Account of servants' wages at Rycote
-
Shelfmark: MS. D.D. Bertie, c. 2, item 2r
Bodleian Libraries
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford Order image -
Shelfmark: MS. D.D. Bertie, c. 2, item 2v
Bodleian Libraries
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford Order image
Account of servants' wages at Rycote
Author
Date
13 July 1760Medium
ManuscriptThis account of servants' wages for the "new establishment at Rycot" dates from soon after the 4th Earl of Abingdon's inheritance of the estate from his father the 3rd Earl. The account would appear to provide clear evidence that Rycote House, which had been badly damaged by a fire in 1745, had been renovated to a habitable standard by 1760.
Your comments: Add to the archive
On 16 June 1760 Willoughby Bertie, 3rd earl of Abingdon, was buried in Rycote chapel and was succeeded by his son Willoughby, the 4th earl. The new lord required servants to manage the house and estate at Rycote, although this document does not make it clear whether he retained his father’s servants or employed new ones. Rates of pay varied from 4s. to 7s. per week and indicate a hierarchy of servants, although apart from Mrs Allen’s wages, which remained ‘as usual’, we do not know how far these differed from those paid before. One of the servants bore the notable name of William Shakespeare.
Dr Mark Page 07/03/2013