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Archiver > LONDON > 2000-09 > 0968944592


From: Eve McLaughlin <>
Subject: Re: [Lon] Cheesemonger apprentices?
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 16:16:32 +0100
In-Reply-To: <001901c01d70$f4e27b80$8f058cd4@DorisFrost>


In message <001901c01d70$f4e27b80$>, difrost
<> writes
>Would the trade of Cheesemonger be one that had apprentices? There would not
>appear to be much to learn about cheese that would occupy a 7-year
>apprenticeship.

the first couple of years would be spent sweeping floors, cleaning
counters, running errands and generally just being around absorbing the
atmosphere. Then the boy would have to learn all the various types of
cheese, how to selecte them, cut them, store them, protect them from
mice, how to cut a precise pound (not easy even now), what the different
cheeses were best for, in cooking and eating; also, of course, shop
selling, handling customers, where to obtain supplies, stock keeping,
pricing, ordering supplies in advance from farms etc, but not
overstocking on this perishable item..
His final years would include account keeping, issuing and chasing up
bills, general shop management, money handling, budgeting. Seven years
was not too long to acquire an expert knowledge of good cheesemanship.
This would continue into the time when he was a journeyman. He would
become a master if and when he acquired the necessary capital

>If they were apprentices at one time, can anyone tell me where I might discover
>their indentures?

unlikely to be anything surviving for private apprentices, other than in
family hands. That is, unless the people involved became members of the
Grocers' Company, when a record of the fact of apprenticeship and the
name of the master would survive.. (which membership would apply to
masters and those who knew they would become masters, but only if they
were on a certain social level and felt like/could afford to join the
company).
>
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--
Eve McLaughlin

Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians
Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society

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