Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/57

 i. JAN. 16, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

41

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 190f t.

CONTENTS.-NO. 3.

NOTES: The Ipswich Apprentice Books, 41 Burton's ' Anatomy of Melancholy,' 42' Address to Poverty ' Pronunciation of Seoul, 43 Shakespearian Allusions- Downing Family Bibliography of Epitaphs ' Martin Chuzzlewit 'Fraudulent American Diplomas, 44" New facts regarding Shakespeare," 45 West Haddon Field- names, 46.

QUERIES : Western Rebellion, 1549, 46 Glowworm or Firefly Tinsel Characters 'Oxford University Calendar '

Fitzhamon Venison in Bummer Comber Family " Synchronize " : " Alternate " ' Aurora Leigh 'Duke of Suffolk's Head, 47' Willy Wood and Greedy Grizzle '

Robert Giles West -Country Fair St. Patrick at Orvieto Tnckett Herbert Spencer on Billiards "All roads lead to Rome " Capt. Death, 48 A. C. Swinburne Raleigh's Head" Meynes " and " Rhines," 49.

REPLIES : The Mother of Ninus, 49 Immurement Alive Cardinals Wykehamical Word " Toys," 50" Fiscal " Dr. Parkins Shakespeare's Geography Glass Manu- facture. 51 Morganatic Marriage Bmmet and De Fon- tenay Letters Carson Pamela Tideswell and Tideslow, 52 "Papers," 53 "Chaperoned by her father" Fic- titious Latin Plurals "O come, all ye faithful," 54 "From whence" Baron Wainwright Rous or Rowse Family, 55 Children's Carols and Lullabies Quotations

Right Hon. Edward Southwell, 56 'Memoirs of a Stomach 'Envelopes, 57.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Innes's 'New Amsterdam and its People 'Clarke's ' Elegia Gralana' ' Burlington Maga- zine ' ' Scribner's Magazine 'Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

THE IPSWICH APPRENTICE BOOKS.

THE finding of these books was quite acci- dental. When I first went to the Town Hall and asked to be allowed to see the early Appren- tice Books, I was told, as others had been before me, that there were none. A systematic search among the accumulations in the muni- ment room might, it was admitted, lead to the discovery of a few scattered indentures, but the results would never repay one's time and labour, while as for any official register of enrolments, none had ever been known to exist.

Reference to the catalogues so obligingly provided for the use of searchers seemed to put this view of the case beyond question These catalogues are two in number the Report of the Royal Commission on His torical Manuscripts, 1883, Ipswich section and a manuscript catalogue compiled by a competent private hand in 1880. Both are evidently the outcome of much patient anc laborious research, and in neither of them is there any mention of indentures of appren ticeship prior to 1700.

In these circumstances I was quite pre pared to accept the Ipswich Apprentic

Sooks as a myth, when chance placed the x>oks themselves or, rather, what remains >f them in my hands.

While scanning the pages of the Report on listorical MSS. I happened to observe that a certain register is described as containing early assessment lists, and thinking that names in which I am interested, 1 asked for
 * hese lists might perhaps include certain
 * he book.

It proved to be a thick, small folio, bound n old parchment. The modern label on the jack reads : " Register of Deeds and Wills, 45 Elizabeth to 1651 " ; but the moment I opened the volume I saw that the label was wrong. The familiar "This Indenture" caught my eye, and turning page after page, to the number of several hundreds, I found nearly the whole book filled with articles of apprenticeship. It was, in fact, one of the '' lost " Apprentice Books.

One other similar register appears on the jalendar, and this I immediately had out. But here I was disappointed, for the register, although containing a score or two of inden- tures, is chiefly made up of deeds and wills. This volume is a heavy, large quarto, bound in old leather, and the period it covers is 29 Henry VIII. to 3 Elizabeth.

Between this register and the one purport- ing to begin 45 Elizabeth there is a lament- able gap, such as, I fear, no lucky chance can ever bridge. Repeated search has been made for the missing volume, but without success. The gap is not quite so wide, however, as the fallacious label of the later volume would lead one to suppose, since the date of the earliest indenture in this volume is 1582.

The two registers contain altogether about 421 indentures, of which 40 are enrolled in the earlier volume, 29 Henry VIII. to 3 Eliza- beth, and 381 in the later. It will thus be seen that the important period 1582 to 1651 is remarkably well represented.

A brief search among the old court rolls of the borough brought to light two other Eliza- bethan indentures. These are originals, neatly engrossed on parchment, and in both cases they have been utilized as covers for rolls.

To turn next to the indentures themselves, a careful analysis of the enrolments discloses some highly interesting facts. Of the 423 lads and lasses (for 3 are girls) who of their own free will and accord bound themselves apprentices to various trades, 1 became a chandler, 5 butchers, 14 tailors, 26 shoe- makers, and 50 shipwrights ; while 228, or rather more than one-half, succumbed to "the art, craft, and mystery of the sea."