Up and Down Stairs - Jeremy Musson [19]
First comes the earl’s blood family and their immediate personal attendants: ‘My Lord, My Lady, My Young Lord and his two brothers, and their servants, each having a yeoman and a groom’. There were three servants for the nursery alone, ‘viz. 2, rockers and a child to attend in nursery’; the rockers were literally people, presumably women, hired to rock the cradle. Then there were ‘three Gentlewomen for my Lady and two Chamberers for my Lady’, and ‘My Lord’s Brothers every [one] of them with their servants’.
Next come the four upper servants (and their servants): ‘My Lord’s head officers of household’, namely the chamberlain (and his servants: a chaplain, a clerk, two yeomen, a child of his chamber and his horse-keeper), and the steward (whose list of servants matched that of the chamberlain). Then the Treasurer and his servants (including his clerk and his horsekeeper); and the controller (and his servants, a clerk and his horsekeeper). In the household of a major landowner these were all powerful men with considerable economic influence and patronage of their own.
Then, as with most noble households until the Reformation, came the numerous clergy who organised the daily services and said masses for the souls of the dead. In the earl’s household there was ‘the Dean of the Chapel and his servant, the Survisor [a supervisory chaplain] and his servant, two of My Lord’s Council each with their servants; the Secretary and his servant; my Lord’s Chaplains in household’ of whom there were six. They included the almoner who would distribute alms, the ‘master of grammar’ or schoolmaster to the young in the household, ‘a Chaplain to ride with my lord’ and three more clergy.
All households had regular services, whilst some held as many as six or seven masses throughout the day. In larger noble households, the clerics, being well educated, might also have served as secretaries, to maintain estate records and accounts.69 The Reformation of the 1530s brought an end to the huge numbers of priests attached to a single household. Although retained chaplains and daily prayers remained common, this must have changed the atmosphere and habits of many of the great households.
The Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1535 also caused the breakup of the households of great abbots, which until then had set the standard of devotion and ritual practice, and were certainly highly regarded for the education of the young. The closing of such establishments must have had an impact on English culture, even in terms of the numbers of highly trained household servants who must have lost their jobs.70
In the Earl of Northumberland’s household, the next rank of household officers – made up of gentlemen – are listed: the ushers, carvers, servers (sometimes known as sewers), and the waiters and henchmen. These would largely be drawn from noble or gentry backgrounds and would provide immediate attendance on the earl while simultaneously learning the skills of serving described in John Russell’s treatise.
The next rung down are the ‘yeomen’, skilled individuals working under the gentleman servitors, as well as the choristers of the chapel. Below them come the yet more ‘hands on’ servants of the day with very specific responsibilities suggested clearly by their titles. The word ‘groom’ at this date does not have the sole association with the stables that it has in later times, but