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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 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".  


'''Parish, factory and charity apprenticeships'''


'''1. Parish (or pauper) apprentices'''


The Statute of Apprentices of 1563 gave powers to two justices of the peace to bind out as apprentices the children of paupers, vagrants and of those "overburdened by children". A further Act in 1593 llowed the overseers of the poor to raise a rate to pay their premiums. The Poor Relief Act of 1601 encouraged the use of apprenticeship by allowing the churchwardens and overseers, with the consent of two justices, to bind out any child for whom they were responsible "where they shall see convenient".
 
 
The intention was to stop children roaming about and begging and, indeed, forming the gangs which had terrorised Elizabethan England. Any child under the age of 14 could be disposed of in this way and in 1696 this upper age limit was increased to 16. Girls served until they reached the age of 21 or were married and boys to the age of 24. Getting rid of the child by apprenticing it became a standard way of reducing the poor rate and when, in 1691, apprenticeship by indenture gave the child legal settlement in the parish in which it was being trained, there was considerable incentive to place that child anywhere but in its home parish.
 
Encouraged by the 1601 Act that the apprentice be "put forth very timely" almost eighty per cent were aged 13 or under. At Aymestrey in herefordshire only six per cent were 14 or 15, whereas 18 per cent were 12, 20 per cent were 11, 24 per cent were 10, 14 per cent were nine and 10 per cent were only eight years old, a fairly typical pattern.
 
In rural places the youngest children were invariably put out to husbandry or housewifry but it was not always easy to find masters for very young apprentices, sometimes as young as seven. Some people may have been glad to have a slave to work in the house or on the farm, even if that slave had to be housed and fed for 15 years, but the more prosperous rate-payers might well not want obviously unsuitable young girls or boys from poor families as "apprentices".
 
As a result, another Act in 1696 compelled qualified parishioners, chosen by rotation or ballot, to take children, a refusal being punishable by a fine of £10. At Stevenage the children were numbered and lots drawn, but at neighbouring Hitchin, which was a little more humane, the masters were carefully selected in church and security asked of them "to keep the prentice like a Christian". This little ceremony took place on the seceond Tuesday after Easter, called Binding Tuesday. Here, indeed, the tenor-bell was sometimes rung to celebrate that a town-child or poorling was out of his "binding tyme".
 
At Hatfield in 1773 eight yeomen appeal to Quarter Sessions against the £10 fines imposed at Petty Sessions for refusing to take an apprentice, but only one appeal was allowed. The more prosperous householders became resigned to paying fines and in some parishe fines were so frequent that they became an important source of income. Leeds was said to have raised £1,000 a year from them. Halifax certainly raised £100 to £150 a year and one poor child at Ovenden, who it seems was completely unacceptable for any purpose, regularly added £50 a year to parish funds by his unsuitability.
 
The obligation to take an apprentice might be argued at Quarter Sessions and 1700 alone three paupers apprenticed by the overseers of Hoddesdon were discharged, in one case because the widow who had been forced to take a child was " old and not of any trade or calling or held any lands to employ or teach the said apprentice", in the second because the master held land but did not live there, and in the third because the master, a tailor "was not of ability nor had business enough" to keep an apprentice. In 1743 the indenture of William Babam, a poor child apprenticed at Hemel Hempstead, was cancelled because he "was infirm, unhealthy, and not able to do any service or work".
 
In the majority of parishes no premium was paid for pauper children, though a few clothes might be provided. When premiums were paid, which was probably in less than a third of cases, they varied enormously from place to place and over time. A large sum might have to be given if the child were handicapped in any way. Any premium paid came from the poor rate, but sometimes the overseers would sell an orphan's possessions or obtain some contribution from the father of an illegitimate child. A low-cost arrangement ridding the parish of any liability for a long period would be most desirable; particularly one which placed the child's place of settlement away from home.
 
The indentures of pauper apprentices differ from those of other apprentices. Unlike the indentures of ordinary apprentices they invariably show the age of the child and they do not name its parents. The names of the father of illegitimate children, however, may be deduced from their indemnity payments and were sometimes noted in the margin of the indenture.
 
The majority also contain undertakings by the masters ensuring that the apprentice will not become a charge on the parish during its term and that he will provide "double apparel" for the boy or girl at its end. This was usually, though not always, the case with factory apprentices. It enabled them to be decently clad at least when first seeking work.
 
If the indenture itself has not survived there may be a bond by the master guaranteeing to carry out its terms, or their basic details may have been entered in the vestry minute books or in the parish registers. In a few places a separate register of pauper apprentices was maintained in accordance with an Act of 1766.
 
