This blog post was written based on research during the ‘Interpreting Kiplin for 400’ project, a National Lottery Heritage Fund project with thanks to National Lottery players. Published 8th April 2025 . Find out more about the project at history.kiplinhall.co.uk/kiplin-400/
The domestic servants who worked at Kiplin Hall were silent shadows. Early in the morning fireplaces were cleaned, fires lit. The family would walk into a cosy inviting room, the table laid impeccably. No trace that anyone had been there before them.
Life in service was hard work. These people cared for Kiplin Hall and they cared for Kiplin’s families. However, we know very little about them. They remain silent shadows. We catch glimpses of their lives through research, names from official documents such as census records. In snippets of detail through references in diaries and accounts, we see them through the eyes of their employer.
Prior to the 1841 census, when occupation was recorded for the first time, it is difficult to identify servants at Kiplin. Occasional references in archives provide glimpses of individuals and their stories. One such glimpse emerges for Girolamo Francesconi. Francesconi appears to have worked as valet for Christopher Crowe the Elder (owner of Kiplin, 1722 – 1749) during his time as British Consul in Livorno, Italy. He continued to work for Crowe once he returned to the UK, where records suggest that he married a fellow servant at Kiplin and had a daughter.1
Domestic servants were sometimes listed as beneficiaries in their employer’s wills, giving us some names of specific servants. Girolamo Francesconi was promised £50 in Christopher Crowe the Elder’s will.2 George Crowe (owner of Kiplin from 1776 – 1782) left 10 guineas to John Carter of Kiplin, who had worked in the hall and gardens.3 George’s son, Robert, bequeathed 50 guineas to his steward Thomas Bonner, 30 guineas to his servant James Grover of Scorton, and £20 per year to his wife’s servant, Ann Catherine Brown.4 Other unnamed servants were given hand-me-down clothing and a year’s wages. In leaving money and possessions to their domestic servants, employer’s showed affection and appreciation for the important role the staff took in their lives. This is particularly true for servants who had been with the family for a long time or were particularly favoured by the family. Sarah Carpenter, Lady Tyrconnel, specifically comments that the £100 per year to be given to her late husband’s attendant, John Alton, was “in acknowledgement for his long and faithful service”. Her own “old and faithful lady’s maid”, Hannah Thompson, was to receive clothes, body linen and £100 per year.5
Censuses from 1841 onwards give a fuller picture of how many servants were living and working at Kiplin. In 1841, 8 female servants and 7 male servants are listed as living in Kiplin Hall or the adjacent ‘sleeping rooms’. An additional 16 are listed as living in the surrounding area.6 By 1851, the census gives specific jobs titles, telling us there was a butler, a under butler, a footman, a housekeeper, a lady’s maid, 2 house maids, a laundry maid, a dairy maid, a kitchen maid, a still room maid, a scullery maid, a post boy, a charr woman, a groom, a head gardener and several under gardeners.7 These roles and the number of staff stayed at a similar level through the 1800s.8
The staff lived onsite in the service wing and estate cottages or travelled in from nearby villages. Some were from the local area, whereas others came from all over the country.
As described in their job titles, each domestic servant had specific jobs they performed to keep the hall clean, make sure there was food on the table, and ensure that the family had everything they needed.
- “Bolton on Swale parish registers: baptisms, marriages & burials” PR/BOL 1/2. North Yorkshire County Record Office (NYCRO); “The parish registers of St. Antholin, Budge Row, London, containing the marriages, baptisms, and burials from 1538 to 1754”, Mitchell & Hughes, London. 1883. p.183.
- “Kiplin Hall: Will of Christopher Crowe of Woodford, Essex, esquire” ZBL II 5 North Yorkshire County Record Office (NYCRO)
- “Kiplin Hall: Probate copy of the will of George Crowe of Kiplin, esquire” ZBL II 63. North Yorkshire County Record Office (NYCRO)
- “Kiplin Hall: Probate copy of the will of Robert Crowe of Kiplin, esquire” ZBL II 133. North Yorkshire County Record Office (NYCRO)
- “Kiplin Hall: Extracts from will and first codicil of Sarah, Countess of Tyrconnel” ZBL II 263. North Yorkshire County Record Office (NYCRO)
- 1841 census
- 1851 census
- 1861 census, 1871 census, 1881 census
