Apprentices
Many people in trade, skilled crafts and the professions served an apprenticeship. The Statute of Artificers and Apprentices 1563 forbade anyone from practising a trade or craft without first serving a period as an apprentice to a master. Apprenticeship usually began at 14, unless a parish or charity sponsored the child when they might be apprenticed at an earlier age. The usual period of apprenticeship was three or four years, but could be more or less depending on the occupation. The terms or articles of the apprenticeship contract were written up in a document called an indenture
, and a sum of money or premium was paid for the apprenticeship.
In the City of London, copies of indentures were often deposited with guilds and livery companies and can survive in the Guildhall Library. Parochial and charity apprenticeship indentures may have also survived and can now be found in county record offices. The London Foundling Hospital kept apprenticeship registers, which are now held in the London Metropolitan Archives. The majority of indentures however, unless a copy has passed down among family papers, will not have survived. The Society of Genealogists holds the Crisp collection of some 1500 private indentures, and some survive in local studies libraries and record offices.
Apprenticeship Books
From 1710, stamp duty became payable on the indenture premium, except where apprenticeships were set up by public charity, or by the parish overseers of the poor. The duty was sixpence (6d) in the pound for premiums of £50-00 or less, and one shilling (1s) in the pound for premiums exceeding that amount. The duty was payable by the master any time from the commencement of the apprenticeship, and had to be paid within twelve months of the completion of the term of the apprenticeship. The Commissioners of Stamps in London kept registers of the payments of this duty and these survive in the Inland Revenue series of records IR 1
. The registers run from 1710 until 1811, the duty having been abolished in 1804. Duty paid in London was recorded in City (Town) Registers, and duty paid locally was entered into Country Registers. Some provincial masters did come up to London to pay their duty and get their copy of the indentures stamped, so both series of registers should be searched.
The registers are arranged in date order and record the amount of duty paid. They also record the name, abode and occupation of the master, the name of the apprentice (and up to 1752 the name of their father or guardian), the date of the indentures, the start date and length of the apprenticeship, details of any transfer or assignment of the term agreed, and the premium paid. Marginal annotations might show if a charity or parish paid part of the premium, because this was exempt from duty, or where a value was estimated because no money had been paid as a premium. There are personal name indexes for both masters from 1710 to 1762 and apprentices from 1710 to 1774 available on microfiche.
From the 18th century many common trades were undertaken without formal indentures. Men were expected to bring up their sons to the same trade. Also, a legal ruling established that the Statute of Apprentices did not apply to trades that were not in existence when it was passed in 1563, thus excluding many new 18th century industries. Many disputes over apprenticeship can be found in the pleadings of the Court of Chancery. In 1814 compulsory apprenticeship by indenture was abolished, although apprenticeship itself continued into the mid 20th century.
Seamen Apprentices
Link to Merchant Navy/Apprentices
