The general servant, or maid-of-all-work, is perhaps the only one of her class deserving of commiseration: her life is a solitary one, and in, some places, her work is never done. She is also subject to rougher treatment than either the house or kitchen-maid – Mrs. Isabella Beeton
Maid of all work, W.H. Pyne
Gracie, the maid of all work in Anne Perry’s mystery novels, was lucky. Charlotte Pitt, the wife of Inspector Pitt, was a good and kind mistress who worked alongside her maid and gave gentle instructions. They quickly established a friendly relationship. Charlotte’s kindness did not make Gracie’s work life much easier, but she was luckier than most of her counterparts. In her Book of Household Management, Mrs. Beeton places a maid of all work lower than even a scullery maid. According to Mrs. Beeton, an ambitious scullery maid could learn skills from the kitchen maids and cook and move up the servant ranks, whereas a maid of all work was generally stuck in her position.
As with the scullery maid, the maid of all work was generally a very young girl. She could also be a mature woman so down on her luck that the only other choices open to her were life on the streets or finding shelter in a work house, which was to be avoided at all costs. In Mansfield Park Fanny’s family in Portsmouth is described as being poor, yet even they were able to hire a maid of all work, so you can just imagine what the work conditions were like for these poor women, who literally did everything from cooking, sweeping the floors, hauling water, carrying out slops, looking after the pets and children, laundering, changing the beds, and serving the family at mealtimes. Maids of all work were the first to rise and the last to go to bed. If the house was small, they were lucky to receive a pallet to sleep near the fire in the kitchen. As for time off to rest and recuperate, a maid of all work was at the mercy of her employer.
The following description of a maid of all work comes from ‘The Dictionary of Daily Wants’ – 1858-1859:
MAID OF ALL WORK. – A domestic servant, who undertakes the whole duties of a household without assistance; her duties comprising those of cook, housemaid, nurserymaid, and various other offices, acccording to the exigencies of the establishment. The situation is one which is usually regarded as the hardest worked and worst paid of any branch of domestic servitude; it is, therefore, usually filled by inexperienced servants, or females who are so circumstanced that they are only desirous of securing a home, and of earning sufficient to keep themselves decently clad. In many of these situations, a servant may be very comfortably circumstanced, especially if it be a limited family of regular habits, and where there is a disposition to treat the servant with kindness and consideration.
The duties of a maid of all work being multifarious, it is necessary that she should arise early in the morning; and six or half-past six o’clock is the latest period at which she should remain in bed. She should first light the kitchen fire, and set the kettle over to boil; then she should sweep, dust, and prepare the room in which breakfast is to be taken. Having served the breakfast, she should, while the family are engaged upon that meal, proceed to the various bedchambers, strip the beds, open the windows, &c. This done, she will obtain her own breakfast, and after washing and putting away the things, she will again go upstairs, and finish what remains to be done there.
W.H. Pyne, Microcosm of London
As the family will in all probability dine early, she must now set about the preliminaries for the dinner, making up the fire, preparing the vegetables, &c. After the dinner is cleared away, and the things washed and put by in their places, she must clean the kitchen; and this done, she is at liberty to attend to her own personal appearance, to wash and dress herself, &c. By this time the preparation for tea will have to be thought of, and this being duly served and cleared away, she must employ herself in needlework in connection with the household, or should there happen to be none requiring to be done, she may embrace this opportunity to attend to her own personal necessities. Supper has then to be attended to; and this finished, the maid of all work should take the chamber candlesticks, hot water, &c., into the sitting-room, and retire to rest as soon as her mistress or the regulation of the establishment will permit her.
The duties here set down can only be regarded as an outline rather than a detail, the habits of every family varying, and thereby regulating the amount of labour demanded, and the order in which the duties are to be performed. As a rule, however, a maid of all work, if she wish to retain her situation, must be industrious, cleanly, and thoughtful; and not only able to work, but to plan.
Click on image.
Is a maid of all work the same as a tweeny then? Or is that maybe a later term for the same thing?
A tweeny is a very young girl who serves as a between maid. She assists the cook and kitchen maids, and is more akin to a scullery maid than a maid of all work, who is the lone servant of a modest household. Tweenies work in households that do not hire a great number of servants, therefore she may take on the duties of a scullery maid. It does not seem as if her role is as defined as those of the other servants.Click on this link to read more about the tweeny.
That job description sounds an awful lot like what most mothers do today! Thank goodness for modern conveniences at least… ;)
I’ve read several comments on another blog about the maid of all work and that perhaps this post “demonizes” the position. My description of a maid of all work is of the woman who worked in the Regency era household. There was no plumbing, no electricity. In households with more than one servant, those duties were divided, but a maid of all work found no such ally. She worked alongside her master or mistress, but rest assured she was probably given the least desirable tasks. The maid not only collected water (from a communal pump in the town square or from a nearby stream set at some distance from the house), but she had to lug the pails to the kitchen and up several flights of stairs to the upper rooms. Depending on how much water was required, she made this trip several times a day. While clean water was hauled in, dirty water had to be carried out. Stoves were primitive and fires had to be stoked and tended for pies and cakes to bake evenly. The maid of all work was responsible for sweeping the floors daily (for dust was continually tracked in via unpaved roads), preparing food from scratch, taking out slops, mending, and doing the laundry once a week. This was the most dreaded task of all, requiring copious hauling of water for heating and rinsing, pounding clothes with lye soap that made tender hands raw, wringing the clothes manually, and then ironing them laboriously after they had dried.
Mrs. Beeton, (who seemed to be quite optimistic when it came to a scullery maid’s future), felt pity for the person in this position. Depending on the household, it was generally thought to be the most thankless servant job. The maid of all work worked nonstop from 5:30 or 6:00 am until 11 pm. When she arose she was expected to defer taking her own breakfast and doing her morning ablutions until she had taken care of the family. At night, after she had cleaned the dinner dishes, she would stoke the fire and in the winter, tend to warming the bed sheets with bed warmers. Only after the family’s needs were met, could she finally rest.
Of all the servant jobs, this one had the least possibility of advancement, for so many of the families who employed a single maid were rather poor themselves. Many maids of all work were indeed grateful for their employment and many were lucky enough to work for families who cared for their well being. Having said that, it was still the lowliest servant position. I think that with time, improvements inside the house made the job less onerous, and one can imagine how advanced Victorian houses with their indoor plumbing and gas lights must have seemed to a maid who began to work at the beginning of the 19th century.