Rank in life / Occupation

Boss Of Bosses

Hi guys,
Just reading of a great great Aunts death record in 1927, on the record it says her occupation was a Lady. Now we know she was a spinster. I Don't have any grand illusions she was a person of prominence but just trying to piece together the type of lives they had and occupations, and haven't seen this before.

Regards.

Hermy

I think the term Lady or Gentleman generally meant someone who didn't work for a living.

Boss Of Bosses

Hermy wrote: »

I think the term Lady or Gentleman generally meant someone who didn't work for a living.

Cheers Hermy.
End up stumbling on her occupation earlier in her younger days. Housekeeper/Laundress type of work..

Hermy

Hermy wrote: »

I think the term Lady or Gentleman generally meant someone who didn't work for a living.

I could have worded that better.

Someone who could afford not to work for a living - a gentleman with property or a lady with an annuity for instance.

spurious

If she was previously a housekeeper/laundress, could she have come into money? Agree with Hermy, 'Lady' was usually a woman of independent means.

KildareFan

spurious wrote: »

If she was previously a housekeeper/laundress, could she have come into money? Agree with Hermy, 'Lady' was usually a woman of independent means.

My great aunt was a maid/companion for many years; her employers left her an annuity and a nice bequest on which she lived for the rest of her life until she died at a ripe old age in the 1960s. Not sure I'd call her a lady though, she loved toddling down to the pub for a whiskey and stole my ice cream (at least once).


Having said that, "lady" usually referred to a woman of independent means, often living off dividends or an annuity, as in Great Aunty Mary.

Boss Of Bosses

Thanks All.
She lived in a decent sized house in Sorrento Road, Dalkey.
And was always listed as head of household.