THE APPRENTICES (1527,ETC.).
During the Tudor period the apprentice was a prominent feature of London life, and is chiefly famous for his prowess as a disturber of the peace. The apprentice system was of considerable importance, and many regulations and ordinances were passed from time to time to govern the conditions under which apprentices were to be bound and treated during their term. The story of "Evil May Day," already given, illustrates the turbulence of the apprentices and the relaxation of discipline in the City during this period. The Regulations of 1582 show clearly that they were getting out of hand, and in 1595 further troubles induced Elizabeth to issue further instructions of a drastic nature.
Sources.—(a) An Act of Common Council, 1527, quoted by Maitland, i. 230;(b)ibid., 1582, Maitland, i. 267;(c) Strype's edition of Stow'sSurvey, vol. ii.
(a) [Admonition to the Apprentices].—Ye shall constantly and devoutly on your knees, every day, serve God, morning and evening; and make conscience in the due hearing of the Word preached, and endeavour the right practice thereof on your life and conversation. You shall do diligent and faithful service to your master for the time of your apprenticeship, and deal truly in what you shall be trusted. You shall often read over the covenants of your indenture, and see and endeavour yourself to perform the same, to the utmost of your power. You shall avoid all evil company, and all occasions which may tend to draw you to the same; and make speedy return when you shall be sent of your masters' and mistresses' business. You shall be of fair, gentle, and lowly speech and behaviour to all men, and especially to all your governors; and according to your carriage, expect your reward, for good or ill, from God and your friends.
(b) Henceforth no apprentice whatsoever shall presume: 1. To wear any apparel but what he receives from his master. 2. To wear no hat within the city and liberty thereof, nor anything instead thereof than a woollen cap, without any silk in or about the same. 3. To wear no ruffles, cuffs, loose collar, nor other thing than a ruff at the collar, and that only of a yard and a half long.... 10. To wear no sword, dagger, or other weapon, but a knife; nor a ring, jewel of gold, nor silver, nor silk in any part of the apparel.
It was likewise further enacted that every apprentice offending against any of the above-mentioned items was for the first offence to be punished at the discretion of his master; for the second to be publicly whipped at the hall of his company; and for the third to serve six months longer than specified in his indentures. It was also further ordained that no apprentice should frequent or go to any dancing, fencing, or musical schools; nor keep any chest, press, or other place for thekeeping of apparel or goods, but in his master's house, under the penalties aforesaid.
(c) The ancient habit of the apprentices of London was a flat round cap, hair close cut, narrow falling bands, coarse side coats, close hose, cloth stockings, and other such severe apparel. When this garb had been urged by some to the disparagement of apprentices, as a token of servitude, one, many a year ago, undertaking the defence of these apprentices, wrote thus, that this imported the commendable thrift of the citizens, and was only the mark of an apprentice's vocation and calling (and which anciently, no question, was the ordinary habit of a citizen), which point of ancient discipline, he said, the grave common lawyers do still retain in their profession; for the professors of that learning, we see, do at this present retain the parti-coloured coats of serving-men at their serjeants' feasts; and he wished, that the remembrance of this ancient livery might be preserved by the grave citizens, in setting apart a particular time or day for the feast of their apprenticeship, when they should wear their former apprentice's garb; making profession in this way, that they gloried in the ensigns of their honest apprenticeship.
In the time of Queen Mary, the beginning of Queen Elizabeth, as well as many years before, all apprentices wore blue cloaks in the summer, and blue gowns in the winter. But it was not lawful for any man, either servant or other, to wear their gowns lower than the calves of their legs, except they were above threescore years of age; but, the length of cloaks being not limited, they made them down to their shoes. Their breeches and stockings were usually of white broad cloth, viz. round slops, and their stockings sewed up close thereto, as if they were all but one piece. They also wore flat caps both then and many years after, as well apprentices as journey-men and others, both at home and abroad; whom the pages of the court in derision called flat-caps.
When apprentices and journeymen attended upon their masters and mistresses in the night they went before them carrying a lanthorn and candle in their hands and a great longclub on their necks; and many well-grown sturdy apprentices used to wear long daggers in the day time on their backs or sides.
Anciently it was the general use and custom of all apprentices in London (Mercers only excepted, being commonly merchants, and of better rank, as it seems) to carry water tankards, to serve their masters' houses with water, fetched either from the Thames, or the common conduits of London.
It was a great matter, in former Times, to give £10 to bind a youth apprentice; but, in King James the First's time, they gave 20, 40, 60 and sometimes £100 with an apprentice; but now these prices are vastly enhanced, to 500, 600, or £800.