Leaving home and entering service: the age of apprenticeship in early modern London

Leaving home and entering service was a key transition in early modern England. This article presents evidence on the age of apprenticeship in London. Using a new sample of 22,156 apprentices bound between 1575 and 1810, we find that apprentices became younger (from 17.4 to 14.7 years) and more homogeneous in age, irrespective of background. We examine the effect of region of origin, parental occupation, Company entered and paternal mortality on age of entry. The fall in apprentices' ages has significant implications for our understanding of the labour supply, training structures, experiences of apprenticeship and family economy in this period.