Author Topic: Would an 18th century apprentice have married?  (Read 2020 times)

Online hanes teulu

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Re: Would an 18th century apprentice have married?
« Reply #9 on: Saturday 04 December 21 16:00 GMT (UK) »
A searchable version of William Nelson's "The office and authority of a justice of the peace...", ninth edition, published 1726 is available via google books. Pages 35 - 58 deal with apprentices..

Cannot spot a a ruling that apprentices could not marry. However, there are examples of draft indentures, one of which includes " ...: He shall not commit fornication nor contract matrimony: ..."

Both married and unmarried men could be taken on as apprentices.


Offline Alex Edge

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Re: Would an 18th century apprentice have married?
« Reply #10 on: Wednesday 08 December 21 17:00 GMT (UK) »
In the song "Sally in our Alley", the original version written in 1721, the apprentice states that: " ..and when my seven years are done they I'll marry Sally". From observations in my family most apprenticeships seem to have begun around thirteen years of age, which would make most apprentices about twenty years of age when free to marry.  I think it very unlikely that apprentices married because they would not be financially capable of supporting marriage.  In an instance I have,  an apprentice butcher married his master's daughter, with the master's financial support, but the couple were both in their mid-twenties before they became able to contemplate marriage.