Calendar of the Bristol Apprentice Book, 1532-1565

241 Pages·2015·61.18 MB·English

by  D. Hollis (ed.)

BRISTOL RECORD SOCIETY'S
PUBLICATIONS
General Editor: PROFESSOR DAVID DOUGLAS, M.A., F.B.A.
Assistant General Editor : MISS ELIZABETH RALPH
-:;
VoL. XIV
CALENDAR
OF THE
BRISTOL APPRENTICE BOOK
53 56 5
I 2-I
:Part I
53 54
I 2-I 2
Page 26 of the App1'entice Book,
about threequMte1'S of actual size.
-~- ----------- -------- -------~------- ------ ·-
CALENDAR
OF THE
BRISTOL
APPRENTICE BOOK
Part I
53 54
I 2-I 2
EDlTED BY
D. HOLLIS
..
Printed for the
BRISTOL RECORD SOCIETY
-----------------------------------------------------~------------
FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1949
1·
'
MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
], W, ARROWSMITH LTD., QUAY sTiumT AND SMALL ST~, BluSTOL
PREFACE
I MUST first express my thanks to Mr. I. V. Hall, who in r932
calendared the first ros pages of the Apprentice Book. Unfor
tunately, other research work on which he was engaged prevented
him from revising his first rapid draft, and in order to bring this
into line with a more comprehensive scheme it was found simpler
to make a more leisurely revised transcript. I must, therefore,
accept sole responsibility for any errors.
I owe a debt of gratitude also to Mrs. Hunt, who patiently
guided my first uncertain steps, to her successor in the Bristol
Archives Department, Mrs. Morton, and to Miss Ralph, the
present City Archivist, whose expert assistance, often required,
has always been readily given. Finally, I have to thank Professor
Douglas for valuable advice and help in connection with the
arrangement of the volume and its preparation for the press.
It has, unfortunately, only been possible to deal in this volume
with rather lt'ss than one-third of the Apprentice Book. A rough
estimate, made while the work of transcription was still in progress,
suggested that it might be possible to print the first sixteen years
(about one-half of the book) in tabular form. When, however,
the completed manuscript was submitted to the printers, a more
exact computation showed that it would necessitate a volume far
exceeding the usual size of the Society's publications, while the
cost would be prohibitive. Even when the paragraph form was
adopted it was found necessary to restrict the calendar to· ten
years in order to make a volume of normal size. The introduction,
statistical tables and indices had therefore to be altered accord
ingly, and publication has been unavoidably delayed.
Much interesting material has been excluded by this curtail
ment, but is available in manuscript. It is, therefore, to be hoped
that someone may be found to carry on the work, and that in
time a calendar of the whole of the first Apprentice Book may be
completed.
D. H.
V
CONTENTS
PAGE
FRONTISPIECE ii
PREFACE V
ABBREVIATIONS IN THE INTRODUCTION viii
INTRODUCTION
ABBREVIATIONS IN· THE TEXT 2I
..
TEXT 22
APPENDIX A, LIST OF " DOUBLE " TRADES OF MASTERS I95
APPENDIX B, TABLE SHOWING NUMBER OF APPRENTICES
FROM EACH COUNTY • 197
APPENDIX C, TABLE SHOWING NUMBER OF APPRENTICES
INDENTURED YEARLY TO EACH TRADE I99
GLOSSARY 203
INDEX OF APPRENTICES' PARENTS' OCCUPATIONS 209
INDEX OF MASTERS' TRADES • .• 21:'3
INDEX NoMINUM 2I7
IND:&X LOCORUM . ' 237
vii
ABB-REVIATIONS
IN THE INTRODUCTION
Dunlop.-0. J. Dunlop, English Apprenticeship and Child Labour,
London, 1912.
Ricart.-Robert Ricart, The Maire of Bristowe is Kalendar, Ed.
L. T. Smith, Camden Society, New Series, V, 1872.
L.R.B. I and II.-The Little Red Book of Bristol, Ed. F. B.
Bickley, 2 Vols., Bristol, 1900.
G.R.B. I.-The Great Red Book of Bristol, Ed. E. W. W. Veale,
Part I, Bristol Record Society, Vol. IV, 1933.
G.R.B. II.-Ditto, Part 11, Bristol Record Society, Vol. VIII,
1938.
/
viii
INTRODUCTION
APPRENTICESHIP, as we know it in England, came into existence
by gradual development in the Middle-Ages . .Essentially, it was a
contract between a master and his pupil providing for instruction
by the one party and service by the other for a fixed term of
