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The Butler Name
The Butler name derives from the old
French; Bouteillier; the cup-bearer or
the one in charge of the bottles.
Bottle and the French equivalent both
come from the medieval Latin butticula,
a diminutive of buttis, a cask, which is
also the origin of the word butt for a
large wooden container for liquid (the
beer cellar in medieval times would have
contained wooden casks, not glass
bottles). So the buttery,
therefore, had originally nothing to do
with butter but was the place of the
butts. Only later was the word
extended to mean somewhere that
provisions in general were stored,
perhaps because people did mistakenly
make that association.
Through a complicated process that had
to do with the loss of gentlemen
servants and changes in social
organization, the Butler slowly rose to
be in charge not only of the buttery,
but also of the ewery (where the napkins
and basins for washing and shaving were
kept) and the pantry (which did supply
the bread, butter, cheese and other
basic provisions), and later still he
took over the cellerer's duties of
looking after the wine, which indeed
became one of his principal duties.
By the middle of the nineteenth century,
the Butler reached his full flowering as head
of the male domestic servants, in larger
households sometimes having a whole
suite of rooms dedicated to his various
functions. In the twentieth
century, social change meant he almost
vanished as a breed. In our modern
age the Butler has been reinvented as a
kind of Swiss-Army- knife, all-purpose
household manager, often the sole
permanent servant, as much required to
organize his master’s travel
arrangements and supervise redecorating
the house as he is to serve the wine at
formal dinners.
Butler is one of those words which has
survived almost unchanged in the
language for several hundred years, but
whose meaning has progressively changed
along with his duties. But as few
of us encounter a real Butler these
days, even fewer than in his heyday, our
understanding of the word is stuck in a
fantasy world of Wodehousian invention.
Butler
\But"ler\, n. [OE. boteler, French; bouteillier (from bouteille), a
bottle-bearer, a cupbearer, fr. LL.
buticularius, fr. buticula bottle. An
officer in a king's or a nobleman's
household, whose principal business it
is to take charge of the liquors, plate,
etc.; the head servant in a large house.
N: a manservant (usually the head
servant of a household) who has charge
of wines and the table, receiving
guests, directs the serving of meals and
performs various personal services.
Properly a servant in charge of the wine
(Gen. 40:1-13; 41:9). The Hebrew
word, _mashkeh_, thus translated is
rendered also (plural) "cup-bearers" (1
Kings 10:5; 2 Chr. 9:4). Nehemiah
(1:11) was cup-bearer to king Artaxerxes.
It was a position of great
responsibility and honor in Royal
households. Butler: a surname
(very common: 1 in 1098 families;
popularity rank in the U.S.: #91).
The Correct Pronunciation
Click
here
for the correct English pronunciation
(small audio file).
The Number of Butlers Worldwide
The International Guild of Professional Butlers
(www.butlersguild.com)
estimates that there are some 500.000
professional Butlers in the world today.
Note that the term "butler" is defined
differently by many people.
The Duties of a Modern Butler
Oversee the household staff, many times at more
than one residence. Knowledge of high
social etiquette and protocol. Receives
guests and supervises the reception of visitors.
May double as House Manager, Personal Assistant,
Valet, Chef, Body Guard, and a number of other
positions. Organizes duties and schedules
of domestic staff. Schedule and oversee
household maintenance. Organizes parties
and events. Performs light housekeeping duties.
Books hotels, restaurants
theatres etc. Household accounting and
creating household budgets. Maintains the
wardrobe and clothing inventory for the
gentleman. Packs and prepares for the
gentleman for travel. Assists with maintaining
household security. Schedules the
maintenance for miscellaneous items in the
estate (stables, boats, planes etc.).
Staff hiring and firing. Staff training. Knowledgeable about wines
and spirits and oversees the wine cellar and
liquor inventory. Strong communication,
organizational and management skills.
Ability to be multi-task oriented.
Organizes trips and may travel with the
employer.
The Salary Range of a Modern Butler
Salary is usually based on a number of
factors such as the amount of experience and/or
formal training and the duties and hours
included in the job description. Butlers
usually earn a salary between $50.000 and
$150.000 annually, plus benefits. A Butler
can be a live-in or live-out employee.
The Victorian Era (1839 - 1901)
The Victorian era
corresponds with the reign of Queen
Victoria in England from 1839 to 1901.
