Tracing Lives

Abstract The descriptor ‘servant’ is opaque, capturing nothing of the status of those to whom it was attached. Servants are nonetheless assumed to come from poor backgrounds and to have served in the homes of the wealthy. Taking servants recorded in the church court depositions as a starting point, this chapter explores a constellation of sources and evidence to contextualise their service and situate it within broader life histories. From the depositions, I mine the signatures and marks they left at the bottom of their depositions as a mark of consent, interrogating them as indicators of literacy, status, and identity. I explore their self-assessments of wealth that they gave when testifying, disaggregating the fine gradations of status and wealth they articulated. I trace their lives both inside and outside service, using parish records of baptism, marriage, and death as well as probate material to build a picture of who they served as well as who they went on to marry. By tracing the histories of these women in depositions and other archives, the chapter uncovers the myriad reasons they entered service: to seek training in practical and social skills, to escape poverty, and by compulsion.