Parish Documents: Apprenticeships, Examinations, Removal Orders etc

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This is the collection of largely indentured documents stored in the Widecombe Parish Chest. The documents here are largely Parish Apprenticeships, which are the binding of poor children of the parish to an employer usually until aged 21. They normally received no pay, just board and lodging etc., but did hopefully learn a trade that would be useful later on. Examinations are records of examinations of people; this was often done because it was thought that the person did not belong in the parish, hence the third type of document, the Removal Order, that was an official order for the person to remove themselves from the parish.

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