Parish Apprentices Act 1778

AN ACT to amend such part of an Act made in the Forty-third Year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, intituled "An Act for the Relief of the Poor," as relates to the binding of Parish Apprentices.

WHEREAS in and by an Act made in the forty-third year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth (intituled An Act for the relief of the poor) it was enacted, that it should be lawful for the churchwardens and overseers therein mentioned, or the greater part of them, by the assent of any two justices of the peace, to bind the children of all such parents who shall not by the said churchwardens and overseers or the greater part of them be thought able to keep and maintain their children, to be apprentices, where they shall see convenient, till such man-child shall come to the age of four and twenty years, and such woman-child to the age of one and twenty years, or day of marriage: And whereas it has been found by experience that the said term respecting men-children is longer than is necessary, and that if such man-child was bound to be an apprentice only till he came to the age of one and twenty years all the benefits intended by the said Act would be preserved, the hardships brought on such parish apprentices by the length of their apprenticeship would be avoided, and the good harmony between master and apprentice would be better maintained: May it therefore please your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that from and after the passing of this Act, when any man-child shall be bound to be an apprentice by virtue of and under the authority of the said Act made in the forty-third year of Queen Elizabeth, such child shall be bound to be an apprentice for no longer term than till such child shall come to the age of twenty-one years.