Focus On
Paul Blake explains how to make the most of the records of your ancestors who were fortunate enough to train as apprentices
Find out if your relatives were trained as apprentices
Even before the Middle Ages, every craft and trade required suitable training for those who were to work within it. However, the 1563 Statute of Labourers and Apprentices forbade anyone from entering a trade who had not first served an apprenticeship. Although this ruling only concerned the market towns, it nevertheless covered most of those who were to spend their working lives as tradesmen or skilled workers. Modified over the centuries, the statute stayed in force until 1814. But it did not extend to trades created after 1563, so excluded many 18th-century industries, most notably the cotton industry.
An apprentice would be bound to their master, or mistress, for a fixed period to learn their trade or craft, during which time they would usually be housed, fed and clothed at their master’s expense. The apprentice undertook to obey certain rules relating to their conduct, and was generally forbidden to marry until the apprenticeship was completed. All of these conditions were laid out
‘The apprentice undertook to obey rules relating to their conduct’
in a formal agreement: the apprenticeship indenture.
Apprenticeship indentures can be an invaluable source for discovering the origins of an ancestor tradesman or artisan. The rules relating to age and the term of apprenticeship were amended over time, but essentially apprenticeship was for a seven-year period, ending at the age of 21. The rule-of-thumb therefore is that from the late 18th century, most apprenticeships began when the child reached 14, although there are many exceptions. By the 18th century, apprenticeships were often undertaken without any formal indenture, especially in common trades such as weaving.
Types Of Apprentice
There were three types of apprentice: trade, charity and poor. For those parents who could afford it, a trade and master were chosen, an indenture was prepared and a ‘premium’ was handed over, usually in cash but occasionally in kind. Until 1757 apprenticeship was literally by indenture. This was a single document in which the detail was written twice, signed and dated by the various parties involved, including the master and the apprentice’s parent or other authority, who each kept a copy. After 1757 any properly stamped deed was valid. An apprenticeship indenture was a legal contract, binding on both sides.
Between 1710 and 1811 stamp duty was payable on the bounties masters received, where the amount exceeded 1s. This marks the beginning of the central recording of trade apprenticeships, because the Commissioners of Stamps kept ‘Apprenticeship Books’ of the money they received from the duty on indentures. The records are held at The National Archives (TNA) in Kew (IR1). Both Ancestry ( bit.ly/anc-apprentices) and TheGenealogist ( bit.ly/ gene-apprentices) have these records, while Findmypast has transcriptions ( bit.ly/ fmp-apprentices). All of these collections are searchable by apprentice and master, while ‘digital microfilm’ of IR1 is downloadable for free from TNA’s website: bit.ly/ tna-apprentices.
Charitable Assistance
For parents who, although not paupers, could not afford to send their son or daughter to be apprenticed, there were numerous parish, local and county charities that could help out. The records of these charity apprenticeships are mostly found at a local level, in county record offices or local archives covering the area where the family
lived – search TNA’s online catalogue at discovery. nationalarchives.gov.uk.
For the children of pauper families, and those who were orphaned or illegitimate, the parish acted in loco parentis, saw to their wellbeing and arranged for their apprenticeship. Numerous Acts over the centuries gave powers to the parish officials, the churchwardens and overseers of the poor, to put out such children to apprenticeship. The 1597 Act for the Relief of the Poor required the parish officials, with the consent of two magistrates, to apprentice all children whose parents were unable to maintain them, as well as vagrant children or those without parents, until they were aged 24 for men, or marriage or 21 for women. It was not until 1778 that the term of service for pauper apprentices was reduced until the apprentice was 21 years old.
The more fortunate went to skilled trades, where the masters required large premiums. These were usually too high for the parish, but a charity may have been able to pay the amount demanded (see the document on page 65).
Records of these poor apprentices may be found among the local Poor Law material or in the parish overseers’ accounts. Parish apprenticeships were formally abolished in 1844, but Poor Law unions were still allowed to bind apprentices.
Parents and children had no real say in the trade they would learn, or the master they would train under. The child would be sent to anyone who would take it, often following a local ‘draw’ to choose the master. This was not always popular with the local masters, and such was the resistance from many of them that from 1696/7 they were forced to take on apprentices.
However, not all children were actually apprenticed in the trade of their master or mistress; training in ‘housewifery’ or ‘husbandry’ may be as much as they ever received. An 1801 Act required each
‘Parents and children had no real say in the trade they would learn’
parish to keep an Apprentice Register, but their completion and survival are not good.
Just as with ordinary trade apprentices, these poor apprentices would be taken on by indenture, the second part of the document being kept by the parish and placed in the parish chest. However, poor apprentices were exempt from the 1709 Stamp Act, so no record of them will be found in Apprenticeship Books.
Guild Records
Many boroughs and cities had powerful guilds that regulated trade and apprenticeship – in medieval times they controlled both the quality and price of the goods produced by their members. However, most guilds had disappeared by the early 17th century, but any surviving records can usually be found in city or county archives.
Numerous young men, and women, came from outside London to be trained and eventually settle and work in the capital, as did George Lear (see the box on page 64), although some returned to their home town once they had completed their apprenticeship. The London guilds and livery companies were among the most powerful and produced extremely fine records (some included details of the apprentice’s baptism), often in an unbroken series from the 14th century to the present day. However, very many did not belong to the company whose trade they practised. The records are now nearly all housed at Guildhall Library in the City. Indexes to apprenticeships from several companies have been published by the Society of Genealogists, and are searchable on Findmypast in the collection ‘London Apprenticeship Abstracts, 1442–1850’: bit.ly/fmp-londonapprentices. Information on some City of London apprenticeships can also be found in Ancestry’s collection ‘London, England, Freedom of the City Admission Papers, 1681–1930’ ( bit.ly/ anc-london-apprentices), and in Enrolments of Apprentices (1786–1940) held at London Metropolitan Archives ( bit.ly/ lm-archives).
Outside of London, both Ancestry and Findmypast have select records from several counties and towns around the country. Many apprentices stayed on where they had been apprenticed, eventually marrying and raising families of their own, and records such as indentures can be an invaluable source for discovering where an ancestor came from or where they went, as well as adding priceless detail to the story of their lives.
Keep It In The Family
One final point: it’s important to remember that many sons, daughters, nephews and nieces were brought up in the same trade as their elders without any formal apprenticeship record being produced, and no premium being paid (and, of course, no tax being due).