Talk:Useful man

What did they do? The Jade Knight (talk) 06:41, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

I would suspect that they did any task asked of them by senior staff. They probably didn't have more delineated roles in the way a valet, footman or butler would. I suspect they may have done work in many departments of the household. They most probably did the jobs not specific to the aforementioned roles. I suspect they were delegated more disagreeable tasks, but probably had seniority over hallboys. I don't know for sure though. 121.73.7.84 (talk) 07:30, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

Title confusion?

Quote: "The term houseman should be distinguished from houseboy, a usually adult male servant of higher rank."

Is this correct or is it a typo? From a contemporary perspective it seems odd that with seniority you would go from being a man "up" to being a boy. 121.73.7.84 (talk) 07:25, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

OK then, i'm going to go ahead and change the article. 121.73.7.84 (talk) 13:05, 15 July 2010 (UTC)