Apprentice advice.

[frek]

Can anyone help please?
If a boy was in the workhouse - or a charge on the parish - what was the earliest age he could be entered into an apprenticeship?
Many thanks.
frek.

[Hackstaple]

Nobody could be formally apprenticed before the age of 14. Aprenticeships would normally be of 7 years and an apprentivce could not marry. So the age of 21 was important to a tradesmen - it would be when he became a journeyman and a proper wage earner - and we see a huge number of young men marrying at exactly that age.

[frek]

Thank you.
frek

[behindthefrogs]

The 1563 statute of Labourers and  Apprentices required that a boy must be over the age of ten and under the age of 18 to be apprenticed until the age of 21..

The poor law act of 1601 required any child under tha age of 16 who was in the charge of the Church wardens and overseers of the poor to be apprenticed in husbandry or a trade until the age of 24 if a boy or 21 or marriage if a girl.

The masters of ships of 30 to 50 tons were required to take one apprentice over the age of ten, one more for the next 50 tons and a further one for each extra 100 tons.

The maximum age was reduced back from 24 to 21 in 1766/7.  Compulsory binding for the specialised trades where only relatives and a few others could be apprenticed was abolished in 1814.

I didn't think that the minimum age was raised to 14 until 1879 when the school boards were established but I could be wrong about that.

David

[whittenbury]

Quote
"Compulsory binding for the specialised trades where only relatives and a few others could be apprenticed was abolished in 1814."


What does actualy mean David
Den

[behindthefrogs]

Some trades like the goldsmiths (I think) were closed shops whereby only members of the families of goldsmiths could be apprenticed as goldsmiths.  This was abolished in 1814.

However one only has to look at the dockers in the middle of the 20th century to realize that this wasn't the whole story.

David

[whittenbury]

Very intresting
bit like the old saying its not what you know its who you know!
Thanks for the enlightment
Den

[frek]

Thank you for all the help - Now I need cooper apprenticeships for Berwick - so a visit to the archives is on the cards.
frek.