1

" and whatever is needful for an apprentice "1: sometimes also a small salary 2: sometimes even his schooling and a knowledge of languages. In an indenture drawn up at Leicester in 1531 the apprentice was to receive eightpence a year, and in the eighth year sixpence a week; moreover, he was "to be kept as a prentice should be, that is to say, meat and drink, hose and shoes, linen, woollen and his craft to be taught him, and nothing hid from him thereof "5. If the master neglected to fulfil these duties the apprentice was at liberty to withdraw from his service. Among the Cappers of Coventry, whenever an apprentice complained that he had not "his sufficient finding according to the customs of this city", the wardens of the gild were to admonish the offender, and if necessary could place the apprentice with some other master. They were also "once in the year to go through the whole city to every man's house of the craft, and by their registers to call for every apprentice before them to know how the constitutions be kept", that is, they were every year "to examine prentices "". At Exeter in 1562 a master was charged with refusing to "instruct and set forth [his apprentice] in such sort as he is bound to do", and the apprentice was therefore set free from his employment. The master was expected to regulate the apparel of the apprentice 8, and was also responsible for I his good demeaning and bearing "9. At Dublin and

1 York Memorandum Book, i. 54-55: indenture of apprenticeship among the Bowers (1371). For an early indenture (1291), see Records of Norwich, i. 245.

2 Records of Oxford, 11: the apprentice was to receive 12d. for his salary and 20s. at the expiration of his term (1513).

3 A boy of fourteen was apprenticed for twelve years to a haberdasher, and the master was to provide him with two years' schooling in grammar and writing (1462): L. F. Salzmann, English Industries of the Middle Ages (1913), 230.

4 Vict. County Hist. Somerset, ii. 408: a weaver of Taunton undertook instruction in the language of Brittany as part of the agreement. Records of Leicester, iii. 29. Coventry Leet Book, iii. 671, 673 (1520).

5

7 W. Cotton, An Elizabethan Guild of the City of Exeter (1873), 157. 8 At Newcastle the merchants passed an ordinance in 1554 regulating their apprentices' apparel: Newcastle Merchant Adventurers, i. 20. For the apparel worn by an apprentice (temp. Ed. IV.), see Trans. Royal Hist. Soc. N.S. xvi. 173.

" In the ordinances of the Bury weavers (1477) it is laid down that a master is responsible for those whom he employs: Hist. MSS. Comm. 14th Rep. App. viii. 135.

Waterford every citizen had to answer for his apprentice's wrong-doing by day and by night "as he would for his son if he were of age, that is to say, if he can count twelve pence, as is the law of citizens and burgesses "1. Besides the supervision of character and conduct, the master bore responsibility" for the good and sufficient workmanship" of the work wrought by his apprentices. To lend authority to his position he was allowed to chastise the refractory apprentice within due measure; in an indenture of 1448 an apprentice of Ipswich bound himself to learn the art of a barber, while his master agreed to give instruction and "suitable clothing, shoeing, board, bedding and chastisement" 2. At Worcester any one could correct his servant or apprentice "according to the law". What exactly this meant we may learn from Exeter, where a master unlawfully chastised his servant "in bruising of his arm and broke his head". The wardens ordered that the master should pay the doctor's bill, the servant's board and heavy amends, as well as a fine to the gild "for his misbehaving against the craft "4. Again, the apprentice of a London barber complained against his master for not "well-using him in beating him "5. On the part of the apprentice, as his share of the covenant, were demanded obedience, self-control and fidelity to his master's service; he was expected to protect his master from loss, not to steal his master's goods "not by sixpence in the year", and not to frequent inns or gaming-houses". "He must not ", says Sir Thomas Smith, "lie forth of his master's doors,

1 Dublin: Gilbert, Documents of Ireland, 242. Waterford: Borough Customs, i. 222 (c. 1300). At Ipswich proof of age was determined by the ability to measure cloth and count money: Bacon, Ipswich, 70.

2 Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Rep. part i. App. 259. Similarly Records of Leicester, iii. 50 (1543).

3 Smith, English Gilds, 390 (1467). In an indenture of 1396 the master was to instruct the apprentice debito modo castigando, et non aliter: Archæol. Journal, xxix. 184. 4 Smith, English Gilds, 322 (1481).

5 S. Young, Annals of the Barber Surgeons of London, 1890, p. 263 (1573). There are many entries of floggings and imprisonment: ibid. 260. For other complaints of undue chastisement, showing that the apprentice was not unprotected, see Newcastle Merchant Adventurers, i. 240-241.

• Records of Leicester, iii. 29.

7 'An indenture of 1396 forbids the apprentice to frequent inns (tabernam) or gaming-places (talos, alea, etc.): Archæol. Journal, xxix. 184. Cf. also Guildhall Journals, xxi. fo. 196: precept against attendance at plays.

he must not occupy any stock of his own, nor marry without his master's licence 1, and he must do all servile offices about the house and be obedient to all his master's commandments, and shall suffer such correction as his master shall think meet " 2. This control of the apprentices was far from being an easy obligation, and the management of unruly youths frequently taxed the resources of the gild to the utmost. Riots were common, especially among London apprentices; and in 1400 after many had been killed in a disturbance the king wrote to the parents and masters to check assemblies and gatherings 3. At Newcastle the elders of the gild recorded their disapproval that apprentices were become not only "haughty minded, high stomached and wanton conditioned" to others, "but also less obedient and serviable to their masters, not knowing their duty to their superiors"; subsequently the complaints were renewed as to "the abuses and enormities reigning in our apprentices at these days "4. It would be erroneous, however, to regard the institution of apprenticeship as simply a system of technical training, for above all it was a system of social training. It was intended to fashion not only good craftsmen, inspired with loyalty to their city, but good citizens willing to give active service on its behalf when summoned to the field or the council chamber. The bond between master and apprentice was of the closest description; the master stood in loco parentis to the apprentice, who lived in his house, sat at his board and associated with him in the workshop and the home on terms of the most personal intimacy. Apprenticeship became an integral element in the constitution of the craft gild, because in no other way was it possible to ensure the permanency of practice and the continuity of tradition, by which alone

1 This is illustrated by an indenture at Norwich in 1405: if the apprentice married without his master's permission, his term was to be doubled: Records of Norwich, ii. 28. 2 De Republica Anglorum (ed. 1906), 137.

