Heritage Open Days: Everyday Histories #7: Sisters in Domestic Service - The Heath Sisters of Middleton Hall
Living under one roof, working long hours side by side, sharing mealtimes, bedrooms and even chamber pots, it is unsurprising that so many servants working in domestic service found a second family amongst their fellow servants. Many workers took jobs where they could find familial companionship in their workplace, which was a great source of comfort when miles from home. In some cases, however, servants found themselves working alongside their actual relatives and we have a few examples of this at Middleton Hall, most notably, the Heath sisters: Mary; Ada; and Alice.
When the 1901 census was taken, Middleton Hall was home to Egbert and Ernestine de Hamel and their four children. On all of the census records taken during their time at Middleton, the family appeared to live comfortably with a good number of domestic servants. However, compared to the Peel family who had lived at Middleton Hall before them, the de Hamels employed fewer servants and predominantly women in the house.
If the 1901 census had been taken 50 years previous, it would have been assumed that the de Hamels could not afford unnecessary servants of status such as footmen. However, by the turn of the 20th century, more and more men were going to work in factories and the “Big Houses” found male servants harder to come by, even if they could afford them. A benefit of this was that service jobs for women became higher paid and more respected.
Mary, Ada and Alice are all recorded on the 1901 census working as domestic servants at Middleton Hall. Mary, the eldest sister, aged 33, was a parlour maid. Ada, aged 23, was the cook and the youngest sister, Alice Esther, aged 20, was a housemaid. Interestingly, cooks were considered a higher status of servant, which was why Ada appeared higher on the census list than her sisters. How did these three sisters all come to work together at Middleton? Unfortunately, we do not know.
Other records reveal the origins of these sisters. They were born in Pool End, near Leek, Staffordshire to Charles and Esther Heath. The family lived on Edge Hill Farm and the three sisters had a total of nine other siblings by 1891. As was common for the time, the age difference between the eldest and youngest Heath child was nearly twenty years. Mary, Ada and Alice would have all grown up supporting their mother with domestic duties in this busy household, including caring for their younger siblings. When they went into paid jobs, they would have been no strangers to hard work and would be experienced in cooking, cleaning and childcare.
Charles Heath, their father, was listed as a farmer and gardener on the census. From his occupation we can assume that the family were by no means wealthy but were probably middle class in possession of their land. Having twelve children would no doubt have been a financial strain, but the children would likely have had some education. By 1881, whilst Alice and Ada were still young girls living at home, Mary, aged only 13, was no longer living with her family and neither was Lucy, her older sister by one year. Their older brother, Isaac, also still a teenager, remained at home and was working as a joiner. Sons were far more useful to keep at home as they could earn more money to support their family. Furthermore, they could often find work within the locality and remain living at home. In 1891, aged 23, Mary is found in Hanley, Staffordshire, living with a family of drapers, the Swifts, and she was a general servant.
There is a common misconception, one that I myself had believed before researching this, that domestic service jobs were exclusively for the lower class. This is certainly something that is conveyed through many fictional television programmes and novels! I was really surprised to see three middle class daughters working as domestic servants at Middleton Hall. Further research showed that servants from poorer backgrounds, without an education, typically ended up working in middle class households. On the other hand, upper class households tended to employ middle class servants and usually expected them to be educated. For a middle class woman, working for an upper class family was considered a good career, offering them independence and home comforts. They could have been expected to manage staff, handle money, write, negotiate with suppliers and even manage the entire estate in the absence of the family. Therefore, having an education was essential.
The records do not provide much information about the lives of these women after 1901. In 1911, Alice was living in Darlington in Durham and working as a waiting maid in a small household for the Bartletts, a coal merchant family. In 1921, she was living with her parents and was described as a domestic servant in the service of Mrs Pringle of Longhope Manor, Longhope, Gloucestershire. However, it also stated that she was out of work. In 1939, she was a housekeeper for Robert Sergeant, a master dairyman. She died in 1956 in Uttoxeter, but was buried in the same grave as her parents in Leek. The records reveal that she died a spinster having worked her whole life in domestic service. She left a will, which again indicates that she was middle class.
Unlike her sister, Ada did not spend the rest of her life in domestic service. In 1907, she married Frederick Fryer, a grocer and provision merchant and became his second wife. It does not appear that they had children. She died in Darlington in 1934.
Mary Heath has been difficult to trace. This was because there was another woman of the same name, born around the same time and in the exact same place, who also went into service!
History is full of blind spots, especially when it comes to the history of the working and even middle classes. Apart from their names on the census and records of birth, marriage and death, domestic servants like the Heath sisters have left very few physical traces behind of their lives at Middleton Hall. Nevertheless, they are still an essential part of the Estate’s history.
Author - Amy Evans, Visitor Experience Manager at Middleton Hall. This blog was previously published on the Middleton Hall website in 2021. Edited by Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.
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