If your ancestors learnt a trade, they might have been recorded in documents. Judith Batchelor explains how to…
Search apprenticeship records
The Statute of Apprentices (1563 to 1814) made apprenticeships mandatory for all trades that were listed at the time. To become an apprentice, an official contract called an indenture was drawn up between the parties. In exchange for a fee, known as a premium, the apprentice would be taught the trade and in return their master would feed, clothe and house them.
The apprentice’s home town and the name and occupation of their father was recorded, as well as the trade and residence of the master. Under the terms of the contract, a typical apprenticeship lasted for seven years until the the age of 24 (reduced to 21 in 1768), meaning you can estimate an apprentice’s year of birth.
Note that many of these records date to before 1733, when first names were often recorded in their Latin form (for example, Gulielmus for William and Margarita for Margaret).
Browse Findmypast’s set of records
Start on Findmypast (www.findmypast. co.uk) by clicking the top Search menu, then ‘Education and work’ followed by ‘Apprentices’. Now enter as much information about your ancestor as you can. Next, click ‘Search Apprentices’, or if you know where they were living, click the small blue ‘Browse Record set’ link.
The biggest sets are ‘Edinburgh Apprentices 1583-1800’ and ‘City of York Apprentices and Freeman 1272-1930’, but many other parts of the country are covered (see screenshot above). There are also records for parish apprenticeships where poor children were apprenticed by church wardens to a master in a different parish. Once you’ve generated the results, click one of the icons on the right to see a transcript or image.
Look for duties paid
To search on Ancestry, visit the Card Catalogue (www.snipca.com/49104), then type apprenticeship as the keyword at the top left, and press Enter.
There are parish apprenticeship records for West Yorkshire and Dorset, but the most useful collection is the ‘Register of Duties Paid for Apprentices’ Indentures 1710-1811’, which covers the whole of Britain. Between these dates, apprenticeship indentures were taxed, so even if an ancestor’s original indenture can’t be found, they’ll probably be recorded here.
Searching for my ancestor Reuben Franks, I found two records – one in which he was
