Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

William Crow(e) died 29 January 1828 aged 64 giving a birth year of about 1763. His wife died 29 October 1845, aged 83, giving a birth year of about 1762. So the ages at death seem correct.
William served a 7 year apprenticeship as a plumber and glazier with Wm Howard. The Freeman's Committee books show William Crow was enrolled as a freeman on 25 May 1796 based on this apprenticeship. The record shows his indentiture with Wm Howard was dated January 1781. This means the apprenticeship started when William Crow was 18. The usual age is 12 or 14. The register of duties paid showed that Wm Howard paid the tax on the transaction on 9 January 1786, 5 years into the apprenticeship. Duty was payable anytime between the start of the indenture and 1 year after it finished. So the dates seem to tie up.
To further compound the mystery, William married on 3 October 1784, 3 years into his apprenticeship. His first child was born 10 April 1786, again whilst William was an apprentice. On both occasions he was described as a glazier.
Has anyone any suggestions about what was happening? As an apprentice, how could he afford to maintain a family? It doesn't seem to add up. I've a strange feeling in my water. But that could be my age.
Thanks

This may help,

https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/ ... in_England

Thanks. There are interesting items in the article that could point to possible further research. I'll mull over them this weekend

Here’s a brief update on my encounter with apprenticeships. I’ll start with an Oops. If you are looking at the apprentice records on Ancestry, what you see is not what you get. Last night I was staring at the record for William Crow looking for inspiration. I quickly get bored, and started to play; as one does. I discovered that if you click onto the next page, it has a second page for that record. Oops. Presumably there are some instructions somewhere, but life is too short to read instructions. Page 2 showed that William’s 7 year apprenticeship started 21 January 1779. The date on page 1 is possibly when the document was registered. This new date means that William was about 15 when he started the apprenticeship. It’s still older than I’d have expected, but a reasonable age.
He would have been in the last 15 months of his apprenticeship when he married. This is covered by the excellent article that Bertieone kindly recommended. It suggests that apprentices could marry. In the last couple of years of an apprenticeship some received a half wage. So William may have decided he could maintain a wife on half wage. Or maybe, even in those days, plumbers and glaziers could earn extra money doing foreigners.
None of which brings me any closer to William’s parents. Like Thomas Tyrer and John Ellison, my previous pleas for help, I can see a large sign ahead ‘No entry beyond this point’.
In conclusion, there is no reason for me not to take all the events at face value. But I’m not totally convinced. I still have that feeling in my waters. Maybe I should start taking the tablets.