Heritage Open Days: Everyday Histories #9: Gilbert Butlo and Charles Hobby, Butlers of Middleton Hall
A key household servant in a manorial house throughout history has been the butler. However, this role underwent significant change over the centuries to the extent that the role would be effectively almost unrecognisable as the same occupation if viewed across the centuries. This post will highlight two butlers of Middleton Hall: Gilbert Butlo in the 13th century; and Charles Hobby in the 19th century.
The first documented butler at Middleton Hall was Gilbert Butlo in the 1280s. He was the butler of Philip de Marmion, 5th Baron Marmion of Tamworth. In medieval times, the butler was a middle-ranking domestic officer. Essentially, he was responsible for the sourcing, tasting and safeguarding of the wine and ale.
He managed the buttery, which, despite its name, did not store butter. This room was literally the bottle-store. Specifically, it was where the expensive wines, ales and other luxury commodities were stored under lock and key and it was the butler that had the key. The butler in this era was also personally responsible for pouring and tasting the drink of the lord of the manor before handing it to him. This was because this was an era when the poisoning of drinks was a significant risk. To mitigate this, the butler, who was one of the lord’s most trusted officers, would be the only person permitted to serve him and handle all of the drinks. Therefore, in a very public display of Philip’s wealth, prestige and security, in the Great Hall at Middleton Hall, Gilbert would have been highly visible at Philip’s side.
A butler was considered to be a prestigious role and these medieval butlers were often rewarded with land for their service or were already free tenants. This was the case with Gilbert when he first appeared in the records. A deed revealed that he had previously purchased an acre of land in Middleton Village from Philip. In that deed, Gilbert was selling the land back to Philip for one mark, which was the equivalent of about £462 today or, at that time, the equivalent of about 66 days work for a skilled tradesman.
In 1861, the butler at Middleton Hall was Charles Hobby. This was when John Peel was the tenant of Middleton Hall. By this time, the role of the butler had completely changed. It had become one that was purely domestic and focused on etiquette. He still guarded the wine cellar, but his main duties were more managerial: managing the dining room for regular mealtimes and special events; taking care of and keeping safe the silver, crystal and other tableware; answering the front door, welcoming guests into the house; and supervising all the male servants. However, in all of those situations it was normally a lower servant that actually carried out the action.
Although butlers held authority over other household servants and were thus senior servants, they were viewed strictly as workers of a lower-middle class status. The presence of a butler was visible where the outside world met the household. This acted as a means by which the wealth of the household was still visible but, at the same time, the butler had also become unobtrusive and subservient.
It is known that Charles Hobby was born in about 1825 in Shenstone in Staffordshire. He was the younger son of Benjamin and Mary. His father had been a shoemaker and it appears that he may have died in the same year that Charles was born. Charles married Rose Ellen Thomas in 1863 in Cheltenham and, on that document, he was identified as an innkeeper in Fazeley. Rose was from Shropshire and had been a lady’s maid in Cheltenham before her marriage. They had no children. Charles died in Fazeley on 9th October 1868 and was buried on the 11th October at St John the Baptist Church, Shenstone.
In the time that Charles was butler at Middleton Hall, there was a Butler’s Room and a Butler’s Reception Room at the Hall. From descriptions, it is thought that this was the room on the ground floor of the Jettied Building at its easternmost end and that the small additional room to the south of that, which has since been demolished, was the secondary room.
There are two further anecdotal stories about the butler at Middleton Hall from the time of the tenancy of the Peel family, which were recorded by Reverend Robert Vere Hodge of Middleton Parish Church. Robert’s father Henry had been the vicar at Middleton during the time of the Peels.
Robert wrote that during his father’s time the butler at Middleton Hall would catch fish from his room, straight out of the moat, with his rod poking through the open window. The only place where the moat was close enough to the buildings of the Hall for this to be possible was the Jettied Building ground floor rooms. However, it is also known that it was during the Peel tenancy that the moat was drained.
The second story related to the butler and the ghost of Middleton Hall, the Grey Lady. Robert reported that his father had said that on one occasion Mrs Peel had admonished the butler for not announcing a lady waiting for her in the library. However, there was no lady waiting. It was the ghost of the Grey Lady. The butler also reported that he frequently had to give way for the ghost as she passed him around the house and, if she was in a room, he would leave the lights lit out of courtesy.
Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.
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