Scullery maid

Oil painting of a scullery maid by Jean-Siméon Chardin

In great houses, scullery maids were the lowest-ranked and often the youngest of the female servants and acted as assistant to a kitchen maid.^[1]

Description

The scullery maid reported (through the kitchen maid) to the cook or chef. Along with the junior kitchen-maid, the scullery maid did not eat at the communal servants' dining hall table, but in the kitchen in order to keep an eye on the food that was still cooking.^[2]

Duties of the scullery maid included the most physical and demanding tasks in the kitchen such as cleaning and scouring the floor, stoves, sinks, pots, and dishes. After scouring the plates in the scullery, she would leave them on racks to dry. The scullery maid also assisted in cleaning vegetables, plucking fowl, and scaling fish.^[3]

The Book of Household Management

The duties of the scullery-maid are to assist the cook; to keep the scullery clean, and all the metallic as well as earthenware kitchen utensils.

The position of scullery-maid is not, of course, one of high rank, nor is the payment for her services large. But if she be fortunate enough to have over her a good kitchen-maid and clever cook, she may very soon learn to perform various little duties connected with cooking operations, which may be of considerable service in fitting her for a more responsible place. Now, it will be doubtless thought by the majority of our readers, that the fascinations connected with the position of the scullery-maid, are not so great as to induce many people to leave a comfortable home in order to work in a scullery.

—Mrs. Beeton, The Book of Household Management, published 1861^[4]

Additional duties

Scullery maids cleaned metallic and earthenware kitchen utensils, but not fine china, stemware, crystal or plate silver.

The scullery maid provided hot water for the scullery, kitchen tasks, and household. In addition to her other tasks, the scullery maid had to keep the scullery clean by clearing away meat and vegetable garbage, scrubbing work tables, and swilling the floors. The water was carried through a drain outside the house.^[5] Scullery maids would rarely have handled fine china, stemware, crystal or plate silver; these are cleaned by housemaids and footmen. Before the advent of central heating systems, scullery maids were required to light the fires on the kitchen stove and supply hot water for tea and washing. She performed these tasks in the morning before the cook came down to the kitchens.^[6]

In a household with no between maid, the scullery maid may also have waited on staff in the Servants' Hall, although this may have been assigned to another maid or a junior footman. In the days before the indoor water closet she may have been required to empty and clean the servants' chamber pots as well.^[7]

This work has, in modern times, primarily been performed by women, but in medieval households female domestics were relatively rare. A male servant performing the tasks described above would be called a scullion. In 1386, when the English Parliament requested the removal of certain of Richard II's ministers, the king infamously responded that he would not dismiss as much as a scullion from his kitchen at parliament's request.^[8]

The root of the word scullery is the 1300–50 French word "escuelerie" (pronounced squillerye < equivalent to escuele -dish (< L scutella, dim. of scutra pan) + rie -ry.^[9]

Fictional portrayals

Literature

• In Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo, Cosette is treated as a scullery maid for the duration of her stay in Montfermeil.
• Maria, of the story "Clay" in James Joyce's Dubliners, is widely considered to be a scullery maid.
• In Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess, the character Becky is a scullery maid.
• In Jacqueline Wilson's Sapphire Battersea, Hetty Feather becomes a scullery maid
• In Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, the protagonist Ella becomes a scullery maid for her wicked stepmother.
• In The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, the character Martha is depicted as a scullery maid. Although she also performs some housemaid duties such as waiting on the children of the house and directly assisting the head housekeeper.

Songs

• In the song "Dead Man's Chest", the scullion is "stabbed times four".
• The titular subject of The Beatles song was found to have a corresponding historical person in "Eleanor Rigby", a Liverpool scullery maid.^[10]

Television

• In PBS's Manor House, Ellen Beard (and a few others) played the scullery maid.^[11]
• In the episode "A Tsar Is Born' of the television show Frasier, the Crane brothers learn that their great-grandmother was a scullery maid.
• In Upstairs, Downstairs, Emily was the first scullery maid until she committed suicide; then Doris and for the briefest time, Sarah until Ruby became the permanent scullery maid.
• In Downton Abbey, Daisy fulfills both the duties of the kitchen maid as well as those of the scullery maid. These include lighting the fires and helping the cook. She must also stay out of sight of the upstairs family but she is allowed to eat with the other servants in the kitchen. And in season (or series) three Daisy is promoted to assistant cook and Ivy becomes the scullery maid/kitchen maid
• In You Rang, M'Lord?, Mabel was the scullery maid/charwoman in the House of Meldrum.

Films

• Snow White in the 1937 Disney animated film was a scullery maid to the Evil Queen.
• Cinderella in the 1950 Disney animated film was a scullery maid to her wicked stepmother.
• The father in Nanny McPhee (played by Colin Firth) married Evangeline, a scullery maid (Kelly MacDonald).
• In the 2009 Guy Ritchie film Sherlock Holmes, Dr. John Watson (played by Jude Law) scans the paper for potential cases of mystery to solve, reading out loud, "There's a letter here from Mrs. Ramsey of Queens Park. Her husband's disappeared." Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr.) simply retorts, "He's in Belgium with the scullery maid."

See also

• Scullery (room)

References

External links

• Daily tasks according to PBS.
• The Book of Household Management, Mrs. Isabella Beeton, originally published in 1861, this web edition published by eBooks@Adelaide, some rights reserved.
• Edwardian Life at Hitchingbrooke House: The Servant's Rules
• House Tour: The Scullery
• The Olveston Experience: Images of a Scullery
• Victorian Scullery or Back Kitchen
• Image of a Scullery Maid With Fish and Fowl