The period is beloved for its attention
to high morals, modesty and proper
decorum, as inspired by the Queen and
her husband, Prince Albert. The
Victorian era was also an optimistic
time in which scientific and industrial
invention thrived. Developments in
printing produced a proliferation of
Victorian scrap art, cards, and
magazines. The importance placed
on civic conscience and social
responsibility engendered notable
developments toward gender and racial
equality, such as the legal abolishment
of slavery in America. In addition,
humanitarian and religious organizations
such as the Salvation Army reflected the
Victorian concern for the poor and needy
of the period. Poverty was
overwhelming.
In 1901, when the British population was
38 million and every middle-class home
had at least one servant, there were 1.7
million women and 140,000 men in
domestic service. Even a modestly
prosperous household could expect to
retain the services of a general
domestic servant, and mostly these were
young single women. In fact, right
up until the start of the First World
War, domestic service was the largest
single occupation for women.
However, it was fading in popularity by
1891. The hours worked were very
long, the work was arduous and often
lonely and it did not provide the
freedom which was available to factory
and shop workers. Large households
could expect to employ dozens of
servants such as; Butler, UnderButler,
Housekeeper, Cook, Footman, Ladies Maid,
Kitchen Maid, Stillroom Maid, Housemaid,
Coachman and Groom.
"There
was no status in being in service, you
were a nobody; marriage was the way out
of it."
(Rosina Harrison, Rose: My Life
in Service).
"As I stood in my
lonely bedroom at the hotel, trying to
tie my white tie myself, it struck me
for the first time that there must be
whole squads of chappies in the world
who had to get along without a man to
look after them. I'd always thought of
Jeeves as a kind of natural phenomenon;
but, by Jove! of course, when you come
to think of it, there must be quite a
lot of fellows who have to press their
own clothes themselves, and haven't got
anybody to bring them tea in the
morning, and so on. It was rather a
solemn thought . . ."
(P. G. Wodehouse,
Jeeves Omnibus).
"The hard reality is, surely for the likes of
you and I, there is little choice other than to
leave our fate, ultimately, in the hands of
those great gentlemen at the hub of this world
who employ our services".
(Mr Stevens, the
Butler, in Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the
Day).
A History Lesson
Readers of historical
novels are familiar with some of the
servants that large establishments
employed to do all the work required to
keep the place running smoothly. Large
estates had an army of outdoor servants
(gardeners, gamekeepers, and grooms) and
an equally large army of indoor
servants. The number and kinds of
servants varied depending on the social
status of the employer and the size of
the estate.
Male servants ranked
above female servants and non-liveried
servants, those who did not wear
uniforms, ranked above those servants
who did. The highest ranking male
servant (who in some ways was more a
professional employee than a true
servant), was the Land Steward. He was
often the son of a minister or
businessman. Some Land Stewards were
attorneys and had their own homes and
own businesses on the side. The Steward
was the manager of the estate. He hired
and fired workers, settled tenant
complaints, saw to the harvesting of
crops, managed the timber, collected the
rents and kept all the financial
records. Very wealthy men with more than
one estate had several Land Stewards.
A few, very wealthy homes
employed a House Steward.
The highest ranking male house servant
was the Butler. The Butler's duties
varied depending on the size of the
house. He was in charge of the wine
cellar and in the days before
refrigeration, that was a delicate task. He was in charge of the silver and gold
plate, china, and crystal. He supervised
the cleaning of this valuable silver and
gold and guarded it against thieves. As
time passed, the position of the Butler
gained more and more prestige until he
became the top servant in Victorian
times - in charge of the men and women underservants. While the
Butler did not
wear livery, he did alter his clothing
slightly while on duty - he wore a black
tie rather than a white one for
instance. It would not do to mistake the
Butler for a gentleman.
The highest ranking
male house servant, next to the Butler,
was the valet. He cared for his
employer's clothing, shined his shoes
and boots, did the hairdressing and
barbering and made sure the gentleman
looked good. A valet had to be
well-dressed himself, but was not to
outshine his employer. When the
gentleman went shopping or traveling,
the valet went along since there were
men who literally could not dress or
undress themselves without assistance
(those regency coats and boots were
tight!).