years, the due performance of the contract by both parties being
supervised by the local trade gild.
This volume comprises, in a condensed form, the contents of
part of the first Bristol Apprentice Book,1 the earliest surviving
record of the enrolment by the municipal authorities in Bristol of
apprentices' indentures. It differs from those previously pub
lished by the Bristol Record Society in that it contains a calendar
merely, not a complete transcript, of the original, and, as is
explained in the Preface, only the first third of the book could be
included.
The Apprentice Book, which apparently began in October,
· I532 (only a small, almost illegible fragment of the first page
now remains), covers the period to 25th March, 1568. It is a
paper volume of 775 pages, I2f by 8! inches, bound in the original
brown sheepskin, but rebacked in recent years.
The earlier pages show the " Hand and Star " watermark
illustrated on p. I of Mr. H. E. Matthews's treatise on The Company
of Soapmakers,2 but later the "Pott" watermark appears, and
the .two marks are sometimes to be found in the same " section "
of paper.
The book had for centuries ceased to be of more than anti
quarian interest, and, in spite of the stout covers, was in a lament
able condition when in September, I930, it was repaired and
rebound. The margins were worn away to such a degree that
on many pages part of the text had vanished with the paper on
which it was written, while on the first surviving whole page
most of the ink had been rubbed off, though pen marks can .still
be seen.
1 Bristol Archives, C.T.04352-(I).
a Bristol Record Society, Vol. X, 1939.
I
2 INTRODUCTION
The damaged margins have been skilfully repaired, and the
pages protected with gauze, but it is only possible to guess at the
missing words of the text. Before the book was rebound the
pages were numbered with aniline pencil. Unfortunately, the
binders appear to have bound some of the pages in the wrong
order: pp. r89 and I90 have been inserted between pp. r84 and
r85, pp. I93 to r96 come after p. r88, and are followed by pp.
I9I and r92. The correct order is then resumed with p. I97·
The Apprentice Book is written in a style which appears to
have affinities with both the Bastard Hand and the Legal Hand
shown in alphabets Nos. I, 2 and I7 in Mr. Hilary Jenkinson's
Later Court Hands in EnglaniJ.l The style is not always consistent,
probably because the entries were the work of more than one
scribe, and the legibility varies greatly.
The entries concerning apprenticeships are in Latin, but the
well-known convention is used according to which the Norman
French articJe prefixed to an English word converts the latter into
good dog-latin (e.g. in the entry on p. 2I9, "ac vnum le hachett ").
Some enrolments, not connected with apprenticeship, are in
English.
Abbreviations are commonly employed, either with or without
the customary signs. Suspensions are usual, and one is tempted
to think that, as Mr. Jenkinson hints2 the scribe may have u5ed
suspensions not only for the.sake of brevity; but also because he
was not always sure of the correct Latin termination. On the
other hand, signs which usually indicate abbreviation are found
where no intention of abbreviation is apparent, especially at the
ends of proper names. This can be confusing. The name Egyn'
occurs several times, but it was not till the form Egener was found
· that it became clear that the abbreviation mark at the end of
Egyn' was to be taken seriously.
Occasionally a word (usually, it is true, part of the common
form of the entries) appears with both contraction and suspension,
but without any sign of abbreviation at all. Abbreviations have
been extended in the Calendar where this could be done with
reasonable certainty, except in the case of a few constantly
'recurring words, such as Corn' for Comitatu, where extension
would have meant a considerable increase of work for the printers.
1 Cambridge, The University Press, 1927.
I Op. cit., p. 25.
\