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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2007-09 > 1189244529


From: "a.spencer3" <>
Subject: Re: Duke of Buccleuch Dies
Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2007 09:42:09 GMT
References: <1188922359.776640.75360@w3g2000hsg.googlegroups.com><1189109280.428002.179550@w3g2000hsg.googlegroups.com><LmZDi.311$YE3.666@eagle.america.net><46e0e321$0$5080$ba4acef3@news.orange.fr><ZRaEi.38114$ph7.13097@newsfe5-win.ntli.net><46e14d44$0$25927$ba4acef3@news.orange.fr><1QcEi.45712$S91.12211@newsfe7-win.ntli.net><46e166dd$0$27413$ba4acef3@news.orange.fr><dafEi.13505$6u5.1669@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net><fbs1kk$37a$2@registered.motzarella.org>


"William Black" <> wrote in message
news:fbs1kk$37a$2@registered.motzarella.org...
>
> "John Briggs" <> wrote in message
> news:dafEi.13505$...
>
> > No, no, no - 'Despencer' is just the official who dispenses, food etc,
> > i.e. the Butler. Every household would have one, and it was a
> > particularly important function - that is why it became a surname.
>
> I've read that as well, but the servants of the 'inner household' became
> the professional Civil Service pretty quickly.
>
> While it's possible that the butler of the Duke of Normandy was just that,
> the bottler, the butler of the king of England probably wasn't.
>
> Thinking about it, the fact that Despencer was knighted probably
indicates
> that the job was already something well beyond carrying in the boar's head
> at the high point of dinner...
>
> The butler was one of the officials in charge of the booze rather than the
> food, what you're thinking of is the steward, who was in charge of the
> lot. I think there were four lots of servants involved in serving a meal,
I
> think the ewerers, pantlers, sewerers and butlers, but it was all told
at
> a lecture long ago and I'm probably wrong...
>

Yep.
The name origins might have been more humble.
But by 1066 some Spencers and Stewards, for instance, had risen to the top.

Surreyman


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