On the Move

Abstract Servants have long been identified as the most migratory occupational group in early modern society. This chapter charts the migration and mobility of women in service in south and south-west England, using evidence of female servants’ places of residence and birth recorded in court depositions. Migration patterns are established and at a more granular level I chart the extent of local movement between households. The chapter shows variation in the extent and distances that early modern servants travelled and demonstrates the importance of considering not only how mobility affected experiences of service but how service contributed to a society in which geographically disparate places and communities were connected. The chapter finds servant hiring was irregular: hiring occurred throughout the year and contract length was highly variable, with many staying longer than just one year, and many others serving for periods outside of the assumed annual cycle. This evidence points to the prevalence of informal processes of labour exchange (door-to-door enquiry and word of mouth) and the relative absence of formal mechanisms like hiring fairs. In identifying the informality of servant hiring, I ask whether the institution of service can really be considered an institution at all.