Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none

Jill of all trades and mistress of none English Noun Jills-of-all-trades and mistresses of none en Jill of all trades, mistress of none. en W[illiam] E[dward] Wilcox Hash Spa Sketches, &c. London Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.; Scarborough: Theakston and Co.,St. Nicholas Street 1876 93 https://archive.org/details/spasketches00wilcgoog/page/n105/mode/1up And has your dismay decreased when, having made your moan, the excellent lady says cheerfully, that Sarah, the “general servant”—a Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none—shall try her hand at a “hash?” en R[ichard] E[rnest] N[owell] Twopeny Servants Town Life in Australia London Elliot Stock,62, Paternoster Row, E.C. 1883 50 https://archive.org/details/townlifeinaustr00twopgoog/page/n62/mode/1up Directly you come to incomes below a thousand a year, the number of servants is often reduced to a maid-of-all-work, more or less competent according to her wages, which run from seven to fifteen shillings a week. At the former price she knows absolutely nothing; at the latter something of everything. She cooks, washes, sweeps, dusts, makes the beds, clears the baths, and answers the door. All is grist that comes to her mill; and if she is Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none, one must admit that an English-bred servant would not be one quarter so suitable to colonial requirements. en Nursing Times, Nursing Mirror 1987 5 The question has to be asked: are theatre nurses making the best use of their skills? Or are they being used to plug the gaps in the theatre service and so becoming Jills-of-all-trades and mistresses of none? en Sara Heller Mendelson; Patricia [Marcia] Crawford Childhood and Adolescence Women in Early Modern England, 1550–1720 Oxford Clarendon Press 1998 section “Service” 102 https://archive.org/details/womeninearlymode0000mend/page/102/mode/1up 0-19-820124-9 Many substantial yeoman or ‘middling’ households included two maidservants at most; artisans’ or husbandmen’s families could afford only a single one. Thus the typical female servant was the Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none. en Joan Kilby 11 Family Matters Harlequin 2004 187 https://archive.org/details/familymatters0000kilb/page/187/mode/1up 0-373-71224-3 “The previous owner built the gate but I’m responsible for the nails. I’m a Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none.” en Susanne James The British Billionaire’s Innocent Bride Undressed by the Billionaire w:Mills & Boon 2009 2013 38 https://archive.org/details/undressedbybilli0000unse/page/38/mode/1up 978-0-263-90497-0 ‘And you’re…Bea?’ she asked shyly. ‘That’s right, dear—Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none!’