ABSTRACT
The pioneering work of Hajnal, Laslett and Kussmaul revealed the existence of large numbers of ‘life-cycle’ servants in England and other parts of northwest Europe, between the late Middle Ages and the nineteenth century.1 Service interacted with the marital economy in two important ways: first, servants became members of the household, and therefore an element of the marital economy, during their period of employment; and second, service was part of setting up new marital economies, providing a route for young people to accumulate wealth and skills from outside the family before marriage. Broadly defined, servants are workers who lived within their employer’s household and were employed for longer terms: months or a year at a time, rather than days. They were able to live with an employer because they were unmarried and had no household of their own. As such, they were typically young, aged between their mid-teens and mid-twenties. Service gave young people a measure of independence from their parents. Geographical mobility broadened horizons and widened circles of friends and acquaintances. Work experience in a variety of households provided a range of skills. More tangibly, wages earned were saved and pooled when a couple married, reducing dependence on inherited wealth and property.
