The Gentleman's Daughter (60 page)

28
See LRO, DDB/72/161 and 149 (1756–7), J. Scrimshire, Pontefract, to E. Parker, Alkincoats; Holmes, ‘Domestic Service in Yorkshire’ (D.Phil. thesis), pp. 59–92, and Harrison, ‘Servants of William Gossip’, p. 141; LRO, DDPd/17/1 (6 June 1786), J. Pedder, Lancaster, to J. Pedder, Blackburn; LRO, DDWh/4/94 (Jan. 1817), J. Horrocks, Preston, to E. Whitaker, Roefield.

29
Earle,
City Full of People
, pp. 128–9 and Earle,
Making of the English Middle Class
, pp. 221–2; Hecht,
Domestic Servant
, p. 82; Holmes, ‘Domestic Service in Yorkshire’ (D.Phil. thesis), p. 102. Moreover, Meldrum has recently argued of lengths of tenure in London, ‘that the norm, particularly for women, was a succession of relatively short stays in place after a settlement had been established’: id., ‘Domestic Service in London’ (Ph.D. thesis), p. 39. Seleski also notes the eagerness of servants to change places, with apparently little fear of the consequences: id., ‘Women, Work and Cultural Change’, p. 150. Difficulties maintaining staff have also been observed of early eighteenth-century Northumberland and County Durham, see Hughes,
North East
, pp. 31–2. By contrast, Cumberland, ‘the conservative North’, was apparently blessed with exceptionally faithful domestics well into the late eighteenth century according to Hughes,
Cumberland and Westmorland
, pp. 116–17.

30
For the quotations, see LRO, DDB/81/17 (1772), fos. 49, 51. For other examples, see LRO, DDB/81/17 (1772), f. 31, and LRO, DDB/81/32 (1777), f. 90. Unfortunately, the mechanisms of this leasing system are uncertain; the movement of servants may represent altruistic co-operation between employers, or on the other hand could demonstrate that skilled servants were able to demand a busman's holiday.

31
LRO, DDB/81/35 (1779), fos. 48, 53.

32
LRO, DDB/81/28 (1776), f. 21–2: ‘William Brigge was of age 21 years old and served his Apprenticeship to Mr John Shackleton he will have been here Eleven years next March.’ Of the four men employed in 1772, there is definite proof that Will and Isaac lived in, while Jack probably did so since he was considered sufficiently part of the household to warrant having shirts made up for him. There is no evidence that Matthew lived at Alkincoats. He may even have been a servant of Christopher Shackleton's at Stone Edge: LRO, DDB/81/17 (1772), f. 26: ‘Matthew at Stone Edge threw over the cart and broke it at Hellowells. A pack of Wooll a pack of Malt with other Materials went into the snow.’

33
For a range of Isaac's chores, see LRO, DDB/81/17 (1772), fos. 39, 42, 43, 48, 98. On William Brigge's duties, see LRO, DDB/81/17 (1772), fos. 64, 68, 78; On the gardener and the huntsman, see LRO, DDB/81/20 (1773), f. 35, and LRO, DDB/76/4 (1758–73), Trust Account of Thomas Parker (unfol.).

34
Non-servant workers on the home farm and estate included a tenant, John Spencer, who attended the family's horses; Henry Bradshaw, who kennelled the family's greyhound dog; the carpenter Emanuel Howarth, who constructed and repaired shelves, cupboards, doors and gates; the mason James Varley, who built yards, garden walls and the dog kennel; and a number of slaters, thatchers, hedgers, ditchers, mowers and sheep shearers were intermittently employed on the land and farm buildings. See LRO, DDB/76/3 (1758–67), Trust Account of Thomas Parker (unfol.) and LRO, DDB/76/4 (1758–73), Trust Account of Thomas Parker (unfol.).

35
LRO, DDB/81/37 (1780), f. 34.; LRO, DDGr C3 (11 Aug. 1821), S. Tatham, Southall, to Mrs Bradley, Slyne; WYCRO, Leeds, TA 18/6 (14 Jan. 1814), J. Gossip, Boston, to W. Gossip, Thorp Arch. Similarly, the Gossips' cousin Elizabeth Barker was unequal to management in the 1740s due to ill health ‘for want of a good servant, ye care of her family seems to be too much for her.’: WYCRO, Leeds, TA 13/1 (25 Sept. n.y.), S. Thorp, Cowick, to Mrs Gossip, York.

