What is a "Domestic Servant"?

[GordonFindlay]

The greater part of my female ancestors 1800-1925 who have occupations recorded (usually before marriage) are reported as "Domestic Servant". The censuses for example are full of them.

I find it hard time believing that all of them were in paid employment, or even working for bed and board.

Might women who were still in the family home, and doing domestic work there, be recorded as "Domestic Servant"?

[CaroleW]

They could be living at home but going to work each day elesewhere - just like today.  Many were "live in" domestic servants as well.

It was a very common occupation for women - and also men - in those days. 

[kiwihalfpint]

Might women who were still in the family home, and doing domestic work there, be recorded as "Domestic Servant"?

Yes, here in NZ (1920's) my Aunt was living with her widowed mother and is recorded as a Domestic Servant, while her sister had a live-in job.

While in Glasgow, 1840's/50's, my GGrandmother and her brother were living with an Aunt, while Aunt ran a Boarding House GGrandmother was listed as a Servant.

Cheers
KHP

[kiwihalfpint]

I find it hard time believing that all of them were in paid employment, or even working for bed and board.

You have to remember their days were hard and long, and most of them only got Sunday off.

Cheers
KHP

[GR2]

Probably most female domestic servants were "general domestic servants". Some are more specialised e.g. "Domestic servant (cook)". Female domestic servants were so common, even at fairly humble levels of society, that they were not taxed. Those employing a male domestic servant, e.g. a footman, had to pay an annual tax of 15/- per servant.

In the days before modern labour-saving devices, looking after a household was even more work than it is today. If the daughters of the family were not yet old enough to help their mother, their father would be more likely to employ a servant than to assist personally with the cleaning and washing! Wages were low, especially for young girls. My own mother, in 1938, was paid 5/- a week plus her keep, as a 14 year old general domestic servant in the household of a shopkeeper, his wife and one son.

[Forfarian]

If they were in their parents' home they were probably working in another household as live-out servants.

If in another household they were live-in servants, who would have been paid a few pounds a year plus food and accommodation.

I had a look through some of the parish accounts at https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk/static/statacc/dist/county/Lanark - the New Statistical Account (1845) for the parish of Lanark says that a labourer's wage was 9s per week, and a woman's was 1s per day. In East Kilbride a man was paid 10s a week in winter and 12s in summer (£1 = 20s so 10s a week in winter and 12s in summer is about £30 per year), but a quarryman might be paid more, while (male) farm servants got £14 to £20 a year plus their food. There might be other parish articles that give annual wages for live-in servants. The accounts are well worth reading anyway for the background information they provide.

[oldfashionedgirl]

I was thrilled to find my Grandmother on the 1911 census age 18, her relationship to the head was written as Domestic servant (Cook) then the other girl was Domestic servant. They lived in and were employed by a Priest of Holy Order's who was married but had no children.

I found the house once when on holiday down south. I had been to the graveyard to put flowers on my Grandmas grave, No. 208, always remembered as same as radio Luxembourg 

In 1911 the house was called ‘The White House’  and I walked up and down the street trying to find it. By process of elimination by age proximity I worked out which one it was....now numbered 208 

I visited an Uncle who lived locally, he said his mum didn’t really like working for the ‘Vicar’ as she had to go to church three times on Sundays !

On researching my own house, a Victorian terrace, I have found many interesting small adverts in The Scotsman newspaper on the British Newspaper Archive advertising for Domestic servants.

There seemed to be quite a hierarchy re the status in the levels of work I.e. No heavy work, light duties only, personal care for elderly lady, six children in the household etc, fascinating 

[Maiden Stone]

There were fewer opportunities for paid work for working-class females in 19th century unless they lived near a factory. Being a servant was safer than working in a mine.
Shopkeeper son of my boilermaker ancestor had a servant on 1891 census. They were working-class. Boilermaker's daughters worked in mills.
My Irish grandmother, daughter of a small farmer in Western Ireland, was a domestic servant. Irish girls had even less choice of career. Her posts took her far from home - Belfast (a prison warden's house), England, then England again (a wealthy farmer) after she was widowed. She had a sister who was a servant in U.S.; sister was going to find her a position but she remained in England.
I don't know about Scotland but pauper girls in England might be found positions as live-in servants from a young age. Industrial schools for girls at risk of neglect or falling into crime provided training in domestic skills alongside the 3 "R's" so that they could be gainfully employed + have a roof over their heads. 

[GordonFindlay]

Thanks all for the information.