3 Chronicon Adae de Usk (ed. Sir E. Maunde Thompson, 1904), 45. 4 Newcastle Merchant Adventurers, i. 6 (1554), 7 (1574). Probably the complaint was merely the usual lament of the laudator temporis acti. About the same time complaints were raised in London against apprentices wearing daggers, guarded hoses, etc.: Guildhall Journals, xiv. fo. 14 b. The industrious and idle apprentices are familiar figures in literature, e.g. Eastward Ho.

the reputation of the gild for honourable dealing and sound workmanship could be carried on from generation to generation or to raise up, as one gild expressed it, "honest and virtuous masters to succeed us in this worshipful fellowship for the maintenance of the feats of merchandise "1.

The length of apprenticeship varied at first there was Length of apparently no fixed period, and the ordinances of many ship. apprenticegilds simply state "that the servant or apprentice" was "to occupy the craft" until the masters of the mistery testified that he was "able and well-instructed "2. But in London, at any rate, apprenticeship lasted from an early date for seven years, and the freeman was called upon to take oath that he would accept no apprentice for less than this period 3. The custom of London gradually spread, until in 1563 it became the law of the land and was made compulsory throughout the country. Yet even before 1563 the period of seven years appears to have been generally recognized as the proper term in which the apprentice could acquire "sufficient cunning "4. Shorter or longer terms of apprenticeship are, however, common; among the Fullers of Northampton four years were held to be sufficient and among the Weavers six years, while the Lorimers of London and the Merchant Adventurers of Newcastle lengthened the period to ten years 5. So far as the Merchants of Newcastle were concerned, the extension was

1 Newcastle Merchant Adventurers, i. 21.

2 Little Red Book of Bristol, ii. 104.

3 Letter Book D, 195; Riley, Memorials, 227 et passim.

(i.) York: Memorandum Book, i. 181. (ii.) Norwich: Records, i. 105. (iii.) Coventry: Leet Book, ii. 554. (iv.) Bristol: Little Red Book, ii. 163. (v.) Leicester: Records, iii. 29. (vi.) Southampton: Oak Book, i. 116. (vii.) Chester: Morris, 443. (viii.) Bury: Hist. MSS. Comm. 14th Rep. App. viii. 136. (ix.) Ipswich: ibid. 9th Rep. part i. App. 259. (x.) Worcester: Smith, English Gilds, 390. An apprenticeship of seven years' duration was also enforced by statute in the case of the Norwich shearmen of worsted (Statutes, ii. 577; 1495), and all weavers of broad woollen cloths (ibid. iv. part i. 142; 1552).

5 (i.) Northampton: Records, i. 292 (1452), 299 (1462). (ii.) London Lorimers: Liber Custumarum, i. 78 (1260). (iii.) Newcastle: Merchant Adventurers, i. 10 (1555). Examples of other terms of apprenticeship are. (i.) 12 years (1462): Salzmann, English Industries, 230. (ii.) 9 years (1513): Records of Oxford, 1I. (iii.) 8 years: Records of Northampton, ii. 277-this was in 1574, after the Statute of Apprentices. (iv.) 6 years: Records of Norwich, ii. 185-this was in 1576. (v.) 5 years: Red Paper Book of Colchester, 25 (temp. Hen. VIII.).

avowedly intended to limit their membership: "the number of this fellowship", they declared, "is so augmented and daily doth increase" to "the utter destruction of the company". In the case of the Girdlers of York we can trace the different stages in the lengthening of apprenticeship. In 1307 a term of four years only was exacted; more than a century later (1417) the period was extended to seven years1. In all probability the motive which prompted the change was the desire to secure a more thorough training and more efficient workmanship. Apart from the length of apprenticeship, regulations were also laid down as to the age at which apprentices might be employed. At Norwich the Worsted Weavers were not allowed to receive apprentices under the age of fourteen: they were said to "have taken apprentices to the same craft of tender and young age, the which were not able to work in the said occupation "2. A similar rule apparently prevailed among the Carpenters of London, though here the age at which apprentices were bound was commonly eighteen or nineteen 3. In 1556 the authorities of London sought to deal with the problem in a somewhat different fashion; they allowed apprentices to be taken at any age, but insisted that they should not be less than twenty-four years old upon the expiry of their term. "Great poverty, penury and lack of living hath of late years. . . increased within the city of London . . . by reason of the over-hasty marriages and over-soon setting up of households of and by the youth and young folks of the city, which hath commonly used, and yet do, to marry themselves as soon as ever they come out of their apprenticehood, be they never so young and unskilful ”’4. The same principle was established at Bristol 5, though elsewhere boys of eleven were sometimes apprenticed: If children became apprenticed without their parents' knowledge, their indentures could not be cancelled unless their masters were

1 York Memorandum Book, i. 181. 2 Records of Norwich, ii. 376. E. B. Jupp and W. W. Pocock, Carpenters' Company (1887), 363. London apprentices under age were discharged by the court: Guildhall Journals, passim.

J. Nicholl, History of the Ironmongers' Company (1866), 73. 5 F. F. Fox, The Guild of Weavers in Bristol (1889), 47

• Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archæology, xiii. part iii. 280.