Domestic service in London, 1660-1750 : gender, life cycle, work and household relations
Young people flooded into the capital in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and for many their experiences were moulded by working and living in others' households. As metropolitan life-cycle service, the occupation of domestic service provided them with a means of maintaining themselves by providing access to remuneration amid the fluctuating metropolitan economy, but it also gave them shelter in a city most were experiencing as migrants. The historiography of this subject has been stymied by the concentration, often thanks to limited record availability, of an older generation of scholars on the writings and material evidence of elite employers. As a consequence, a picture has been painted of an occupation dominated by the male liveiy to the resident nobility and gentry, mirroring in miniature the polarised social relations allegedly found in London as a whole. This thesis has sought to revise the history of domestic service by exploring a wider range of sources, particularly the words of contemporary servants themselves found in the church court depositions, in order to examine the nature of the service experienced by most. Servants largely worked in the households of the middling sort,
Meldrum, Timothy
Domestic service in London, 1660-1750 : gender, life cycle, work and household relations. Young people flooded into the capital in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and for many their experiences were moulded by working and living in others' households. As metropolitan life-cycle service, the occupation of domestic service provided them with a means of maintaining themselves by providing access to remuneration amid the fluctuating metropolitan economy, but it also gave them shelter in a city most were experiencing as migrants. The historiography of this subject has been stymied by the concentration, often thanks to limited record availability, of an older generation of scholars on the writings and material evidence of elite employers. As a consequence, a picture has been painted of an occupation dominated by the male liveiy to the resident nobility and gentry, mirroring in miniature the polarised social relations allegedly found in London as a whole. This thesis has sought to revise the history of domestic service by exploring a wider range of sources, particularly the words of contemporary servants themselves found in the church court depositions, in order to examine the nature of the service experienced by most. Servants largely worked in the households of the middling sort,
domestic_service london gender life_cycle work household relation young_people flood capital many experience mould work live others household metropolitan life_cycle service occupation domestic_service provide mean maintain provide access amid fluctuate metropolitan economy also_give shelter city experience migrant historiography subject concentration often limited record availability old generation scholar write material_evidence elite employer consequence picture paint occupation dominate male resident nobility gentry mirror miniature polarise social_relation allegedly find london whole sought revise history domestic_service explore wide_range_source particularly word contemporary servant find church_court deposition order_examine nature service experience servants largely work household middle_sort