manual occupation during the time of his abode there, and so using or exercising such art, mystery or occupation as aforesaid, to have in like manner to apprentice or apprentices, the child or children of any other artificer or artificers not occupying husbandry, nor being a labourer, which now do or hereafter shall inhabit or dwell in the same, or in any other such market-town within the same shire, to serve as apprentice or apprentices as is aforesaid, to any such art, mystery or manual occupation, as hath been usually exercised in any such market-town where such apprentice shall be bound in manner and form abovesaid.

in market

towns not corporate.

7. Provided by s. 29. That it shall not be lawful Merchants, for any person, dwelling or inhabiting in any such &c. dwelling market-town, using or exercising the feat, mystery or art of a merchant, trafficking or trading into parts beyond the seas, mercer, draper, goldsmith, ironmonger, imbroiderer or clothier, that doth or shall put cloth to making and sale, to take any apprentice, or in any wise to teach or instruct any person in the arts, sciences or mysteries last before recited, except such servant or apprentice shall be his son, or else that the father or mother of such apprentice shall have lands, tenements or other hereditaments, at the time of taking such apprentice, of the clear yearly value of three pounds, of one estate of inheritance or freehold at the least, to be certified under the hands and seals of three justices of the peace, of the shire or shires where the said lands, &c. do or shall lie, to the head officers or head officer of such market-town where such apprentice or servant shall be taken, there to be enrolled by such head officers always to remain of record.

where parents have no land.

8. By s. 30. any person using or exercising the art What arti- or occupation of a smith, wheelwright, ploughwright, ficers may millwright, carpenter, rough mason, plaisterer, sawyer, take aplimeburner, brickmaker, bricklayer, tyler, slater, helier, prentice tylemaker, linen-weaver, turner, cooper, miller, earthenpotter, woollen-weaver, weaving huswives or houshold cloth only, and none other cloth, fuller, otherwise called tucker or walker, burner of ore and woodashes, thatcher or shingler, wheresoever he or they shall dwell or inhabit, to have or receive the son of any person as apprentice in manner and form aforesaid, to be taught and instructed in these occupations only and in none other, albeit the father or mother of any such apprentice have not any lands, tenements or hereditaments.

9. By s. 33. all and every person that shall have Keeping three apprentices in any of the crafts, mysteries or ocjourneymen. cupations of a clothmaker, fuller, shearman, weaver, taylor or shoemaker, shall retain and keep one journeyman, and for every other apprentice above the number of the said three apprentices one other journeyman, upon pain for every default therein, ten pounds.

Provision for worsted makers in

10. Provided by s. 34. that this act shall not extend to prejudice any liberties granted to the company of worsted-makers and worsted-weavers within Norwich and the city of Norwich and elsewhere within the county Norfolk. of Norfolk, which be in force at the beginning of the parliament by which this act was passed.

11. By s. 41. all indentures, &c. made contrary to the provisions of this act are declared void, and the persons so taking apprentices liable to a penalty of 10%.

But now by 54 Geo. 3. c. 96. s. 2. reciting that whereas by the 5 Eliz. c. 4. divers rules and regulations were enacted respecting the qualifications of persons entitled to take and become apprentices, and the term of years for which such apprentices should be bound and as to the mode of binding such apprentices, and then reciting s. 41. of the said act by which all indentures, &c. not made according to such rules and regulations were declared to be void, and the master so taking, &c. liable to a penalty of 107. it is enacted, That so much of the said recited act be repealed, and that any person may take, or retain, or become an apprentice, though not according to the provisions of the said act, and that indentures, &c. entered into for that purpose which would be otherwise valid and effectual, shall be valid and effectual in law, the repeal of so much of the said act as is herein last recited notwithstanding.

12. Provided by s. 4. that this act shall not extend to defeat, alter or prejudice the custom, &c. of the city of London concerning apprentices, or the ancient custom, &c. of any city, town, corporation or company lawfully constituted, or any bye-law or regulation of any corporation or company.

13. By 13 & 14 Car. 2. weavers of stuffs in Norfolk and Norwich who shall employ two apprentices shall employ two journeymen, and no master shall have more than two apprentices or any weekboy to weave in the said trade under a penalty of 57. a month to the king.

14. By 17 Geo. 3. c. 55. repealing 1 Jac. 1. c. 17. every hat-maker

shall employ one journeyman for each apprentice, provided a sufficient number of journeymen who have served apprenticeships in the trade, offer themselves for employment.

15. A bye-law made by a company in a corporation to restrain the number of apprentices to be taken by any of its members, is a bye-law in restraint of trade, and void. Rex v. Coopers' Comp. of Newcastle, 7 T. R. 563. i. 591.