36
See WYCRO, Leeds TA 12/3 (8 July 1768), A. Wilmer, York, to Mrs Gossip, Thorp Arch, and LRO, DDWh/4/23 (26 Oct. 1812), N. Bishop, Roby, to E. Whitaker, Clitheroe. On religious qualifications among others, see LRO, DDB/81/28 (1776), f. 79; Homes, ‘Domestic Service in Yorkshire’ (D.Phil, thesis), pp. 51–77; and Harrison, ‘Servants of William Gossip’, p. 134.

37
See, respectively, WYCRO, Leeds, TA 12/3 (18 April 1768), E. Walker, Fairburn, to Mrs Gossip, Thorp Arch; LRO, DDB/72/113 (30 Nov. 1756), A. Pellet, London, to E. Parker, Alkincoats; LRO, DDB/72/149 (30 Aug. 1756), J. Scrimshire, Pontefract, to E. Parker, Alkincoats; LRO, DDB/81/35 (1779), f. 227. Complaints about the disruption caused by the frenzied turnover of household servants can be found in women's correspondence in any decade from 1720 to 1825. A selection is LRO, DDPd/17/1 (6June 1786), J. Pedder, Lancaster, to J. Pedder, Blackburn; LRO, DDWh/4/94 (Jan. 1817), J. Horrocks, Preston, to E. Whitaker, Clitheroe; LRO, DDB/72/1506 (22 Dec. 1817), E. Parker, Selby, to E. Reynolds, Colne. On this time-worn genre, see M. H. Perkins,
The Servant Problem and the Servant in English Literature
(Boston, Mass., 1928).

38
Consider LRO, DDB/81/37 (1780), f. 89; LRO, DDB/81/35 (1779), fos 54 and 208.

39
LRO, DDB/81/33A (1778), f. 110; LRO, DDB/81/35 (1779), fos. 257–8. For Woodeforde's allowances, see Beresford,
Diary of a Country Parson
,
I
, pp. 182, 236–7, 271–2. The Gossips of Thorp Arch also refused tea, see WYCRO, Leeds TA 12/3 (18 July 1768), L. Brown, York, to Mrs Gosip, Thorp Arch.

40
LRO, DDB/81/37 (1780), f. 119; LRO, DDB/81/35 (1779), f. 118–19.

41
LRO, DDB/81/26 (1775), f. 116; LRO, DDB/81/29 (1776), f. 78; LRO, DDB/81/33A (1778), f. 61; and LRO, DDB/81/37 (1780), fos. 116, 187 and 36.

42
On Will's love-making, see LRO, DDB/81/17 (1772), fos. 62, 64. On Isaac's amours, consult LRO, DDB/81/20 (1773), f. 22, and LRO, DDB/81/35 (1779), f. 167–8.

43
On Nanny Nutter's work, LRO, DDB/81/15 (1772–5), fos. 26, 42; LRO, DDB/81/17 (1772), f. 107. On her ‘wages’, see LRO, DDB/81/15 (1772–5), fos. 25–6, 31–2, 39, 41–2, 47; For gifts, see LRO, DDB/81/15 (1771–5), fos. 16, 24, 26, 44, 46, 56, 82, 86, 100.

44
LRO, DDB/81/15 (1771–5), f. 90a See also f. 68.

45
LRO, DDB/81/15 (1772–5), f. 34. That female servants frequently slept with their mistresses while their masters were away is noted by Stone,
Road to Divorce
, p. 213, and Meldrum, ‘Domestic Service in London’ (Ph.D thesis), p. 173. The same has been said of France: S. Maza,
Servants and Masters in Eighteenth Century France: The Uses of Loyalty
(Princeton, NJ, 1983), pp. 184–6.

46
LRO, DDB/81/15 (1772–5), f. 72. For Mrs Shackleton's gifts of a brisket of beef, a piece of beef and a cabbage, a bottle of wine, ‘some old things’, half a crown for hersister, and some good rum, see fos. 30, 54, 60, 100, 104.

