I am researching some of the Isleworth watermen. The binding records sometimes show that an apprentice has been reassigned to his mother or other female relative on, say, the death of his father as master. He is then assigned to another master waterman. Was the mother actively involved with apprenticeship or merely acting as ‘placeholder’ until another master could be found? In one case, I found that the widow had taken over the husband’s sand ballast business.