Founders' Company apprenticeships

The Founders' Company dates from at least the 14th century and it has accounts starting as early as 1497, though court minutes do not survive before the 18th century.

Its records are principally deposited at the Guildhall Library. There are three registers listing apprenticeships before 1800. The first (Guildhall Library Ms 6340/1) begins in 1643 and ends in 1701. The second (GL Ms 6340/2) starts in 1701 and its last entry is dated 2 Sep 1734. The third (GL Ms 6340/3) has first entries dated 2 Aug 1736 and last dated 7 Jun 1779. The small gap 1734-1736 does not seem to be able to be filled, as there is also a gap in the court minutes for the same period. No details of apprenticeships are given in the register 1701-02, but a few of these have been recovered from GL Ms 6335 which is a rough list of apprenticeships 1695-1701. For the period after 1779, the court minutes of the Company have been examined in order to extract details of apprenticeships. GL Ms 6331/4 was used for the period 1779 to 1782, GL Ms 6331/5 covers 1782 to 1797 and GL Ms 6331/6 covers 1797 to 1815, of which only apprenticeships before the end of 1800 have been abstracted..

The records of 3,390 Founders' apprenticeships have been abstracted.