47
LRO, DDB/81/26 (1775), f. 89. See also, LRO, DDB/81/15 (1771–5), fos. 88, 22, 109, 85.

48
See respectively, LRO, DDB/81/15 (1772–5), fos. 88, 109, 110, 85, 99. However, Mrs Shackleton was eventually prepared to forgive Nanny Nutter to the extent of returning her blue quilted petticoat, sending presents of cheese, beef and a new shift, and writing a reference stating that ‘she was honest and had good hands’. See LRO, DDB/81/32 (1777), fos. 77–8, and LRO, DDB/81/33A (1778), f. 35.

49
LRO, DDB/81/32 (1777), fos. 68, 94, 104; LRO, DDB/81/35 (1779), f.245; LRO, DDB/81/37 (1780), f. 191.

50
WYCRO, Leeds TA 13/3 (7 Aug. 1764), T. Gossip to W. Gossip.

51
Chapone,
Improvement of the Mind
, pp. 94–5.

52
LRO, DDB Ac 7886/18 (1 Feb. n.y.), A. Parker, Cuerdon, to E. Shackleton.

53
Henstock, ‘Diary of Abigail Gawtherne’, p. 31.

54
LRO, DDB/81/37 (1780), f. 267.

55
See Meldrum, ‘Domestic Service in London’ (Ph.D. thesis), p. 69.

56
Pennington,
Unfortunate Mother's Advice
, pp. 36–8; J.-J. Rousseau,
Emile or On Education
(1762; Harmondsworth, 1991), p. 394.

57
WYCRO, Leeds, TA 11/4 (n.d.), A. Gossip, York, to W. Gossip, Thorp Arch.

58
LRO, DDB/81/13 (1771), f. 51.

59
On the language of regulation, see LRO, DDB/81/37 (1780), f. 273, and LRO, DDB/81/33A (1778), f. 10. See the ‘catalogue of the contents of R.P.s box with a lock and key in the nursery’, enclosed in LRO, DDB/72/307 (2.8 Feb. 1777), E. Shackleton, Alkincoats, to R. Parker, London; and the lists on LRO, DDB/81/10 (1770), fos. 12–13. Mrs Shackleton took personal pride in well-designed cupboards – the machinery of her organizational regime; thus she recorded when Manuel the carpenter completed ‘an Excellent Cupboard with two shelves Lock Key and button with other conveniences also three good, new Hooks at the out side for to hang birds on. He also altered the meat pulley to do right and well …’: LRO, DDB/81/26 (1775), f. 117. At Robert Parker's death in 1758 Alkincoats comprised twenty-five rooms, divided up into fourteen family rooms, six servant and workrooms and five storerooms. His probate inventory refers to a storeroom, ale cellar, small beer cellar, bottle chamber and paper garret, while the diaries mention bureaux, linen drawers, cupboards in the medicine room, kitchen and parlour, a pewter case, and great boxes and chests in the nursery and bedrooms: LRO, DDB/74/14 (1758), Personalty of Late Robert Parker. Elizabeth Shackleton also commented approvingly upon the installation of special shelves, cupboards and even brass hooks for hats during the building and furbishment of Pasture House.

60
Norton, ‘American Women in Peace and War’, pp. 396–7.

61
LRO, DDB/81/7 (1768), f. 104.

62
Pottle,
Boswell's London Journal, 1762–1763
, pp. 64–5. Rousseau confirmed the correspondence between a woman and her objects, moving from Sophie's disgust at kitchen mess and soil to the assertion that ‘cleanliness is one of the first duties of women – a special duty, indispensable, imposed by nature. Nothing in the world is more disgusting than an unclean woman …’ See Rousseau,
Emile
(see n. 56 above), p. 395.

63
On the sweep, see LRO, DDB/81/22 (1774), fos. 37 and 117. On chimney fires, consult LRO, DDB/81/13 (1771), f. 106, and LRO, DDB/81/2.6 (1775), f. 80. On the floods, see LRO, DDB/81/2.6 (1775), f. 32., and LRO, DDB/81/33A (1778), f. 3.

64
LRO, DDB/81/37 (1780), f. 95.

65
See respectively, LRO, DDB/81/13 (1771), f. 98; LRO, DDB/81/29 (1775), f. 63; and LRO, DDB/81/31 (1777), f. 59.

66
LRO, DDB/81/33A (1778), f. 255; LRO, DDB/81/37 (1780), f. 188.

67
Pennington,
Unfortunate Mother's Advice
, p. 92.

68
For a broader discussion of this issue, see Styles, ‘Clothing the North’, p. 145, and, for a Furness case-study, Pidock, ‘The Spinners and Weavers of Swarthmoor Hall’. This change was not confined to the north of England, although it may have occurred slightly earlier in the south.

