Many people who worked in a trade, skilled craft or profession served an apprenticeship. The Statute of Artificers and Apprentices of 1563 forbade anyone from practising a trade or craft without first serving a period as an apprentice to a master. The age at which an apprenticeship started varied greatly and could have been from as young as 6 to 14. The length of time served as an apprentice also varied from 3 or 4 years to 13 or 14 years if the apprentice did not marry earlier. The terms or articles of the apprenticeship contract were drawn up in a document called an indenture and a sum of money or premium was paid.
An indenture was originally a document cut into two parts, often in a curved manner (indented), each part containing a copy of the contract. Later it came to mean any deed or document for contract or title, articles, lease, apprenticeship etc. Parish, charity and private apprenticeship indentures may survive within county record offices. Early indentures were often deposited with guilds and livery companies and may survive in repositories such as the Guildhall Library in the City of London.
This indenture for Matthew Berridge shows the typical form of an apprenticeship indenture (reference: PR/13,515). Matthew Berridge was apprenticed to John Sellers, a framework knitter of Mansfield, at the age of 10 years and 10 weeks, and would remain an apprentice until the age of 21.
See the apprenticeship indenture in more detail here [PDF 2603KB] 
See a transcript of the apprenticeship indenture here [PDF 23KB]
Getting Your Indentures explores the stories of eight apprentices.
Follow their stories by using the links in the menu on the left hand side.
