BEST WEBSITES: APPRENTICES
Your working ancestors may well have served an apprenticeship. If so, there are online resources that may help you find out more,
Jonathan Scott examines the best websites for apprentice ancestors
The apprenticeship system dates back to the later Middle Ages when a master craftsman would take on an apprentice, offering board, lodging and training. These might be simple word-of-mouth agreements or written documents, but survival is patchy before the system became formalised. The Statute of Artificers and Apprentices 1563 forbade anyone from practising a craft without first serving as an apprentice. From 1710, a duty was levied, establishing a central register of apprentices kept by the Inland Revenue which is held at The National Archives (TNA) today.
Alongside trade apprenticeships there were also pauper apprenticeships, arranged specifically by parish overseers of the poor to prevent the child from being a financial burden on the parish. Pauper apprentice indentures were not subject to any duty and records are often found in parish chests and local record offices.