The Victorian Era

What Was Life Like for Victorian Servants?

Article · Society & Daily Life · The Victorian Era, 1837–1901

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Life for Victorian servants was a life of hard work, strict discipline, long hours, low pay, and limited freedom — but it was also a life of relative security, of regular meals, of a roof over the head, of training for a trade, and of the chance to rise in the world. The Victorian period saw the growth of a great army of domestic servants — the maids, cooks, footmen, butlers, valets, ladies’ maids, governesses, and nannies — who staffed the households of the Who were the Victorian upper class? and the How did the middle class grow in the Victorian era?. The number of domestic servants in England and Wales rose from about 1.25 million in 1851 to about 2 million in 1901, and at the peak of the period domestic service was the largest single category of female employment, accounting for some 40 per cent of women in paid work. The Victorian servant is a central figure in the Victorian Novel, the Victorian Poetry, and the Victorian Theatre and Drama of the period.

The Hierarchy of the Servants’ Hall

The Victorian servants’ hall was a complex hierarchy, with each servant having a precise role, a precise title, a precise place in the order of precedence, and a precise set of duties. The principal servants of the great house included the housekeeper, who had charge of the linen, the silver, the plate, the wine, the cellar, and the female servants, and who was the senior female servant of the house; the butler, who had charge of the wine, the cellar, the plate, the dining room, the silver, the glass, the male servants, and the service of the meals, and who was the senior male servant of the house; the cook, who had charge of the kitchen, the kitchen staff, the menus, and the preparation of What did Victorians eat for dinner?; the lady’s maid, who had charge of the wardrobe, the jewellery, the Women’s Victorian Fashion, the personal grooming of the lady of the house, and the personal service of the lady; and the valet, who had charge of the wardrobe, the Victorian gentlemen’s fashion, the personal grooming of the gentleman of the house, and the personal service of the gentleman.

Below the principal servants came the footmen, the grooms of the chambers, the pages, the kitchen maids, the scullery maids, the dairy maids, the laundry maids, the housemaids, the between maids, the under-housemaids, the still-room maids, the pantry maids, the vegetable maids, the needle maids, the nannies, the nursemaids, the under-nannies, the lady’s helps, the companions, the gardeners, the grooms, the coachmen, and the stable hands. The governess held a particular place: she was a gentlewoman reduced to earning a living, looked down on by the servants and not quite accepted by the family, and she was the subject of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) and of much Victorian novel-reading.

The Working Day

The working day of the Victorian servant was long, with the day often beginning at 6 a.m. and not ending until midnight, with breaks of one or two hours in the afternoon. The principal duties of the servant were the cleaning of the house, the preparation of the meals, the service of the meals, the care of the children, the care of the wardrobe, the care of the linen, the care of the silver, the care of the plate, the care of the wine, the care of the cellar, the care of the stable, the care of the garden, the care of the carriage, and the care of the horses. The servant had little time off, with perhaps half a day off a week, one Sunday off a month, and two weeks’ holiday a year. The servant lived in the servants’ quarters of the great house — in the garret, the attic, the basement, the wing, the tower, the lodge, the cottage, the stable, the kennel, the mews, or the back of the house.

The work of the servant was made harder by the lack of modern conveniences. The servant had no electric light, no gas light in the early period, no running hot water in the early period, no vacuum cleaner, no washing machine, no refrigerator, and no central heating. The servant had to fetch and carry the water, the coal, the wood, the candles, the oil, the food, the drink, the linens, the clothes, the boots, the shoes, the tools, the utensils, the dishes, the pots, the pans, the kettles, the buckets, the brooms, the brushes, the dustpans, the dusters, the mops, the pails, the polish, the soap, the candles, and the matches.

The Pay and Conditions

The pay of the Victorian servant was low. The housekeeper of the great house might be paid £30 to £60 a year, the butler £20 to £50 a year, the cook £15 to £40 a year, the lady’s maid £12 to £30 a year, the valet £15 to £40 a year, the footman £10 to £20 a year, the housemaid £8 to £15 a year, the kitchen maid £6 to £12 a year, the scullery maid £4 to £10 a year, the nursemaid £8 to £15 a year, and the page £4 to £10 a year. The pay of the servant was supplemented by board, lodging, uniform, laundry, and tips, and the total remuneration was often higher than the pay of an unskilled factory worker.

The conditions of the servant were strictly regulated. The servant could not leave the house or receive visitors without the employer’s permission, followers of the opposite sex were generally forbidden, and marriage usually meant dismissal. Within the house the servant did not eat with the family, did not sit in their presence, used the back door and the back stairs rather than the front, and spoke to the family only when spoken to.

The Decline of Service

The Victorian period saw the gradual decline of domestic service as a form of employment. The number of domestic servants in England and Wales peaked in 1901 at about 2 million, and it then began to decline as a result of the growth of alternative forms of female employment, the rise of the How did the middle class grow in the Victorian era?, the introduction of the typewriter, the expansion of department stores offering shop-floor work, the opening of office employment to women following the typewriter’s arrival, the availability of factory posts, new professional and teaching opportunities, the growth of hospital nursing as a career, and the multiplication of retail positions across the high street. The decline of domestic service was a major change in the Victorian Daily Life and Society of the period, and it had a profound effect on the What is a Victorian parlor?, on the Victorian Architecture and Interior Design, on the Victorian Food and Dining, and on the Victorian kitchen.