The word ‘servant’could refer to anyone employed in a master-servant
relationship. In the early modern period servants were generally
distinguished from the other employees, the apprentices and journeymen.
Servants could be of any age but were often unmarried in their teens and
twenties. They were often the children of neighbours or even relatives.
Older servants might stay with their masters for many years. Male servants
were often employed as agricultural labourers and female servants were
more often domestic servants; either could help to do the work of their
master's trade. Servants, like apprentices and sometimes even journeymen,
might live as part of their master’s family. They were often employed by
the year, as in the quoted Justices’ order, or they might be day
labourers.
Dave Leach
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