Paying The ServantsOrdinary household servants are hired at an annual wage and paid by the quarter (on quarter days). Most such servants earn between £2 and £5 per year, not adjusting for vails and fines. They also get bed and board and 2 or 3 suits of livery clothing per year. Some servant wages for 1550, Ingatestone Hall, Essex,the country manor of Privy Secretary Sir William Petre:
The Queen's Maids of Honor get a stipend of £40 per year. The Privy Secretary gets an annual income of £100, exclusive of fees, fines, bribes, doucers, etc. Royal accounts show the Queen's household expenses at about £55,000 per year. For the period of July 1566 to April 1567, her master embroiderer, David Smith, was paid £203/15/7 from the Privy Purse from the Privy Purse to cover his salary and all expenses of his office. His assistant, William Middleton, got £25/11/11. Henslow's Diary shows actors being paid 10s a week in town and 5s on the road in the 1590s. Actors! Money - The Basics Sources 27 March 2008 mps |