'''2. Factory apprentices'''
 
Pauper apprentices were considered an object of compassion by some but as a burden by others. They became increasingly a source of unskilled and cheap labour and they were more and more apprenticed in a narrow range of rather unacceptable occupations. The more unhealthy trades, such as hatmaking and brickmaking, became highly "pauperised" and this in itself deterred the more respectable families from entering them. This was also the case with trades which offered poor career prospects afterwards, such as those in textiles, cotton, lace and framework knitting.<br>In the late 18th and early 19th centuries large numbers of poor, orphaned or abandoned children in London and the south of England were sent by overseers of the poor to work as apprentices in the textile mills of the industrial north. From about 1786 children were sent to Lancashire, Cheshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and by 1805 to Glasgow, to work in the cotton, woollen, worsted and silk mill areas, often from the age of eight, until they were 21.
 
The factory owners advertised their vacancies quite widely. One in a Coventry newspaper in 1807, specifically addressed to overseers of the poor and churchwardens, asked for "a number of healthy boys and girls as apprentices to the business of Calico weaving; liberal and humane treatment may be relied upon; and a moderate premium only expected". In answer the parish officials wrote to the mill-owners to negotiate terms. If there were a number of possible apprentices and the mill was not too far away, the owner or his agent would come to the parish to sign the indentures and arrange the transport of the children.
 
The conditions in which some children were kept became notorious, but that factory apprentices actually went or were sent further from their homes than other apprentices has been a matter of some argument but the best authorities think that in general factory children were probably not sent further than other apprentices, but it was this aspect of pauper apprenticeship about which the 19th century philanthropists most often complained.
 
The terms served were, however, often exceptionally long, though some children were freed at various ages after 16, regardless of what the acts of parliament said. Some overseers, however, believed that a very young child should serve as a silk-weaver or chimney-sweep until he was 14 or 16, and then be apprenticed for a second term in a trade which would be more useful later.
 
The numbers of factory apprentices declined following the Health and Morals of Apprentices Act in 1802. This stopped any work at night and specified that, when three of more apprentices were employed, their working day should be a maximum of 12 hours, between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m., excluding mealtimes. They were also to be taught reading, writing and arithmetic, and to have new clothes yearly.
 
Improvements were slow in coming. In 1816 another Act restricted the distance to which the children could be sent to a 40-mile radius of their homes and they to be at least nine years old. The maximum number of hours worked in a day was reduced to 10 in 1847. When in 1834 one poor law commissioner asked an assistant overseer how the long-distance apprentices turned out after they were bound, his brutal answer was, "We have nothing to do with them afterwards".
 
Another Act in 1802 had again said that registers of those apprenticed should be kept by the home parishes. They survive unevenly in the appropriate county record offices. A good example is that of apprentices in St Peter and St Paul parish, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire,&nbsp;which has been printed for 1720-1848 by the Mansfield &amp; District Family History Society.
 
Many of these registers end in 1834 but the great changes in the poor law that year did not altogether put an end to parish apprenticeship. Many pauper children were bound out by the Poor Law Unions after 1834, but the parishes continued to take an interest and to raise money for the apprenticeship of individuals on whom they took pity, perhaps because the father had been transported or the children left destitute by some tragedy. In these cases the cost might be raised by a one-off collection, which would be easier to organise than an increase in the poor rate. The vestry minutes or churchwardens accounts should then provide the details.
 
'''3. Charity apprentices'''
 
Some parishes that had charitable funds spesifically for that purpose continued to arrange apprenticeship for suitable children after 1834. From early times a few benefactors bequeathed money to parishes with which to apprentice children. At Ardeley in Hertfordshire in 1655 Edward Head left £20 for the purchase of a piece of land, still called Apprentice Land, the income from which was to be used to apprentice children. For a while in the 1730s the vestry rather typically agreed that this should only be done if the boys were settled outside Ardeley itself.
 
Fees for the more exclusive trades increased with time and it became difficult for parents to find means to apprentice their children. In some towns there were borough charities and other charitable institutions which helped.
 
At Harrow in Middlesex, for instance, over 600 children, including girls in the 19th century, were helped by a chaity between 1648 and 1871. They are listed in Jim Golland's The Harrow apprentices (1981). The Bear Club at Devizes in Wiltshire was a social club which met at the Bear Inn and in addition to other charitable work, paid from its subscription fees for the apprenticeship of local boys, between 1765 and 1875. These have also been printed.
 
A small number of charities even recognised the difficulties that an apprentice would face at the end of his term if he wished to set up as a master on his own. Some early indentures specified that the master give assistance to the apprentice at that time, with tools or even stock, but that became unusual. Webb's charity at Warwick even provided £5 at the end of the apprentice's term if the master certified that the boy had been satisfactory.
 
Some charities provided interest-free loans. One founded by Sir Thomas White in the Midlands in 1542 required that the loans be repaid after nine years. It still flourishes and in 1990 the charity distributed over £600,000 to apprentices from Coventry, Northampton, Leicester, Nottingham and Warwick.


