Are You Good at Searching the Web?

[RedHairedandFriendly]

I need help!!

I'm trying to find info on the web. . .grrr. . .

I want to know the wages for servants in 1854 London. . . I've searched Cost of Living 1854 London, wages 1854 London, servants 1854 London, and many many other variations, but nothing is coming up but the Immigration wages for folks landing in Austrailia. . .

I need the wages an inexperienced maid would make during that time. . .as well as other things, but any information would help.

I don't know if the Immigration information would be the same because we are talking London in 1854 not Aussie.

Can you help? Anyone? Purty please? Thanks, ~ Red.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Try these links....

http://web.archive.org/web/20011005035027/65.107.211.206/economics/wages.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20001119204900/landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/history/work/burnett3.html

The site is a little slow but will display eventually.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

This is the main page I found...

http://www.coollessons.org/Dickensissues.htm

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

Thanks Zeb. I appreciate it very much. This will help a lot. I was able to find where a Senior Clerk paid his maid 7£ a year in 1844. So that steers me closer to what I need. You are great. I think I'll keep my thread for all those other folks and for me that have google issues.

More links are always welcomed from you any time and anyone else too.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

You may want to try this google search -

+london +wages +1854 +servant

This worked better than any others I tried.

Your welcome.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

You may want to try this link too!

http://www.victorianlondon.org/publications5/prisons-05.htm

Although it deals mainly with the prison system of 1850's and 60's London.

 

[oggbashan]

The standard work is Henry Mayhew: London Labour and the London Poor 1851.

The rates of pay would not have changed. Mayhew's work is the first major study of the social life of working class people in London.

Og

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

The standard work is Henry Mayhew: London Labour and the London Poor 1851.

The rates of pay would not have changed. Mayhew's work is the first major study of the social life of working class people in London.

Og

Thanks Og. I appreciate that. Between your info. here, google and Zeb, I should be able to avoid some trolls telling me I overpaid my maid, or underpaid her and overcharged her at the store.

 

[oggbashan]

There are still some pitfalls ahead of you.

There were degrees of maids. You say 'an inexperienced maid'.

Is she inexperienced at her particular role after recent promotion, or inexperienced at being a maid at all? If the latter, she would probably be well below Lit age, possibly 8 to 12 years old. An untrained maid would get little more than bed and board pending appointment as a trained maid. She might be indentured as an apprentice maid and could have to PAY her employer for the training. She might be from a foundling hospital and placed by them in a sympathetic household to be trained - again NO pay.

In what sort of household? If an upper class establishment she could be at the bottom of a large hierarchy of servants. If prosperous middle class she could be one of a dozen servants. If lower middle class she could be the maid of all work and the only servant (the so-called slavey).

Note that male servants were rare. Why? There was a tax on male servants so you had to be very rich to afford more than one or two even in a household that might employ 30. For balls and grand occasions one hired the servants for the evening (or borrowed them from friends).

Og

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

There are still some pitfalls ahead of you.

There were degrees of maids. You say 'an inexperienced maid'.

Is she inexperienced at her particular role after recent promotion, or inexperienced at being a maid at all? If the latter, she would probably be well below Lit age, possibly 8 to 12 years old. An untrained maid would get little more than bed and board pending appointment as a trained maid. She might be indentured as an apprentice maid and could have to PAY her employer for the training. She might be from a foundling hospital and placed by them in a sympathetic household to be trained - again NO pay.

In what sort of household? If an upper class establishment she could be at the bottom of a large hierarchy of servants. If prosperous middle class she could be one of a dozen servants. If lower middle class she could be the maid of all work and the only servant (the so-called slavey).

Note that male servants were rare. Why? There was a tax on male servants so you had to be very rich to afford more than one or two even in a household that might employ 30. For balls and grand occasions one hired the servants for the evening (or borrowed them from friends).

Og

For this particular story, and the fact it is Lit. she'll be 18. The story revolves around a woman taken in by a single woman, who is known to the more elite as a high-class prostitute. She's always worked alone, so she's not run a brothel. The ladies of the men she services, know what she is, but their husbands hold the purse strings so she stays to herself and they come to her.

It is a small household and she's a nice and generous business woman. If you'd like a looksee, I'll be happy to send what I have to you, it is currently not edited, so you'd have to read past those and it is not quite done either. About 1/2 there (I think) . . .

However, this information you have given me now, will certainly help with a novel I am writing.

Thanks, very very much.

 

[oggbashan]

If you get to read Mayhew, or accounts of the social reformers of the later 19th century, you will find the statistics on prositution in London almost unbelievable. Some estimate as many as 1 woman in every 10 was either an amateur or professional and that the average 'man' visited a prostitute two or three times a week.

London was very different from other towns.

Og

 

[RedHairedandFriendly]

If you get to read Mayhew, or accounts of the social reformers of the later 19th century, you will find the statistics on prositution in London almost unbelievable. Some estimate as many as 1 woman in every 10 was either an amateur or professional and that the average 'man' visited a prostitute two or three times a week.

London was very different from other towns.

Og

I certainly plan on it. I have already skimmed some of the accounts and interviews of a begger and thiefs.

I know there was a lot of prostitution going on. I also, learned there was an outbreak of choloria the year I was toying with, which works great with my plot. (not that choloria was a great thing)