Apprenticeships *************** There were three basic kinds of apprenticeship:- Private Indentures ****************** Where the parents or guardians of a child (usually 14 years of age) was apprenticed to a tradesman or craftsman for (usually) 7 years until he was 21. From 1711, a stamp duty was payable and the apprenticeship was registered with the Inland Revenue. This lasted until about 1803, but records continue until 1810. The National Archive (ex PRO) has the records at Kew, and there are partial indexes to Masters and Apprentices in the Library of the Society of Genealogists in London. Some have been published on microfiche (by the SOG). These cover the whole country. Alongside these are the apprentices who, at the end of their apprenticeship, became Freemen of a city. Various county record offices will hold these records. Apprenticeship indentures do not tend to survive for these private arrangements, although some have been privately deposited at Record Offices, and some have been handed down through the family. Pauper Indentures ***************** Children as young as 7 were apprenticed by the overseers and churchwardens of the parish to inhabitants of their own, and other parishes, often on a rota system. Technically beginning in 1601, when the Elizabethan Poor Law Act was passed, children were most often apprenticed to local farmers to learn husbandry, housewifery, "women's' business" etc. Some children, however, were lucky and were taught a trade or craft. One copy of the indenture was kept in the parish chest by the parish officers and may or may not have survived. Until 1777-8 these apprentices served until they were 28 years of age, after then, until the age of 21. Charity Apprenticeships *********************** Many well off people left money in their wills to be used for apprenticing a stated number of poor children in a particular parish or township each year. Many of these charitable donations were administered by solicitors and the indentures or other documents may survive in deposits made by solicitors to local ROs, particularly in the 19th century. Other charity indentures may survive in the parish chest, or township records. The document is called an indenture because two copies were made on one large piece of paper. The paper was then cut in half with a wavy line (indented), making two documents that fitted together exactly. Not too easy to make forgeries. Pauper and charity indentures were kept by the authorities as they were proof of settlement. The apprentice should have received one copy on serving his apprenticeship. The odd indenture may turn up in the Quarter Sessions records, used as evidence in settlement cases. Many references to apprenticeship will be found in Quarter Session records as an apprenticeship could only be annulled by magistrates. Cases of complaint against apprentices, and masters, also appear in QS records. More about records ****************** Details of employment agreements between an apprentice and a master, overseen by the parish authorities. Normally only poorer children were apprenticed and are often referred to as pauper apprenticeships. The Poor Relief Act of 1601 (Old Poor Law) allowed the parish officials to bind a child to a master. Originally children could be apprenticed from the age of seven but in the early 19th century the age was raised to ten. The child was originally bound until the age of 24 but was lowered to 21 in 1778. If no indenture for an individual is found, some apprentice agreements are found in the Vestry Minute records, apprenticing charity records and the Overseer of the Poor minutes. These indentures were not subject to stamp duty unlike trade apprenticeships. Most pauper apprenticeships were arranged to remove the child as a financial burden on the parish such as in cases of illegitimacy. Many children were sent miles away from home to work as cheap labour in factories or merely as unpaid servants. Other pauper children were contracted out to local families for a period of seven years and were often used by the master as menial, low paid labour. However, the child did receive board and lodging until the age of 24 in the case of boys and the age of 21 or marriage, if a girl. The apprenticed also gained legal settlement in his master's parish. An Act of Parliament in 1801 required the keeping of an apprenticeship register, although not many survive. With the advent of the New Poor Law in 1834, responsibility for pauper children was placed in the hands of the newly established Poor Law Unions. The system of compulsory apprenticeship came to an end in 1844. The establishment of Ragged Schools in 1844 and together with reforms and improvements brought about by the Factories Acts provided poor children with better opportunities for self advancement.