Apprentices

Parish officials often put out pauper children as apprentices so that they could learn a trade. Once an apprentice had served forty consecutive days under their master they then gained legal settlement in their master's parish of settlement. This continued throughout the apprenticeship with the master assuming the same position as a father. Apprenticeships lasted until the age of twenty-four until 1777-8 when the age was reduced to twenty-one.

Wolverhampton Archives & Local Studies holds a register of parish apprentices 1830-1842 for the township of Wolverhampton.