The 6th Duke of Devonshire’s faithful housekeeper Mrs Gregory died, aged 77, just before Queen Victoria’s visit to Chatsworth in December 1843. The new housekeeper was expected to be a relative of the Gregory family who felt the post was theirs by right, especially Sarah Paxton, her niece, who expected to appoint her aunt’s successor.
Completely out of character his Grace, the Duke, took urgent action, driving through ‘wind and storm’ to the Great Hotel, (aka the Crescent) in Buxton where he knew of a Miss Elizabeth Bickell, employed, behind the bar. She had previously asked the Duke for a loan which he had granted and she had duly repaid. The transaction left his Grace ‘quite taken with her personality’ and this would secure her the unexpected offer of the post of housekeeper at Chatsworth.
Miss Bickell helped to make the Queen’s visit a great success. She was skilled at making money from visitors and her management skills were sound when typhus broke out at Chatsworth. When she contracted the illness herself she organised five people to wait on her night and day even when both her doctors said she was better.
She seemed to be getting above her station and Sarah Paxton, wife of the famous head gardener was noticing. The unseemly behaviour seemed to justify her firm belief that the position of housekeeper was only suited to the Gregory family.
In May 1846 Sarah Paxton wrote to her husband who was, at the time, in London with the Duke, complaining that Miss Bickell had ordered flowers to be cut for her own use. Disgust was also expressed that Miss Bickell had taken servants to wait on the housekeeper and her friends during a picnic at Hardwick Hall. .
The enraged Duke said that, ‘the fat was in the fire’ and ordered an immediate investigation.
Sarah Paxton wrote again to her husband claiming ‘the coup d’oeil of Madam’s folly’. Miss Bickell was now alleged to have made use of the Duke’s private apartments, for a Sunday evening musical soirée.
Miss Bickell was summoned to London to explain herself.
The Duke was clear that if there was positive proof that Miss Bickell had taken anyone into his lower apartments in the West front, he would give full authority for her to be dismissed and sent out of the house directly.
During his investigation Joseph Paxton found shocking evidence. Miss Bickell was said to have bought silk dresses for the maids, eaten salmon, drunk champagne, and allowed her niece to play the piano. She had even damaged a copy of Heath’s Book of Beauty. What’s more she had overlooked the ‘indecent keeping of company’ between two of the staff. Apparently she tolerated ‘indecent language’ in her presence and, perhaps the last straw, …’tries to make herself out the Duke’s mistress’.
People were beginning to gossip. Miss Bickell was dismissed.
Sarah Paxton reflected that Miss Bickell never was a proper person for Chatsworth, and it would be in to the Duke’s interest, to see her again settled in Buxton… in the bar of an Inn… where she came from and was influential in the choice of the new housekeeper for Chatsworth.
The Duke however continued to maintain some contact with Miss Bickell from Buxton, still taken with her personality!!
With thanks to Laura Butler for permission to quote in part from her research about the servants at Chatsworth.