Housemaid

In a large household house-maid was the general name for the maids who worked chiefly above stairs; they were usually a little older and better paid. Where there were several, the work was split between a head housemaid, parlor maids and chambermaids.

Long hours scrubbing floors and lighting fires on the knees gave the name housemaid's knee to a swelling of the knee. In the Victorian era domestic service was the second-largest kind of employment in England and Wales, after farm work.