Apprenticeship in London and Borough Towns: Difference between revisions

In London, in the majority of companies, the company name had very little if anything to do with the many different trades that its members followed. A Citizen and Pavior could just as well be a baker and, in that case, his apprenticeship, although recorded by the Paviors' Company, would be to learn the art if baking. The indenture itself (if it survives) would say, for instance, that the boy "doth put himself Apprentice to John Bloggs, Citizen and Pavior, of London, by Trade a Baker, and living in Saint Mary Axe, To learn his Art", i.e. the trade of baking.  

'''Guilds and Companies'''. The old craft and trade guilds in the city originated from groups organised for religious and social purposes which, in the Middle Ages, "adopted" a number of key trades and eventually came to monopolise and regulate them. Nearly all the older guilds obtained royal charters granting incorporation, allowing them to have a common hall and to own land. Their ordinances or by-laws were recognised by the city authorities and allowed them to regulate apprenticeships, prices and wages, to set standards for products and to enforce those standards by carrying out searches for inferior goods, to settle disputes among their members and to maintain a trade monopoly.  

'''Weakening of orginal system'''. In theory no one cork in the city unless they were a membe<span id="fck_dom_range_temp_1229685323970_879"></span>r of one of the companies, but the rule came to be ignored in the 18th century and disappeared in the early 19th century, though it was not abolished until 1856. Even in the 16th and 17th centuries only about 75 per cent of adult male householders in the city were actually company freemen.  

It is important to note that from early times the customs of the city allowed any freeman of a trading company to practise the trade of any other company, and that by means of patrimony and redemption anyone could join a company without having learned its trade or craft. A butcher, for instance, could be admitted to the Wheelwrights' Company by patrimony because his father had been a member there. He woud then call himseld "Citizen and Wheelwright". His father may have purchased his freedom in that company, not because of its relevance for his trade, but because it was relatively cheap, there being considerable variation in the fees of the different companies. Since the late 18th century some freemen have, in fact, been members of several different companies.  

This weakening became more noticceable in Elizabethan times and by 1624, for example, only five per cent of the members of the Drapers' Company were actually drapers. By the end of the 18th century the system had completely broked down. The Paviors' Company apprenticeship records, for instance, which often include the actual trades of the masters, show that in 1800 Isaac Farlow, in reality a lighterman, took as an apprentice the son of a waterman; in 1794 William Beswick, a grocer, took the son of a mariner; and in 1791 Thomas Tyle, who ran a child-bed linen warehouse, took the daughter of a Welsh rector as an apprentice. None of these people had any connection with paving roads.  

Records. All companies kept a careful record of their apprentice bindings, the boy usually being at that time phyiscally "presented" to the wardens of the company and occasionally writing or signing the entry. A large number have been transcribed by Cliff Webb and published by the Society of Genealogists (being collectively indexed on the pay per view website of English Origins). Where the books recording bindings have not survived there is often a list of apprentices admitted to the freedom of the company which may include some if not all of the details in the apprenticeship register. Most companies aalso have lists of apprentices paying the orphans' tax 1694-1861 and yet another series recording the payment of stamp duty 1694-1949, but these show only their names.  

Many companies have lists of those admitted to the livery and elected to company offices. From 1839 these may be in the form of Declaration Books, recording their oaths of allegiance to the Crown and obedience to the rules of the Company. The elections took place during court meetings and may also be recorded in court minute books, the fees paid being recorded in the wardens' accounts. There may be other lists of members prepared for administrative purposes and the useful Quarterage Books will show the mmembers' quarterly subscription payments. These may provide their likely dates of death.  

It will be seen that the records of these companies are sometimes very expensive. All but eight of the larger ones have deposited their records in the Guildhall Library and they are fully described in ''Guide to the archives of the City Livery Companies and related organisations in Guildhall Library'' (1989).  

'''Honorary Freemen'''. The Freedom of the City could also be given as an honour and full details of those who were made Honorary Freemen are given in two volumes London's Roll of Fame 1757-1959 (1884 &amp; 1959) published by the Corporation of London. They are also listed 1674-1998 in Vivienne Aldous, My ancestors were freemen of the City of London (Society of Genealogists, 1999). These honorary freemen should not be confused with those who purchase freedom by redemption.  

'''King's Freemen'''. In 1784 discharged servicemen, their wives and children, were given the right to trade in any town in the British Isles. Although not technically freemen they are usually referred to as "King's Freemen". In don certificates were issued from 1784 to 1873 when the right was abolished, but those for 1815-54 are missing. The papers contain discharge certificates and, in the case of wives and children, marriage and baptismal certificates. The numbers are not great but there is a card index at the Guildhall Library which may repay investigation.  

Freedom could be obtained by servitudem patrimony and (until 1835) redemptionm and in some towns it could also be gained by marriage to the widow or daughter of a freeman. In the first two categories the details recorded usually include the father's name and place of residence. In most towns, other than London and York, women were not admitted to the freedom. As in London applicants for the freedom of the borough had usually to be free of the guild or company, though at Alnwick one had to be free of the town before one could become free of a guild.  

The numbers of freemen in almost every pprovincial town declined rapidly after 1800. In most places only about half the adult male labour-force had at any time consisted of freemen, though control must have varied from place to place. In early times the completeness of the registration may be suspect and later some men avoided freedom because of the expense involved.  

'''Records'''. The surviving records of the companies are usually found, along with the freedom rolls, in the city archives or appropriate record offices. Published freedom rolls include those for Bristol, Canterbury, Chester (to 1805), Coventry, Exeter, Gloucester, Guildford, Lancaster, Leicester, Newcastle upon Tyne (to 1710), Norwich (to 1752), Oxford (apprentices to 1800) and York (to 1759). If the freeman elected a representative to Parliament then a printed or manuscript poll book may give their names and from 1832 to 1918 they will appear in electoral registers.

At Liverpool Record Office there is, in addition to the usual record of freemen, a series of certificates brought to Liverpool by freemen of other boroughs who wished to work there. They came from various places in cluding London and Bristol and there are a number from Wexford and Waterford in Ireland 1754-1841. Similar records may exist in other places where the vestiges of some trade restriction still remained.