I found help on this subject from the National Archive site. They have a bit called...Apprenticeship Records as Sources for Genealogy, give it a try. Lindy
Click for a webpage listing "Sources for tracing Apprenticeship and Membership in City Livery Companies and related organisations." A number of the companies retain their apprenticeship and membership records ... in other cases they are held at the Guildhall Library. The page also contains information about finding out about Craftsmen, Tradesmen and Apprentices outside London.
OriginsNetwork's British Origins has a database of 650,000 apprenticeship records which is searchable online. It's a subscription service - subs start at £6.50. http://www.originsnetwork.com/
Click to read an article on history.uk.com ... Apprenticeship Records. The article mentions ...
1. Borough records of county towns 2. Court Minute Books 3. Parish apprenticeship records 4. Inland Revenue Index to Apprenticeships which runs from 1710 to 1774. This covers the whole country and a copy of can be found at the Society of Genealogists. 5. There's a further index covering the period 1774 to 1811 which can be examined at the Public Record Office, Kew.
You asked about apprenticeship records in the 1800s. From 1710 to 1804 there was a tax on apprenticehips so reasonable records have survived.
After 1804 (actually 1811, allowing for stragglers) there was no tax and no need for any official record. Basically, you'll be very lucky to find anything because apprenticeships would then be purely private agreements. For pauper ancestors, the best chance of finding details of an apprenticeship would be among the poor law records.
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