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From: "jeanne mccormick" <>
Subject: Re: [Lon] Apprenticeship records
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 09:31:42 +0100
References: <5D1C3BBA-C481-11DA-B9B6-000A959877A2@btinternet.com>


Don't be dismissive of Lightermen not being "high-clyers"

My ancestor Richard COVINGTON was a Lighterman and ended his life as
"Citizen and Gentleman" and Freeman of the City of London. His will showed
he had considerable assets - all, I hasten to add, earned and accrued in his
lifetime.
"High-flyer" is a relative term, I think.
Jeanne
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gen Mail" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 9:51 AM
Subject: Re: [Lon] Apprenticeship records


>
> On Tuesday, Apr 4, 2006, at 17:32 Europe/London, Eve McLaughlin wrote:
>
>>>>> Would SKS please be able to tell me how I would go about finding
>>>>> apprenticeship records for my missing Thomas?
>>>>
>>>> With great difficulty. Apprenticeship records were taxed to 1811
>>>> (records to 1808) but after that, apart fgrom the high flyers whose
>>>> apprenticeship bindings are recorded by the London livery companies,
>>>
>>> My spouse's very non high-flying great grandfather was apprenticed in
>>> the Shipwrights Company in August 1844 and became Free on 29 April 1852
>> That was a very good trade, definitely high flying and not to be
>> scorned.
>> Shipwrights insisted on properly training and proper paperwork after
>> many of the trades had given up. And, to an extent, it was a closely
>> guarded craft, tending to be hereditary in certain families. If his
>> father wasn't in the craft, then it is worth investigating if his
>> mother's kin were.
>
> He was a Lighterman - and the results were not spectacular. He was a
> member of the Society of Watermen and Lighterman. His father was a
> Lighterman and died young, his uncle was a Lighterman, his grandfather
> was a Lighterman and seemed to disappear without trace. His mother's
> family were also Lightermen. There were no high flyers - at least in my
> interpretation of this description. One son was a postman, another son
> was a coal agent after having been a pawnbroker's assistant, another a
> tramcar driver and another kept a newsagent shop. All ordinary,
> respectable people, but nothing outstanding. Just plain working class
> Londoners, although as far as I can tell, no criminals either. However, no
> schoolmasters or 'gentlemen', ie people who had earned sufficient money to
> live on their own means.
>
>>> Another seemingly run-of the-mill apprentice was James Burford, the
>>> son of a Labourer in Kingsland Road, who was apprenticed to George
>>> McKewan, Citizen and Spectaclemaker on 23 April 1841
>>
>> That's great - it sounds as if he must have had a patron, or shown a lot
>> of natural talent, since premiums for an apprenticeship of that skill
>> were quite high.
>
> I have not looked at the full apprenticeship details - only the entry in
> the Apprentice Inrolments, of which there were many, even after 1811. I
> may do so, to satisfy my own curiosity. There are also numerous
> apprenticeships of 'poor boys from Greenwich Hospital' apprenticed to
> masters of boats/ships.
>
> Jay
>
>
>
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