Navigating Service

Abstract This chapter interrogates the legal position of servants in early modern England by examining the dynamics of contract-making and conditions of service. Rather than studying archives of labour law enforcement, the chapter explores church court depositions for evidence of how service was navigated in this period. It demonstrates that, while enforcement of the 1563 Statute of Artificers was probably limited, service wasn’t wholly ‘free’ for everyone. As contracts were still verbal, they were not easily upheld and both masters’ and servants’ power to enforce them was limited. Masters attempted to bring wayward servants to court. And servants could – and did – negotiate wages and contracts and mobilise legal machinery to challenge unruly patriarchs. But existing hierarchies – social status, employment relations, and gender – all placed restrictions on their bargaining power. Labour relations and ideas of labour were shifting in this period and were not yet well-defined or cemented. While service operated with flexibility (allowing women to agree shorter contracts, negotiate weekly wages, and live away from their masters’ homes), this didn’t always equate to greater or unlimited freedoms.