Domestic Servants and Households in Rochdale

First published in 1986. At any one time in late nineteenth-century England and Wales over one million men and women were described as domestic servants in the occupational category after agricultural work. This title explores several aspects of domestic service in the area of Rochdale, and the servant population is examined to discover who entered the service, at what age, and from what background they came. This title will be of interest to students of history.

Edward Higgs

Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Domestic Service in the Nineteenth Century 2. Methodological Approach 3. Rochdale in the Nineteenth Century 4. The Social Position of the 'Servant' in the Mid-Nineteenth Century Census 5. The 'True' Servant Population of Rochdale, 1851-1871 6. Servant Employers in Rochdale and the Factors Affecting Their Employment of Servants 7. Domestic Service and the Rural Woman 8. The Effect of Location on Servant Employment 9. The Recruitment of Servants in Rochdale, 1851-1871 10. Domestic Service in Nineteenth-Century Rochdale: Some Implications for Contemporary Historical Research; Appendix A: Coding Conventions Used in the Transformation of Sample Schedules into Numerical Data; Bibliography; Notes; Tables