The Ambiguous Mobility of Farm Servants

Abstract

Farm servants, or servants in husbandry, constituted a large and distinctive part of the economy and society of early-modern England.2 They were distinct from the farmer's own children, although they lived, as did children, as youthful dependents in the farmer's family for the duration of their annual contracts;3 they were distinct from day-labourers, who worked on shorter contracts and who did not live with their masters, although like day-labourers they received wages for their work.4 Their mobility also set them apart from the rest of society. Farm servants were mobile in each of the various meanings of the word in social and economic history. Of necessity, they were mobile socially, in the sense that they moved between statuses: to become a servant meant to move from the status of a child to that of a servant; to quit service, as most servants did before they were twentyfive, entailed movement to the status and occupation of an adult.5 What was especially distinctive of farm servants, however, was their spatial and temporal mobility while they remained within service. Unlike apprentices, farm servants moved from master to master, and they moved often.