BERTUNA'S CHILDREN

The 1851 population census for Great Barton, Suffolk, recorded 63 females as ‘scholars’ and a further 17 girls aged five to eleven. I have succeeded in finding information about 70 females who were eligible to attend the school from when it opened until the early 1850s.

Their lives exemplify those of working class girls from rural areas, who were born during the 1830s and 1840s.

The life choices for these girls were very limited. Most became a servant in their teens, but a few remained at home to look after younger siblings or a widowed parent. Some girls worked as a servant all their life, but the majority eventually married. From 1753, the minimum age of consent for marriage was 12 for girls and 14 for boys, with parental consent if they were under 21.

Those women who were alive in 1909 were eligible to receive a means-tested, non-contributory old age pension, following the passing of the Old-Age Pensions Act 1908, which came into effect on January 1st, 1909. It was paid to those, whose annual income was between £21 and £31 10s., on a sliding scale of 1s. to 5s. a week for single people and 7s. 6d for married couples and was collected from the Post Office.

Victorian newspapers were full of adverts for live-in servants. They received free accommodation, regular meals, a uniform and a small wage, from which they were expected to contribute to their family’s income. Country girls were popular with employers because they were considered to be more honest, hardworking and biddable, as well as cheaper than urban girls.

It was common practice to employ servants from other villages or towns because employers believed that it reduced the risk of their private affairs being discussed in the village, there was less likelihood of trouble from the girls’ suitors and it was more difficult for the girls to run home if they became homesick or life got too tough.

In 1851, only four of the 25 female servants employed in Great Barton were born in the village. In 1861, only seven of the 26 female servants were born in Great Barton and in 1871, four of the forty-one servants were born in Great Barton.

The butler, housekeeper, cook or chef, valet and lady’s maids were classified as ‘upstairs’ staff. The housekeeper, the most important female servant, was always called ‘Mrs’, even if she were unmarried, and was usually paid £5 to £10 a year less than a butler. She was responsible for keeping the household accounts, hiring and firing female staff, managing the female servants and taking care of the house furnishings.

In a large house like Barton Hall, ‘downstairs’ staff included laundry maids, parlour maids, kitchen maids, scullery maids and housemaids. Without labour saving devices, everything had to be done by hand and the duties of the housemaids would have included scrubbing and dusting all the floors, beating and sweeping the carpets, black leading the fireplaces and dealing with the fires, taking clean water upstairs for washing, removing the dirty water, emptying chamber pots, making beds and polishing the candlesticks.

The governess was neither ‘upstairs’ nor ‘downstairs’, so she found herself in a social limbo.

Servants often slept in an attic and their working conditions were usually subject to strict rules. These often included being forbidden to display pictures or personal belongings and being subjected to having their rooms searched.

A typical day for a servant would begin at 6.00 am and end at 10.30 pm. In the early part of the century, servants were not given regular time off  but, by the 1880s, they were given a half-day on Sundays after lunch and one day a month after breakfast, on condition that they had finished all their chores for that day.

Barton Hall was the largest employer of servants, with 13 in 1851 and 1861, and 18 in 1871. At the time of the 1851 census, Henry and Emily Bunbury were staying at Alverstoke, in Hampshire, with their butler, footman, cook, two ladies’ maids (one for Emily Bunbury and another for her niece, Cecilia Napier), a groom and a stable boy. They left Thomas Scott (their land agent and clerk), a housekeeper, housemaid, scullery maid, farm servant, groom and Susan Kerry (the schoolmistress) at Barton Hall. A dressmaker and a master tailor were visiting on the day of the 1851 census.

Many employers discouraged servants from having relationships with other servants in their household and some terminated their employment if they did so. However, the Bunbury family seem to have been more liberal on this subject and Anne Coe, Emily Bunbury’s cook in 1851, married George Dodd, the groom. George died a year later but Anne continued to work at Barton Hall, though as a maid not a cook.

However, the Bunbury family did not permit their married, live-in servants to reside with their spouses. The 1871 census for Barton Hall records that the wife of Richard Palmer, the butler, was a visitor at Barton Hall. The wife of Edgar Calthorpe, Charles Bunbury’s valet, lived at Laundry Houses with their daughter, Margaret, whilst Edgar lived at Barton Hall.

However, the Bunbury family seem to have been a good employer and there are many cases of the Bunbury family giving a pension to former employees and some examples where they bequeathed annuities to their servants. For example, in 1894, Lady Frances Bunbury left an annuity of £15 to her little dog, Ruby, and entrusted its care to Mary Davidson, her lady’s maid, to whom she gave a life annuity of £25.

It was not uncommon for lady’s maids to be the recipient of an annuity from their employer and amongst the wealthiest of these females, were Anna and Sarah Brand, both of whom worked as lady’s maids.

In 1910, the average life expectancy was 52 years for a man and 55 for a woman. Amongst these girls are many examples of people who lived to their 80s or 90s and one lived to the age of 107, her life spanning the years from 1839 to 1946, during which time she watched the world change out of all recognition. I would love to have met her.