'''The tax on Apprenticeship Indentures 1710-1811'''  
'''The tax on Apprenticeship Indentures 1710-1811'''  


The discovery of the main record of apprentices in the past, that of the tax on apprenticeship indentures between 1710 and 1811, was due to the professional genealogist Gerald Fothergill (1870-1926). He was active in lobbying for the preservation of records and one of his hobbies was to read acts of parliament and then consider what records would have resulted from them. Some time in the 1920s he found the Act imposing this tax and went to the Inland Revenue Office at Somerset House and asked if the records still survived. They did, and he then persuaded the authorities to tranfer them to Public Record Office (now The National Archives, at Kew).
The discovery of the main record of apprentices in the past, that of the tax on apprenticeship indentures between 1710 and 1811, was due to the professional genealogist Gerald Fothergill (1870-1926). He was active in lobbying for the preservation of records and one of his hobbies was to read acts of parliament and then consider what records would have resulted from them. Some time in the 1920s he found the Act imposing this tax and went to the Inland Revenue Office at Somerset House and asked if the records still survived. They did, and he then persuaded the authorities to tranfer them to Public Record Office (now The National Archives, at Kew).  
 
Between 1710 and 1811 a stamp duty of sixpence had been levied on each apprenticeship indenture, but more importantly the premium itself had been taxed at sixpence for every £1 of the premium and a shilling (twelve pence) for every £1 above £50. The resulting centralised record shows the name of the apprentice and of his or her father or guardian, the name and place of residence of the master, the trade to be learned, the term of years, and the premium paid. The entries do not, however, show the name of the apprentice's father or guardian after about 1752. The books record the money received until 1811 but the last indentures recorded were signed in 1808.


The record if extremely important but far from complete. No tax was payable on the premiums of parish and charity apprentices or on those nominal premiums of a shilling or less which were common when an apprentice was bound to his father or to some other relative. Many others seem also to have avoided the tax for reasons which are not altogether clear. For the first 50 years or so of the record it appears reasonably reliable, but later the volumes were maintained irregularly.
Between 1710 and 1811 a stamp duty of sixpence had been levied on each apprenticeship indenture, but more importantly the premium itself had been taxed at sixpence for every £1 of the premium and a shilling (twelve pence) for every £1 above £50. The resulting centralised record shows the name of the apprentice and of his or her father or guardian, the name and place of residence of the master, the trade to be learned, the term of years, and the premium paid. The entries do not, however, show the name of the apprentice's father or guardian after about 1752. The books record the money received until 1811 but the last indentures recorded were signed in 1808.  


The Society of Genealogists raised a fund to have the entries in the period 1710-74 transcribed and indexed in two series, 1710-62 and 1762-74, all the index slips being sorted by the artist Duncan Moul. Separate indexes to the masters for both series have also been prepared. They enable a master to be traced from place to place if he takes a series of apprentices.
The record if extremely important but far from complete. No tax was payable on the premiums of parish and charity apprentices or on those nominal premiums of a shilling or less which were common when an apprentice was bound to his father or to some other relative. Many others seem also to have avoided the tax for reasons which are not altogether clear. For the first 50 years or so of the record it appears reasonably reliable, but later the volumes were maintained irregularly.  


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 Society of Genealogists raised a fund to have the entries in the period 1710-74 transcribed and indexed in two series, 1710-62 and 1762-74, all the index slips being sorted by the artist Duncan Moul. Separate indexes to the masters for both series have also been prepared. They enable a master to be traced from place to place if he takes a series of apprentices.  


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&nbsp;by the Genealogical Society of Utah.
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.  


A very miscellaneous collection of 1,525 original apprenticeship indentures brought together from a wide variety of places and covering the years 1641-1888 is to be found at the Society of Genealogists. The first six volumes were collected by Frederick Arthur Crisp and purchased in 1923. The other eleven were given by Mr H. Clench in 1924. The first part consists mainly of indentures of parish paupers, including some from Westminster between 1667 and 1750 and others from the Girls Orphan Asylum at Lambeth from about 1764 to 1780 ad then again from about 1802 to 1833. The series is recorded in several textbooks as "Crisp's Bonds" but the separate series of bonds do not relate to apprenticeship.There is a typescript index and the volumes have been microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah.
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&nbsp;by the Genealogical Society of Utah.  


'''Apprenticeship in London and Borough Towns'''
A very miscellaneous collection of 1,525 original apprenticeship indentures brought together from a wide variety of places and covering the years 1641-1888 is to be found at the Society of Genealogists. The first six volumes were collected by Frederick Arthur Crisp and purchased in 1923. The other eleven were given by Mr H. Clench in 1924. The first part consists mainly of indentures of parish paupers, including some from Westminster between 1667 and 1750 and others from the Girls Orphan Asylum at Lambeth from about 1764 to 1780 ad then again from about 1802 to 1833. The series is recorded in several textbooks as "Crisp's Bonds" but the separate series of bonds do not relate to apprenticeship.There is a typescript index and the volumes have been microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah.


'''1. London'''
'''Apprenticeship in London and Borough Towns'''  


'''1. London'''


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