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ships to shoemaker?

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  • ships to shoemaker?

    i'm trying (it appears in vain) to locate apprenticeship records for my 5th great grandfather stephen morton (c.1775-1844). the first record i have is a marriage at st george hanover square in 1800 to anne evans. they susequently spent their lives in the westmnster area. the 1841 census says "not born in county" but i've always been sceptical of that.

    i know from later records (1817 baptisms, census and death cert) that he was a shoemaker. i guess he may have apprenticed elsewhere if he was true in not being from london.

    i've found an apprenticeship of a "stephen morton aged 14 (b.1774) years to alex pringle, boatswain of the frigate concord, of 36 guns now lying at chatham kent until 21 years of age" dated 28 jun 1787.

    is it a possibility he may have worked on ships then became a shoe maker at a later date?

    i'm really struggling to find anything on him pre 1800.

  • #2
    If this boy/man is yours and embarked on an apprenticeship with one Alex Pringle, boatswain on the Concord, he may never have completed that apprenticeship, whatever the trade, if he suffered a shipboard injury rendering him unfit for further service. In that case, shoemaking etc may have been a viable option, with or without any apprenticeship in that trade. My own grandfather suffered a shipboard accident in the RN, losing all his toes from one foot, and was discharged but took up shoemaking and repair to earn a crust. There was no prospect of any apprenticeship, being 24 and married at the time of the accident, but shoemaking etc sufficed for more than 20 years before he changed jobs and his shoemaking skills were then used solely for the family's benefit.

    Anything is possible, however odd it may seem initially.

    merleyone

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    • #3
      I agree - it may seem strange to change from a life at sea to a shoemaker but these things happen. My own gg grandfather was a mariner for many years and then I lost him in the records. It turned out after his wife died he moved onto the land and became a miner so he could be with his four daughters. Sadly he died in a mine accident. From mariner to miner - no wonder I couldn't find him!
      herky
      Researching - Trimmer (Farringdon), Noble & Taylor (Ross and Cromarty), Norris (Glasgow), McGilvray (Glasgow and Australia), Leck & Efford (Glasgow), Ferrett (Hampshire), Jenkins & Williams (Aberystwyth), Morton (Motherwell and Tipton), Barrowman (Glasgow), Lilley (Bromsgrove and Glasgow), Cresswell (England and Lanarkshire). Simpson, Morrow and Norris in Ireland. Thomas Price b c 1844 Scotland.

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      • #4
        My 3x ggf was a master mariner who captained a ship to Australia where he stayed and became a miner (this was around the time of the Australian gold rush). He left a wife and child behind in the UK, but probably unknown to him at the time, she died whislt he was en route. He later married in Australia and had a whole new family.
        Co-ordinator for PoW project Southern Region 08
        Researching:- Wieland, Habbes, Saettele, Bowinkelmann, Freckenhauser, Dilger in Germany
        Kincaid, Warner, Hitchman, Collie, Curtis, Pocock, Stanley, Nixey, McDonald in London, Berks, Bucks, Oxon and West Midlands
        Drake, Beals, Pritchard in Kent
        Devine in Ireland

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        • #5
          Also, circa 1800 forward, the guilds/trades were losing their control, especially with something so common as shoemaking, bricklaying and even Tin Plate Worker. I have the latter two but can find no sign of apprenticeship nor freedom. Fishmongers seemed to keep control for quite a while.

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          • #6
            I think it was almost traditional, until very recently, to train an injured man in shoemaking, although it wouldn't have been an apprenticeship. An early form of Remploy, perhaps?

            OC

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