69
Gregory, A
Father's Legacy
(see n. 3 above), p. 22.

70
LRO, DDB/81/22 (1774), f. 97. In May 1770, for example, she purchased seventy-seven yards of welsh sheeting: LRO, DDB/81/11 (1770), f. 53. She kept a record of the amounts of purchased and took note of the yardage needed for specific purposes: ‘A piece of Irish cloth 25 yards long makes John Parker 8 shirts complete. And 9 pairs of sleeves. A piece of Irish cloth 25 yards long makes Robert Parker 9 shirts entirely complete. All this cloth yard wide.’: LRO, DDB/81/14 (1772), f. 2. Batch production usually required extra labour to be brought into the household. Lucy Smith, Molly Bennet, Molly Hartley and Mary Shaw all came into the house in the 1760s and 1770s for this purpose. Lucy Smith was paid 3s. 10d. in 1773 for sewing three shirts for Christopher Shackleton; Molly Hartley was paid 19s. 3d. for making up seven shirts
for the Parker boys in 1775: LRO, DDB/81/20 (1773), f. 36 and LRO, DDB/81/26 (1775), f. 39. On occasion, local seamstresses took the fabric pieces home and returned some days later with the finished garment, but ordinarily this labour took place under Elizabeth Shackleton's roof and supervision. Mrs Shackleton also recorded rebinding the hems of her aprons, mending nightgowns and negligees under the armholes, putting new sleeves to old shifts and so on: LRO, DDB/81/31 (1777), fos. 32, 76; LRO, DDB/81/33A (1778), f. 52.

71
LRO, DDB/81/37 (1780), f. 2.08.

72
LRO, DDB/81/21 (1774), f. 37. On maternal attentions, see LRO, DDB/72/306–7 (1777), E. Shackleton, Alkincoats, to J. and R. Parker, London. For filial requests, albeit indirect, see LRO, DDB/72/328 (7 June 1774), J. Parker, London, to T. Parker, Alkincoats.

73
LRO, DDB/81/33A (1778), fos. 60, 246.

74
For examples, see LRO, DDB/72/29 and 42 (n.d.), R. Parker, Alkincoats, to E. Parker, Browsholme; LRO, DDB/81/7 (1768), f. 70; LRO, DDB/81/8 (1769), f. 95.

75
LRO, DDB/81/13 (1771), f. 92. Personal property in farmyard animals is expressed in LRO, DDB/81/7 (1768), f. 87; LRO, DDB/81/8 (1769), fos. 30, 87; and LRO, DDB/81/26 (1775), f. 55. On the kitchen garden and orchard, see LRO, DDB/81/4 (1765), f. 97; LRO, DDB/81/8 (1769), f. 99; and LRO, DDB/81/26 (1775), f. 91. The order for ornamental plants is recorded in LRO, DDB/81/33A (1778), f. 265.

76
These calculations are based on Mrs Shackleton's butter inventory for 1776: LRO, DDB/81/29 (1776), fos. 158–9. The variety of ways Mrs Shackleton engaged with her consumers can be sampled in LRO, DDB/81/11 (1770), fos. 49, 56; LRO, DDB/81/20 (1773), f. 41.

77
[Woolley],
Accomplish'd Lady's Delight in Preservings
, preface. See also [Shirley],
Accomplish'd Ladies Rich Closet
, preface.

78
For examples, see LRO, DDB/81/11 (1770), fos. 2, 92; LRO, DDB/81/17 (1772), fos. 46, 78; and LRO, DDB/81/33A (1778), f. 22.

79
Witness two typical examples of her stocktaking. LRO, DDB/81/7 (1768), f. 26: ‘Hung our Bacon, two hams, two flitches, two shoulders, two cheeks – and two hams what we bought in March in the Market.’; LRO, DDB/81/32 (1777), f. 3: ‘Mr Shackleton Bot five bottles of Catchup from Gargrave. Boild it over again … had 1.2.3.4.Brought from Alkincoats 1.2. bottles. So we have in all 1 2 3 4 5 6 bottles.’