Hi All
Wondering if anyone is heading to the Warwickshire Record Office anytime soon who could spare me some time to look up any possible records (indenture etc) for an apprentice by the name of William Wafforn(e)? I have a record of the duties paid from Ancestry & FindMyPast (indenture date 1773 - registration date 1774) with him being apprenticed to John Williams a Tailor of Sawbridge.
I am trying to verify if he was the same William Wafforn(e) who was baptised in April 1762 in Daventry, Northamptonshire - spurious son of the widowed Grace Wafforn(e). I know Grace was Grace Crow who married John Wafforn in Towcester in 1753 and they had a daughter Ann who died in infancy and then a daughter Frances before John died in 1757. Grace went on to marry a Thomas Cook in Daventry in 1773. Frances married Thomas Thaxton in 1776 in Daventry and Thomas Cook died in 1803 and Grace died in 1807. Both buried in Daventry - but not seen any trace of her son William in Daventry - so I'm hopeful he was in Sawbridge area doing his apprenticeship and then moved to Market Harborough.
"My" William married in 1786 in Market Harborough, Leicestershire to Ann Green and was a tailor by trade - and he had a son William the same year - also a tailor and a son Thomas around 1788 (no baptism found as yet for him - they were nonconformists so info is a little patchy) and he was also a tailor. There is a burial in the nonconformist registers in Market Harborough for a Thomas Wafforne in 1790 aged 27 (born around 1763) and I believe this is actually for William and his name has been written incorrectly as a widow Ann Wafforn married in 1791 to Ebenezer Cooke in Market Harborough.
I have been a little confused as I've seen some Land Tax records for Wolfhampcote which is near Sawbridge dating from 1775 to 1783 naming a William Wafforn and I wondered if there was a connection but how feasible is it for a boy of 13 to be paying Land Tax? So unsure if there are two William Wafforn's in the area. I know there is one born 1741 in nearby Welton in Northamptonshire but he seems to have remained in that area.
Any help with finding information about his apprenticeship would be much appreciated!
TIA
Alex
