by word of mouth or personal recommendation. Places were also advertised in the ‘Situations Vacant’ columns in local and national newspapers, and at servants’ registry offices, which operated in the same way as employment agencies today. Workhouses and poorhouses also found places in service for their young inmates.
Going into service could be daunting, even traumatic. Mrs Wrigley, a platelayer’s wife, was born in Cefn Mawr, Wales, in 1858. She was sent to her first proper place near Stockport at nine years old, and her story is told in the 2012 book Life As We Have Known It: The Voices of Working-Class Women: “I had to be a servant-of-all-work, having to get up at six in the morning, turn a room out and get it ready for breakfast. My biggest trouble was I could not light the fire, and my master was very cross and would tell me to stand away, and give me a good box on my ears… Not able to read or write, I could not let my parents know, until a kind old lady in the village wrote to my parents to fetch me home from the hardships I endured.
I had no wages at this place, only a few clothes.”
Hannah Cullwick is one of the few Victorian servants we know to have kept a diary. In 1860 she was employed in a household with one other maid. On Saturday 14 July, she listed her chores for the first part of the day: “Opened the shutters & lighted the kitchen fire. Shook my sooty things in the dusthole & emptied the soot there. Swept & dusted the rooms & the hall. Laid the hearth & got breakfast up. Clean’d 2 pairs of boots. Made the beds & emptied the slops. Clean’d & wash’d the breakfast things up. Clean’d
the plate; clean’d the knives & got dinner up. Clean’d away. Clean’d the kitchen up; unpack’d a hamper. Took two chickens to Mrs Brewer’s & brought the message back. Made a tart & pick’d & gutted two ducks & roasted them. Clean’d the steps & flags on my knees.”
This seemingly neverending list illustrates the physical nature of a general servant’s duties, such as carrying coals and water up and down stairs several times a day, making heavy beds and emptying baths. Such maids had to work long hours, usually starting at around 6am and finishing at 10pm with short breaks for meals.
By 1900 maids of all work could earn between £10 and £15 per annum depending on their experience. Food and lodging were provided, but they were the lowest-paid of all female servants. Maids of all work had very few prospects, too; by contrast, kitchen maids and housemaids could aspire to become cooks and housekeepers.
Harsh Treatment
How a general servant was treated depended largely on her employer’s personality. Although there were just as many kind mistresses as cruel ones, it was common for maids to be kept separate from the families they served in order to maintain the servant–employer divide. They ate alone and slept in cheerless garrets, while in small homes the bed was often in the kitchen, as at Thomas and Jane Carlyle’s house (see Go Visit box, page 58).
By the turn of the century girls were being educated for longer and to a higher standard, which meant that there were more work opportunities outside domestic service. The school leaving age was raised to 12 in 1899 and to 14 in 1918 (although the change was not implemented until 1921). Working in shops, factories and offices with fixed hours was more attractive to many girls than being at an employer’s beck and call with little free time. The more intelligent could also consider careers in teaching and nursing. It became increasingly difficult to find young maids, so smaller households started to use charwomen as ‘dailies’ instead.