GOVERNESSES

Only a scattering of upper-class families employed female tutors for their daughters in the 17th and early 18th centuries. By the Victorian era, however, it was not only aristocrats relying on a governess, but the majority of moneyed middle-class parents as well. A live-in governess was both a sign of their own social status, and a means of instilling in their daughters the skills needed for their future married life in a safe and suitably domestic environment. What had once been a relatively niche profession was booming by the time of the 1851 census, when some 25,000 women were working as governesses.

Many governesses had similar backgrounds to their pupils. Often the daughters of professional men