What was a gentleman’s servant?
Think of the TV series Downton Abbey as an example of a household where the servants regarded themselves as gentleman’s servants. These households typically employed numerous different servants in a hierarchical structure offering career progression – page boy to footman to butler, kitchen maid to cook, nursemaid to lady’s maid and so on. There were distinctions between outdoor and indoor servants, and the inner servants were further divided between lower and upper servants. A young servant who aspired to move up the career ladder would generally change employers several times during their working life.
Life as a gentleman’s servant
The largest households spent the major part of the year at their country house, moving to their London residence during the season, typically late spring to early summer. A skeleton staff remained at the empty property and received board wages – an allowance to buy food on top of their normal salary – when the family were not there. Many of the servants moved with the family between the country and London, and some also travelled with them on visits to friends and family elsewhere. Indoor servants lived inside their family’s house, which in the country usually included a servants’ wing with segregated male and female accommodation. There would be a servants’ hall where the lower servants ate and spent leisure time, while the butler and housekeeper each had their own bedroom and sitting room. Of the
