Daily AncestorMaid of all work
A maid of all work did every kind of housework, cooking, cleaning, laundry and errands, usually as the single servant in a modest household.
Larger households divided servants into cook, housemaid, laundress and so on. A family that could afford only one servant hired a maid of all work, who did everything, usually with long hours.
In American census returns she is more often listed as servant or general housework, with the word domestic in the industry column.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1880 census
Bridget Burke, 19, Maid of all work, Ireland
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Daily Ancestor. "Maid of all work." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/maid-of-all-work. Last checked 2026-10-01.