Chapter Four - Apprenticeship Records

If your ancestors were agricultural labourers and they remained in the same parish, you will probably be able to put together a tentative pedigree chart going right back to the Tudor period i.e. 1538. But it is always risky to rely on just parish register entries with no additional information as to their trade/occupation or confirmation that the pedigree you have put together is correct.

One way of getting around this problem is to search all surviving parish apprenticeship records. The survival rate for these records is fairly high but generally speaking they are more numerous post 1800 and only form a small fraction of apprenticeship records. They usually give the father’s name, occupation and place of residence and the term of apprenticeship, e.g. seven years. From this one can usually deduce that the individual will be fourteen years old when apprenticed but it is not always the case.

A useful source to supplement these records is the Inland Revenue Index to Apprenticeships which runs from 1710 to 1774 and covers the whole country, a copy of this can be found at the Society of Genealogists. A further index, which unfortunately does not give the father’s name runs from 1774 to 1811 and came be examined at the Public Record Office, Kew.

Of course it may be that your ancestor was a tradesman or followed a profession, in which case you will have to examine other apprenticeship records. If your ancestry is firmly rooted in the countryside then you should try the records of the nearest borough town, e.g. Northampton or Ipswich. Or if that fails, try the other main borough towns in the county. These will almost certainly be housed in your local record office and a visit there should tell you what is available. There is an excellent guide to Record Offices: How to Find Them, published by Jeremy Gibson. If your ancestor lived in a major city e.g. London, then the chances of finding an apprenticeship record are immeasurably increased.

At one time London had over eighty Livery Companies and most of their apprenticeship records have survived, some from the Elizabethan period. A list and dates for what has survived is held at the Mss Dept, Guildhall. Although they deal mainly with apprentices who lived in the London area, there are a surprising number who came from elsewhere, in particular the home counties and even as far as Ireland.

Apprenticeship records of children from the Royal Naval Asylum, Greenwich and the Duke of York’s Military School, Chelsea are housed at the Public Record Office, Kew, as are Royal Navy and Merchant Navy apprenticeships. However, it is always wise to remember that the records are incomplete.

Helpful Hints

1) Apprenticeship records can be very useful in helping to trace the names of younger siblings of your ancestor. This is especially helpful in large cities such as London.

2) If there are no surviving apprenticeship registers of the livery company you are interested in, search the Court Minute books.

3) Do not forget to search the Borough records of the major county towns for additional records of apprentices.

Burke's Peerage & Gentry
the complete reference guide
to the UK and Ireland's
titled and landed families
www.burkes-peerage.net