In
tracing English ancestors, important information about individuals and their
families may be contained within apprenticeship indentures. I learned quite a
lot about them in another course presented by Stuart Raymond of Pharos Teaching & Tutoring Limited
titled, appropriately, Apprenticeship
Records.
Such
documents often contain a wealth of data including, among other things: the
names of the Apprentice and his or her parents; the name of the Master, his
occupation and his address of residence or business; the trade, of course, in
which the Apprentice was being trained; the term of the apprenticeship; wages
to be paid; names of other parties to the agreement such as parish
representatives, local poor law overseers or charity representatives, witnesses
to the signatories of the agreement; and the any of term considerations by the
Master, such as a job offer or support to join a guild. Many children were put
into apprenticeships by parish officials such as Poor Overseers in an attempt for
their own advancement and to get them off poor relief.
Copies
of actual apprenticeship indentures may be found in a wide variety of places:
·
Local
record offices
·
The
National Archives (TNA)
·
Family
papers
·
Records
of Poor Overseers
·
Guild
and union records
·
Charity
records
·
Family
history and other historical association publications
·
Library,
museum and university files
·
Court
records
·
City
or town archives
·
General
searches of the internet
One
can search the records of the TNA or related sites directly. A general search
for “apprenticeship” from the Home
page brings up 185 results as a starting point to look for further files.
Starting at the main Discovery
page of TNA, a search for the term presently brings up 78,909 results which can
be further broken down by date, parish, family names, etc. Of these, 2,442 are
TNA files from records of 63 different government department collections, of
which 181 can be downloaded directly. A whopping 76,467 are from other archives
tied into the TNA website. These include local and county records offices,
archives across Britain, societies, museums, trade organizations and
universities. Copies of any of these can be ordered.
Many other websites and directories, such as Access to Archives (A2A), Archon and
the National Register of Archives (NRA), have now been incorporated into the
Discovery section of TNA. Archives Hub
remains as another source of historical documents and information worth
checking out.
As
part of the Apprenticeship Records course, there was one exercise in which we
were to source an apprenticeship indenture and produce an abstract of it,
describing all of the information about the particular Apprentice.to find a
suitable indenture, we first did a search of Google Images and searched for “apprenticeship
indentures”. Hundreds of examples come up from which to select. You might try
such a search for your own ancestors as a starting point.
Anyway,
for this assignment I found an interesting document about an apprenticeship to
a wig maker. I have no wig makers in my family so I was curious about this
particular occupation and the people involved in it. From the Google Images
search I later tracked down the indenture that had originally been posted on a website about the music hall and
theatre history in London, dedicated to Arthur Lloyd (1839-1904), actor,
comedian, singer, songwriter and music hall performer. So I had lots more
information about how individuals in this particular occupation were employed.
 |
An Indenture for
the apprenticeship of Louisa Taylor to William Clarkson, Wig Maker, in 1886 -
Courtesy David Sweetman, Great Grandson of Louisa Taylor, who, according to the
1911 census at the age of 38, was still working as a Wig Maker; downloaded January
19, 2011 from http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Backstage/ClarksonWigs.htm
The
indenture has a great deal of information about Louisa Taylor: her residence
address; her father’s name, the wages she was to be paid; and the obligations
of both her and the Master, William Berry Clarkson. The requirements of the Apprentice
shown appear to be standard terms, as part of printed form, with blanks filled
in by hand reflecting the gender of both Apprentice and Master. A hand-written
note was inserted into the printed form concerning wages to be paid and amounts
are hand-written at bottom of document. This suggests that Clarkson wanted an
assistant as much as an apprentice.
On
a page of this site dedicated to William Clarkson
there are photos of the former location of Clarkson’s Wigs on Wardour Street
(previously Wellington Street), London, including one of a plaque commemorating
“Willy Clarkson 1861-1934”. William Clarkson was quite a famous individual
apparently. A search for any surviving papers of Clarkson’s estate might reveal
more details on the occupation of wig maker as well as on individuals taken on
as apprentices.
Part
of the assignment was to source other information about the people, in
particular the Apprentice. Using the notes on the indenture and the descriptive
information on the Arthur Lloyd website, I was able to find census data on Ancestry and FindMyPast for Louisa and her family
from 1881 through 1911. The censuses give data from which birth information
might be found and certificates ordered for Louisa, as well as marriage
certificates for her parents, Charles Taylor and Rosina Louisa Cullen (her
maiden name was determined from the 1891 census when Charles’ mother-in-law was
living with the couple). A further search of FreeBMD showed they were married in the
December quarter of 1863 and registered in Lambeth RD. It appears, at first
look, that the births of their children were registered in Strand RD but a
search of Lambeth RD records might also be done.
An
additional search of FreeBMD for Louisa came up with a marriage of Louisa
Taylor to Ernest Sweetman in 1894. We saw on the Arthur Lloyd website that the
indenture image was contributed by Louisa’s grandson, David Sweetman. The 1911
census showed Ernest, Louisa and three children. It also listed her as a wig
maker confirming this was the right family. Interestingly, her daughter was
also described as a wig maker.
 |
1911 England
Census – showing the family of Ernest James and Louis Sweetman; copyright The National
Archives (image downloaded December 23, 2014 from Ancestry)
I
did not review all of the local parish registers for additional family members
but those around the addresses shown on the various censuses would be worth
looking at. Copies of birth, marriage and death certificates could also be
ordered from the General
Record Office.
It
was an interesting course. I recommend it. The assignments gave me an
appreciation of the information that is contained on such documents as
apprenticeship indentures proving one should not leave any stone unturned in
the search for our ancestors.
Wayne
Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in
England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has
published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past
Editor of Chinook, the quarterly
journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides
genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated.
Merry Christmas
to all the readers of this blog. Time to put away the genealogy now and
concentrate on our families that will join us in celebrating the holiday
season.