The highest ranking
indoor liveried servant was the footman. Footmen did many jobs around the house -
both indoors and outside. Inside, he
laid the table, waited at table, served
tea, answered the door and assisted the
Butler. Outside, he rode on the
carriage, opened doors, served as an
escort when a lady paid calls, and
carried torches to deter thieves when
the lady and gentleman went out at
night. The footman carried letters to
and fro and special footmen called
"running footmen" ran in front of or
beside a carriage. These running footmen
had mostly died out by the time of the
regency, but in their prime, they were
colorful characters, both literally and
figuratively. They often wore very
bright and luxurious livery and some
noblemen would organize footraces
between their running footmen. The
qualifications for being a footman were
good looks and a good physique. Their
livery was knee breeches, often plush
ones with silk stockings (footmen had to
have good legs) and coats of satin and
velvet with starched shirts. Footmen had
to powder their hair - a custom that did
not die out among the Buckingham Palace
footmen until Prince Philip put a stop
to it. He thought it was unhygienic.
A page was a young
boy who was sort of an apprentice
footman. He performed odd jobs and tasks
and was put into livery to stand around
and look good when the lady chose to
entertain. Sometimes the page was a
young black boy who was put into an
especially fancy livery and treated
almost like an ornament.
Women servants did
not rank as high as men and were not
paid as much even though their work was
often harder. A footman carried letters,
but a chambermaid often had to climb
flights of stairs with loads of coal for
the fire or cans of hot water for the
bath.
The highest ranking
woman servant was the housekeeper. She
kept the keys to all the storage closets
and supervised the maids and cook. She
served as the Butler's right hand
helper. She kept books and household
accounts and ordered food and supplies. She very much ran the house.
The next highest
woman servant is the personal maid. She dressed and undressed the lady,
cleaned, pressed and mended rips in
clothing and did the lady's hair. In the
Victorian age, when clothing was very
heavy and elaborate (and buttoned and
laced up the back) a women could
literally not get dressed or undressed
without assistance just like the regency
fops with their tight coats. Personal
maids also looked after the jewelry and
served as a companion and confidante. It
was very much the thing to have a
personal maid who was French, but if a
lady could not find a French maid, an
English personal maid who could speak a
few French phrases was almost as good.
The cook was
considered to be of better quality if
she had trained with a male chef. Not
many people were wealthy enough to
afford a male chef, so they searched for
female cooks who had trained with men. The cook was the dictator of the
kitchen. The cook had many
kitchen helpers to assist her in the
massive amounts of cooking that had to
be done. There were always scullery
maids (the lowest of the female
servants) whose job it was to clean the
pots and pans. These poor girls spent
their days with their hands in hot water
and harsh washing soda. After a large
party, there could be hundreds of greasy
pots and pans to clean before the girls
could go to bed.
There were several
kinds of maids - chambermaids,
parlor maids and maids-of-all-work. These
young women were the ones who swept,
dusted, polished, cleaned, washed,
fetched and carried from early morning
till late at night. The schedule of the
week for maids has them working from
6:30 am till 10:00 pm with one half-day
off a week. They had to do all the
cleaning and polishing with none of the
labor saving devices we take for
granted. There was no such thing as
polish for instance. Furniture polish
was made from linseed oil, turpentine
and beeswax. Carpets had to be brushed
by hand, lamps had to be cleaned and
filled and fires had to kept lit and
tended. This necessitated maids lugging
large amounts of coal up flights of
stairs to all the fireplaces, and a
large estate could have many, many
fireplaces. The sheer amount of work
involved in a maid's job is difficult to
imagine. Maids wore two kinds of
clothing. In the mornings when most of
the heavy work was done, they wore
cotton print dresses and heavy aprons. Later in the afternoon, they changed
into black dresses with ruffled aprons
and caps with streamers. By Victorian
times, all but the wealthiest had given
up footmen and the maids answered the
doors and announced visitors.
The era of large
estates and many servants died out after
World War I. For a long time, a job as a
servant was the only one a respectable
young woman could get, and after jobs in
offices and factories became available,
few young women or men wanted to spend
long hours working for little money and
little chance to have a life of their
own. More job opportunities, smaller
houses and more labor saving devices
finally put an end to the huge numbers
of servants who used to work in stately
homes.
Sources; The
International Guild of Professional
Butlers, Victorian Household
Hints by Elizabeth Drury, Not In Front
of the Servants by Frank Dawes, Rise and
Fall of the Victorian Servant by Pamela
Horn, Etiquette by Emily Post, Victorian
life and Victorian fiction: A companion
for the American reader by Jo McMurtry
Hamden. |