II. Who are compellable to serve.

16. By 5 Eliz. c. 4. s. 35. if any person shall be required by any housholder, having and using half a plough-land at the least in tillage, to be an apprentice, and to serve in husbandry, or in any other kind of art, mystery or science before expressed, and shall refuse so to do, that then upon the complaint of such housekeeper made to one justice of the peace of the county wherein the said refusal is or shall be made, or of such housholder inhabiting in any, city, town corporate or market-town, to the mayor, bailiffs or head officer of the said city, town corporate or market-town, if any such refusal shall there be, they shall have full power and authority by virtue hereof, to send for the same person so refusing; and if the said justice, or the said mayor or head officer shall think the said person meet and convenient to serve as an apprentice in that art, labour, science or mystery, wherein he shall be so then required to serve, that then the said justice, or the said mayor or head officer, shall have power and authority by virtue hereof, if the said person refuse to be bound as an apprentice, to commit him unto ward, there to remain until he be contented, and will be bounden to serve as an apprentice should serve, according to the true intent and meaning of this present act.

17. But by s. 36. no person shall by force or colour of this estatute, be bounden to enter into any apprenticeship other than such as be under the age of twenty-one years.

18. By s. 43. every such person shall be bounden to serve for the years in their indentures contained, as amply as if the same apprentice were of full age at the time of the making of such indentures.

19. Where an apprentice was bound at the age of seventeen years by indenture (stating her to be fourteen) for seven years, the court held that she was entitled to be discharged at twenty-one.:Every indenture of an infant is voidable at his election; in such cases the master must trust to the covenant of those who engage

for the infant. Where the binding is by the authority of an act of parliament, that takes away the power of electing to vacate the indentures; but I know of no act which prohibits the party in a case like the present from making her election upon her coming of age. She ought not to have been bound longer than until she was twenty-one." Per Lord Kenyon, Ch. J. Ex parte Davis, 7 T. R. 715. i. 535.

20. Quære, whether, by the custom of London, apprentices bound by indenture to serve beyond the period of full age be not compelled to serve the full term? See Moore, 155. Bohun's Priv. Lond. 1 Mod. 271.

21. In the case of a habeas corpus for the discharge of an apprentice above the age of twenty-one, the return stated the custom of London that every citizen and freeman of the city might take apprentice any person above the age of fourteen and under twentyone, to serve for seven years and more, but did not state that the apprentice was within those ages when he bound himself apprentice; and the court held that this ought to have been distinctly alleged, and they would not intend it from matter dehors to the return. Leave to amend the return also was refused, and it was. quashed altogether. Ex parte Eden, 2 M. & S. 226.

III. Of the Indentures; their Form, Revocation, and Dissolution.

1. Form.

22. The retainer and taking of an apprentice shall be made and done by indentures. 5 Eliz. c. 4. s. 25.

Bac. Abr.546.

23. It is not sufficient that it be by deed-poll, although the style of the instrument run " this indenture witnesseth." Smith v. Birch, i. 528.

24. An agreement to execute indentures is not a sufficient bind.. ing as an apprentice, although service be actually performed. Rex v. Stratton, i. 530.

25. Nor will any agreement whatever constitute an apprenticeship unless there be an indenture. Rex v. Whitechurch Canonico-. rum, i. 532.

26. Of course not a binding by parol. Rex v. Mawnam, i. 531. 27. By 31 Geo. 2. c. 11.s. 1. it is enacted, That no person who shall have been bound an apprentice, by any deed, writing or contract, not indented, being first legally stamped, shall be liable to be removed from the town, parish or place where he or she shall have been so bound an apprentice, and resident forty days, by virtue of

any order of removal, granted by two justices of the peace of any county, riding, division, city, borough, town corporate or place; or by virtue of any order of the justices at their general or quartersessions, by reason or on account of such deed, writing or contract, not being indented only.

28. But the binding must still be by deed. Rex v. Ditchingham 4 T. R. 769. ii. 377.

29. The indentures must retain the person bound as an apprentice, for unless he be retained as an apprentice he is only an articled servant. Bac. Abr. 546. i. 526.

30. And where the agreement was that the master should teach a trade, the party so taught finding himself in necessaries, and giving up to the master half his earnings, which the master said was the condition upon which he taught the trade, the court held that this was not a contract of apprenticeship, the person not being spoken of as an apprentice. Rex v. Little Bolton, Cald. 367. ii. 222.

31. And where a master sent his foot-boy to a barber to learn to dress hair and shave, for which the master gave the barber a fee of five pounds, and entered into an agreement that the boy should stay with him a certain time, the court held that this was not an apprenticeship, for there was no covenant on the part of the boy to serve the barber as an apprentice. Chesterfield's Case, Salk. 479. i. 527.

32. But in a subsequent case the court held that a contract of apprenticeship may be formed without making use of the word "apprentice"-since whether it be an apprenticeship or a hiring and service depends upon the intention of the parties which is to be collected from the whole of the agreement. PeHighnam, ü.37.

53. See also Rex v. Laindon, 8 T. R. 379. i. 378. upon which latter occasion it was said that Rex v. Little Bolton was an anomalous

case.

34. And upon another occasion Lord Kenyon, Ch. J. said, that it was enough to form an apprenticeship if the purpose of the contract were that the one party should learn and the other teach a trade; that no technical words were necessary to constitute the relation of master and apprentice, and that it was not necessary that any premium should be given to the master. See Rex v. Rainham, 1 E. R. 531.—post. title Settlement by Apprenticeship.

35. But although an infant may voluntarily bind himself apprentice, and, if he continue apprentice for seven years, may have the