Another English/British Question

Puma

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In England in 1885, what would a lady's maid have been called (by the lady) - a maid, a servant, a ??? I've run across manservant, man, gentleman's gentleman - but what's the equivalent for a female? Puma
 

firedrake

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lady's maid, I suspect.
 

alex_falstone

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In Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier (set in 1920s), Rebecca is quoted as referring to Mrs Danvers as her 'personal maid'. Slightly later, but it feels right to me for the earlier period you have in mind. Lady's maid works perfectly, too.
 

waylander

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I second 'lady's maid'
IIRC in 'My Fair Lady' Prof Higgins promised Eliza that her would teach her enough that she could get an engagement as a lady's maid.
 

pdr

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Yep!

lady's maid or personal maid. And the employer would address the maid by surname.

The use of abigail changed when the word became a popular girls' name again during the 19thC.
 

qwerty

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I've just read a book called "Lady's Maid", which is about Elizabeth Barrett Browning (mid 1800s) told from the POV of her lady's maid. The maid is always addressed and spoken of as Wilson (her surname) and, although single, was called Mrs Wilson by people other than her employers. She retained this name even after she married.

Collectively, be they maids, butlers, housekeepers whatever, they were called servants.
 

Sirius

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Lady's maid, and I agree about the use of surnames - in Emily Eden's The Semi-Attached Couple (published in the 1860s though set in the 1830s) Lady Cheviot has to tactfully remind her husband that her maid is called Tomlinson rather than Tomkins, and that this is causing friction. There was a big fashion for employing Frenchwomen as ladies maids, which fed in to a (xenophobic) perception of them as frivolous and not quite part of the household in the servants' hall. There does seem to have been more of a tendency to address French ladies' maids by their first name - perhaps because it was easier to pronounce French first names than surnames.
 

Puma

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Thanks, everyone. I'll use lady's maid and her last name. Puma
 

Anna Magdalena

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A lady's maid looked after a lady. She was a high-up servant who dressed the lady's hair, helped her dress, mended her clothes and kept them clean and pressed. If the relationship between the two was good, the lady might refer to her by her first name--although this might not be her real one but something she considered suitable or easy to remember like Mary or Polly. An 'Abigail' was an eighteeenth century term although olkder employers might still have used it in the 19th.

Further info on servants.

A parlour maid was the next one down in the hierarchy. She basically did the cleaning in the house and lit the fires in the morning. She would do dirty jobs in the morning and wear a plain uniform and in the afternoon would dust or polish and would change into a smarter uniform with a prettier apron and cap. How many parlour maids a household had would depend on the size of the house and how rich the family was. The ones higher up the scale would be allowed to serve at the table and serve afternoon tea in the drawing room.

The kitchen maid, as the name implied, helped the cook prepare meals and other kitchen tasks (jam-making, baking etc) and the scullery maid was the youngest and at the bottom of the hierarchy and would prepare and clean veg and wash up. She would never be allowed in the main house.