A lot depends on where they worked. I think the Goldsmiths Company mostly holds records for London. People based around other Assay Offices (e.g. York, Chester, Sheffield) are possibly recorded nearer to home.
"My Lord
Understanding that a vacancy has lately taken place in the
management of the Malt Mills in Manchester to which your
Lordship is a Trustee I beg leave to offer myself as a Candidate
for that appointment & trust from my Personal Knowledge of the
Situation having been an Inhabitant of this town for near 30
years in the Watch Making & Silversmith business, but am sorry
to inform your Lordship I had the misfortune to loose my left
hand some years ago which has disabled me from following the
working part of my Trade, having much vacant time I trust you
will not find your appointment misplacd, with respect to
security I can procure the same to any amount your Lordship &
the Trustees may think proper, & for Character might with
confidence refer your Lordship to the greater part of the
respectable characters in Manchester & its neighbourhood, Dr
Foxley, W Fox Esq., Miss Byroms, Mrs Houghtons of Baguley, Revd.
Johnson of Wilmslow have known me from a child.
I beg your Lordships pardon for the trouble of this application
am your Lordships obd. hble. srvt.
(Signed) Josiah Twyford, Deansgate, 27th Sep. 1809"
i dont think so, oc. i'm not sure to be honest. all i know is he must have stopped around 1808, as he injured his hand.
I did also look up Twyford and there was no mark attributed.
kylejustin
As you have the clue that he was known throughout his childhood by the Vicar, then I imagine his apprenticeship would have been generated in his home town. Is there any possibility it could have been a poor law apprenticeship? (Not really very likely, goldsmith apprenticeships were expensive compared to things like blacksmithing etc).
oc, i don't know what a poor law apprenticeship is!!:o
his father was a watchmaker in timperley in the 18th century, and seems to have been a family trade. a clock josiah made is in the manchester museum.
so im guessing he would have been wealthy enough to get a goldsmith apprenticeship.
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