When John, still at his job in Berkshire, was asked to provide his “rank, profession or occupation,” he did not hesitate to describe himself as a “coachman, domestic servant.” Mrs. Chapman, when the same question was posed to her, stated she was “the wife of a stud groom.” It is possible that John’s responsibilities had been extended to include the purchase and breeding of racing stock for Barry, yet Annie’s way of describing herself may point to more grandiose ambitions. The landed gentry venerated stud grooms, the servants who managed a gentleman’s racehorses.
