Ella Urquhart: A Warwick Castle Servant's Story (Part Two)

After searching for a servant to teach Scottish Gaelic to Lady Eva Greville (1860-1940), Ella Urquhart was now safely in the Countess of Warwick’s employ, Ella started her working life as a schoolroom maid, earning just £7.00 a year. After a year of good service, Ella’s wages were increased to £10.00, and the following year she received a promotion to be Lady Eva’s maid.¹ Ella received her last wages in 1878 and then her story goes quiet, disappearing from the accounts. We cannot be sure as to why Ella left Lady Warwick’s service. Perhaps Lady Eva had tired of her endeavour to learn Scottish Gaelic? Perhaps Ella missed home? However she left, it was on good terms as she continued to be in contact with the family. In April 1883, Ella wrote from Poolewe to Lady Eva Greville offering her a black and tan Scotch Collie dog.²

Continuing contact with Lady Warwick

By November 1883, Ella had found a new position in service at Brownhill House, Kilbirnie. Things were not going smoothly for poor Ella; in a letter to Lady Eva she writes, ‘I have been very unfortunate this time for I have tumbled in rather a bad place for the Lady is fond of that “Scotch Beverage” and I am afraid I will loose (sic) my good recommendations by staying here.’³ We cannot be sure how long Ella stayed in this employment, but her situation became even more precarious when she fell pregnant in 1885. Her circumstances were brought to the attention of the Greville family another ex-servant, Mary Stevens (née Cole) when she wrote to Lady Eva with her concerns.⁴ Ella moved to London, and in May 1886 she gave birth to a baby boy, who she named Kenneth.

A fine character reference from Lady Warwick

Happily for Ella, after all this her good recommendations were not lost. In September 1886, the sculptor Lady Feodora Gleichen wrote to Lady Eva asking for a character reference for Ella, intending to offer her a job. As Ella seems to have been on such good terms with the family, Lady Eva probably gave her a glowing reference so she could move on to a more respectable position. However, Ella cannot have stayed with Lady Feodora long as in 1887, she married an Irishman called David Anthoney.

In August 1894, Ella wrote to Lady Warwick to tell her that she had moved to Ireland as her husband had got a new job as an engineer at the Dublin Docks.⁵ She wrote again shortly after to express her happiness at the news of Lady Eva’s marriage to Frank Dugdale, and to say that she was broken hearted about leaving London for Dublin but she did not want her husband to go to sea again.⁶ This letter was the last one we found in the Greville Family of Warwick Castle collection, and may have been her last interaction with Lady Warwick. By this time, Ella had settled into family life and had had two more children with her husband David, with a fourth and final child following in 1896.

The end of her story

Although we cannot tell any more of Ella’s story from the Greville family archives, we must assume that she eventually came to terms with living in Ireland as she remained there for the rest of her life. She died in Dublin in 1922, aged 61.

References

1 Warwickshire County Record Office reference CR1886/TN716

2 Warwickshire County Record Office reference CR1886/469/3/44

3 Warwickshire County Record Office reference CR1886/469/3/45

4 Warwickshire County Record Office reference CR1886/469/3/47

5 Warwickshire County Record Office reference CR1886/467/3/1

6  Warwickshire County Record Office reference CR1886/467/3/2