Thirteen volumes of apprentices' indentures from the years 1845-1848, 1850-1851, 1853 and 1856.

Apprentices' Indentures (London): June 1845; July-August 1847; January-April 1850; September-December 1850; May-August 1851
Apprentices' Indentures (Outports): January 1845 (K-Z); August 1845 (K-Z); September 1845 (A-J); Dec 1845 (K-Z); August 1846 (A-J); August 1848 (K-Z); October 1853; November 1856

Some of these volumes require specialist conservation treatment and are currently unfit for production. Please contact staff for more information about ordering from this collection.

Administrative / biographical background
In 1823 an Act for regulating the number of apprentices to be taken on board British merchant vessels required merchant ships of 80 tons or more to carry a given number of indentured apprentices. The Act of 1835 required the registration of these apprentices' indentures. Five-year specimens of the copy indentures are held in the Public Record Office (BT/151 and indexed in BT/150). Samples for the years 1845 to 1848, 1850, 1851, 1853 and 1856 were acquired by the Museum in 1971.