The Experience of Domestic Service for Women in Early Modern London

These late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century texts describe female servants' experiences of work in early modern London. This volume exposes the contractual underpinnings of domestic service, suggesting female servants were an important support of emergent capitalism in the early modern metropolis. The depositions in this volume show that service was a prototypical form of female wage labour rather than a pre-marital life phase. Voices of the non-literate in this volume are clear and distinct as they present their working and personal circumstances.

Paula Humfrey teaches history in the online programs of Eastern Oregon University, USA, and Laurentian University, Canada.

Contents: Introduction; London Court of Arches records 1667-1675; Two: London Court of Arches records, 1690-1706; London Court of Arches records, 1715-1735; St Margaret Westminster settlement examinations, 1718-1725; St Margaret Westminster settlement examinations, 1726-1735; Works cited; Index.