Apprenticeship in England: Difference between revisions

'''Apprenticeship in England: overview'''

Theodore Klepenican, who came from Russia to England with Peter the Great in 1718, was apprenticed in Birmingham to learn the trade of edge-tool making. He was charged £70 for five years, whereas the usual fee was about £5 to £10 for seven. Peter also arranged 15 apprenticeships in ship-building for between £30 and £120, when the going rate was £4 to £40. The masters feared that their skills would be taken back to Russia and others instructed to the prjudice of their own trade. There were language difficulties to contend with, other apprentices were not taken at the same time, and the masters may have lost some trade as a result of their foreign involvement.  

Finding a Master  

An appropriate master was usually found amongst one's friends and relations on personal recommendation. In some trades, like the London printing trade, there were complex networks of acquaintance and relationship. Some kept apprenticeship very much in the family and their whole experise became a monopoly of a small handful of connected families, as it did in the Mint.  

A typical advertisement by a father with a particular trade in mind for his son appeared in the Warwick Advertiser for 1818: "Wanted for a youth, about fifteen years of age, residing in the country, a situation, as an apprentice to a mercer and draper; a proper attention to his morals and domestic comforts will be required, as a handsome premium will be given".  

Some trades that required physical strength did not suit very small children, but in low-skilled occupations, such as nailing, ribbon weaving, framework knitting and cotton manufacture or with farm and house servant, work could begin at a much lower age. In Coventry it was usual to bind children aged seven to ten and even as young as four or five years old for 14 years as chimney sweeps. Some survived to become, themselves, masters.  

By the 1563 Act an apprentice was bound to serve until the age of 24, this being reduced to 21 in 1768. In theory the indenture could only be broken  by order of a Justice of the Peace but in practice it is thought that only about 50 per cent of apprentices completed their terms. Some were ill-treated, some ran away and in others cases their masters became ill, went bankrupt, aabsonded from their families, or died. In the latter cases the child might be "turned over" to another master.  

An apprentice who stole from his master might well abscond and, as he had not completed his term, he would not legally be able to work in his trade for another master. A livelihood of crime was then almost inevitable. The justices would punish bad work, staying out at night and disobedience with a month's hard labour in the House of Correction. If the apprentice repeated the offence he could be discharged and his indentures cancelled. The premium that his parents had paid would then be lost.  

The number of apprentices who ran away was always higher during periods of foreign wars when some found refuge from unconngenial trades and masters in the army or navy. In Warwickshire, for instance, advertisements in the local newspapers by masters trying to trace their runaway apprentices reach a peak in 1810-11. Following an eralier peak during the Seven Years War, an Act in 1766 had required that time lost be added to the period of the indenture if the apprentice were found or returned to his master.  

By the 18th century  regular payments, at least in the last two or three years of the apprentice's term, became widespread. Those who lived apart from their masters were frequently paid a regular wage, below that of the journeyman (the master's other workers, who were paid by the day). This was sometimes called the "half-pay" system or "colting", payments being made weekly or monthly to the apprentice or to his parents. In these cases the apprentice often went home from Saturday night to Monday morning. This is very characteristic of the 19th century but the system had, in fact, existed iin some trades since the 16th century.  

Sections of the 1563 Act were therefore repealed in 1814 and it was no longer possible to prosecute anyone who practised a trade without having served a seven-year term. It is thought, however, that the number apprenticed was not immediately affected. Even as late as 1906, over 20 per cent of working males aged 15-19 were apprenticed and it was only the educational revolution of the 20th century that brought the system almost to an end. In 1993 the government, drawing on its best aspects, introduced Moder Apprenticeships, for teaching particular technical skills.  

The historian Jim Golland, quoting Crabbe's ''Peter Grimes'', wrote of apprentices as "compell'd to weep", but that is no more true of all apprentices than it is for all girls in domestic service or boys at a boarding school. For many a child of humble origin, without prospect of other education, one of the most appealing aspects of the apprentice system was that it might indeed prove to be their road to fame and fortune. James Dawson Burn said in his ''Autobiography of a beggar boy'' (1882), "I think I am entitled to credit for one act of wise determination, and that was in serving my apprenticeship to a trade. I look upon this as the grand tyrning point in my existence; to me it was the half-way house between the desert of my youth, and the sunny lands of my manhood".  

The typescript transcripts and indexes are also available at The National Archives at Kew and at the Guildhall Library. They have all been published and are widely available on microfiche. Users should note that there is a large appendiz of extra entries after the letter "Z" at the end of the first series, and that the deadline for payment of tax was ayear after the expiry of the indenture, so an entry might well be seven or eight years later than expected.  

The early entries for five counties (Bedfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Warwickshire and Wiltshire) have been rpinted and typescript abstracts of those for Cambridgeshire for 1763-1811 are available. After 1774 the large unindexed volumes naturally take time to go through. They have been microfilmed to 1811 by the Genealogical Society of Utah.