Catalogue description Apprenticeship indentures

It would appear from the documents themselves, that, probably for administrative purposes, they belonged to separate numbered sequences and fell into two main groups. The first of these groups is largely made up of indentures drawn up on a standard Select Vestry form and to which the Select Vestry was a party, i.e. it was the Select Vestry who did "bind and put out" the apprentice in question. The numbered sequences in this group are as follows:

Sep. 1841 - Sep. 1844: 1 - 49

Jan., Jun. 1845: 1, 5 (2 docs.)

Mar. 1847: no numbers (6 docs.)

Sep. 1849: 4 - 748

The sequences in this first group do include a very small proportion of indentures of the type which makes up the second group.

The second group of document is made of indentures drawn up on ordinary, commercially produced forms, on the Board of Trade. Marine, Department, Ordinary Apprentice's Indenture and also indentures drawn up in MS form. The Select Vestry does not appear as a party to these indentures but it is the apprentice himself who "hereby voluntarily binds himself Apprentice". The numbered sequences in this group are as follows:

Aug. 1840: 74 (1 doc.)

May 1844 - Jan. 1850: 1 - 134

Apr. 1854 - Mar. 1859: 6 - 184

In the present arrangement the first group of indentures has been listed 353 SEL 12/1 (see below) and the second at 353 SEL 12/2 (see). In both groups the documents have been arranged in date order (which mostly corresponds with the numeration given by the Select Vestry). The two indexes and numerical list compiled in 1940 have been amended to relate to the present arrangement and are available, bound in one volume, in the Local History department's Rare Books sequence at Hq 352. 04204 APP.

According to endorsements on the documents themselves, these indentures were "Presented by Liverpool Select Vestry" in March 1931. The Select Vestry had been dissolved on 31 Mar. 1922 but a note preserved in the Record Office states that "The indentures were transferred to the Library when the Parish Offices, Brownlow Hill, were closed in 1930". No further record of the deposit of these documents has been kept.

In 1940 these indentures were sorted and re-arranged in alphabetical order of name of apprentice. Three indexes were drawn up - one of apprentices' names, one of employers' names (Liverpool & district only) and a list of indentures in numerical order. These were bound in two volumes as Apprentices' Indentures mainly of Liverpool Parish. 1797 - 1870 ... numerical list and typed alphabetical lists of apprentices & employers, 1940, and catalogued at Eq 874. The indentures themselves were arranged and stamped in one alphabetical sequence and bundled up into eight parcels (seven documents involved in this arrangement, dated 1797, 1804, 1820, 1822, 1844, 1854 & 1864 respectively, were not in any way related to the Parish or Select Vestry and have now been removed from this sequence).