The Servant Problem

The largest single occupation group in 1379 was servants. There were 94, out of a total taxable population of 417, so almost a quarter of the adults in the town were servants. The distinction between a servant and a labourer is that a servant worked for one employer and had a contract - usually annual. Labourers worked for whoever needed extra help. As a rule, labourers got a higher daily rate, but could often be unemployed.

We can divide the servants into sub-groups:-

• Maids - 23, presumably all girls/young women, all living with the household
• Live-in servants - 18, 13 Men 5 Women
• Non-resident servants 34, 11 Men 23 Women
• Resident children 18, 7 sons 11 daughters

Taking the last first, we can't make any assumptions about the status of this group, as all sons and daughters living with their parents are described as servants. Presumably they worked with their fathers and mothers. It's worth noting that of the 18, only 4 have parents that have an occupation - the others are children of husbandmen or labourers.

Maids are the servants who are described as 'ancilla' - a word which implies a young girl working as a handmaid or ladies maid. As you would expect, nearly all the maids are employed by tax payers who are paying more than the basic rate. However, there seems to be both a husbandman and a labourer with a maid, which is unexpected.

Resident servants are much more likely to be male than female, and as with the maids are almost all in the household of one of the higher rate tax-payers. They should probably regarded as employees who assisted their employer with his/her work rather than as servants in the below-stairs idea of someone providing a personal service.

Non-resident servants are the biggest single group, and present something of a problem, as we don't know who their employers were. However, there are two groups of people who are missing from the taxation lists but who could have afforded servants and almost certainly employed them. These are the clergy of the Minster (probably around 25-30) and the officials of the Bishop (probably around 10-15). They would have needed cooks, cleaners and washerwomen. The Manor House staff would additionally have needed ostlers and gardeners.

There were 30 labourers - 10 married men, 6 single men and 12 single women (2 are unknown). The number of single women may be explained by the intermittent demand from the Manor House, with large numbers of staff needed whenever it was in use by a party of travelers.