APPRENTICES

There were two types of apprentices in our period.

1. Trade Apprentices - bound by parents voluntarily.

2. Poor apprentices - Pauper children put out of the

parish by churchwardens/overseers of the poor.

Trade Apprentices

A 1563 Statute for Mysteries/Crafts required a 7yr apprenticeship in market towns, where the apprentice had to be freemans sons, not sons of labourers or persons in husbandry. The Master had to be a householder over 24yrs, exercising the mystery, art or the manual occupation. In Corporate towns special conditions applied to merchants, mercers, drapers, goldsmiths, iron mongers, embroiders and clothiers. Masters could only take on apprentices who were their own sons or those of a parent with some sort of income of 40s or more (even 60s.) per annum. This had to be proved. The apprentice thus being in a position of having the funds to start up on his own. Bricklayers, carpenters and coopers in some places had no conditions. By a Statute of Queen Anne a boy over 7yrs could be apprenticed to a shipowner, fisherman, ship's gunner, shipwright for 10 yrs or less.

A Stamp Duty was introduced in 1710 on bindings and a central register was kept (in the Inland Revenue Records at the PRO) which included quite a lot of information. Less information was recorded after 1760 as indentures were without duty under 1s. From 1766-7 the maximum age of apprentices was reduced from 24 to 21 and in 1814 the compulsory binding for specified trades was abolished.

See Corporation Record Books, Livery Records of City Companies, and the Index to Inland Revenue Records 1710-1774 at the SOG and at the London Guildhall. For London apprentices there are records at the Chamberlain's Court, The Guildhall Library.

Poor Apprentices

From the Poor Law Act of 1601 Churchwardens and JP's could consent for any poor child in their Parish under 16 (until 24 men or 21 women, or her marriage) to be apprenticed to a Master. Bad Masters could be fined by the JP's. The Master of a ship of between 30-50 tons had to have one apprentice over 10 yrs of age, two if the ship was between 50-100 tons and one more for every 100 tons over that. By the 18th Century the laws were also being used to get rid of poor children to other parishes, as apprenticeship conferred settlement after 40 days. The Apprenticeships were in affect usually husbandry for the boys or housewifery for the girls, in effect servants. There were rules on the minimum requirements for the masters in land. The Masters could be ordered to take an apprentice from their own parish or could pay to be excused. Pauper parents had no right to disagree or had their relief docked. Worse was to follow the Industrial Revolution as Pauper children could be 'apprenticed' to millowners in another town.

Records are with the Overseers of the Poor Records, Vestry Minutes and there are apprentice registers at the PRO, Kew, 1710 to about 1810. Some Parishes and towns have some excellent Apprentice registers (Scarborough for example), which can solve some genealogical problems as well as giving information which can colour the family history.