340 



Extracts from the Records of the 



in his own atrocious handwriting' 1 — contrasting most unfavorably 

 with the comparatively neat penmanship of his clerk : — 



" Md. that by the commaundemte of John Eyres Esquier I was willed at this 

 Sessions to enroll that John Willms being now eight yeres of age and lefte by 

 some unknowen beggar within the p r ish of Braddford was appointed by the 

 p r ishioners to serve Robt Bronncker of Broughton Gilford Wever to serve him 

 according to the statute untyll he come to thage o/'xxij yeres " 



At the Michaelmas Sessions, 1591 : — 



" It is ordered that If Xrof er North be abled by law to be an apprentice that 

 then he shall serve the woman so long as she shall exercise the mistery of 

 weavinge or cause him to be instructed in the same bona fide during the yeares." 



And at the preceding Easter Sessions the order for maintenance 

 of a boy is to run only until he shall be fit to be an apprentice 

 (auotisq^iie fuerit habilis essendi apprentlcms) . 



One year was the shortest term for which a contract for labour 

 could be entered into, and the minimum was occasionally adopted. 



At the Epiphany Sessions, 22nd Eliz., John Westbrooke, of 

 Alderbury, undertook to receive Thomas Grymsted into his service 

 and produce him at the Feast of Epiphany, in the year 1580. 



Two similar undertakings were entered into at the Trinity Sessions, 

 32nd Eliz., when each of the intending employers gave bail in £5, 

 conditioned for the production of the servant at the end of the year. 



Nor were such safeguards mere formal superfluities. 



Among the employers of the period one at least formed an austere 

 estimate of a master's duty towards his apprentice. 



At the Michaelmas Sessions, 1589: — 



Order is lykewise taken by all the Justices that whereas one John Hewse 

 being the apprentice of one Morrys Henley of Wootton Bassett in the countie of 

 Wiltes Shomaker dyd upon dy vers abuses and threatenings whereby the said John 

 Hewse stode in dyspeyre of his life depted from his said niayster and where upon 

 complaynt and profe thereof made before certeyne of the same Justyces the said 

 Morrys Henley refused to become bounde that the said John Hewse should re- 

 mayne with hym in securytie and safetie of his lyfe that the said John Hewse 

 shalbe at lyberty to serve els where at his will and pleasure at all tymes hereafter 

 wthout any contradycion denyall or ympedynt of the said Morrys Henly unles 



1 A specimen — being one of the numberless entries of bail to appear at the 

 next sessions, and meanwhile to keep the peace — is given in the accompanying 

 illustration. 



