Broderers' Company apprenticeships

The records of the Broderers' (embroiderers) are preserved at the Guildhall Library. There survive registers of apprenticeship bindings for the period 1694-1713 (in GL Ms 14,664/1) and 1763-1877 (in GL Ms 14,664/2). Furthermore the court minutes from 1679 (GL Ms 14,657/1) give details of apprenticeships until the apprenticeship bindings register commences. A list has been prepared here of the surviving records up to 1800.

It is fairly clear that the register for the period 1713-63 has at some time been lost, the court minutes of this period not detailing the apprenticeships. Some of these apprenticeships will have been taxed and recorded in the Inland Revenue records which were the basis for the indexes to them for the 1710-74 period which are at the Society of Genealogists and the Guildhall Library. These records only give the name and parish of the father to about 1750, and in any case less than a quarter of London apprentices seem to be recorded in them judging from the records of the Tylers' and Bricklayers' Company which were collated with this source.

The court minutes, on occasion, record the presence of a witness, virtually always a relative of the apprentice; where such witnesses have been named, they have been noted in this abstract. Occasionally, also, the court minutes note the age of the apprentice; this has also been included in the abstract.

The records of 886 Broderers' apprenticeships have been abstracted.