What happened when an apprentice or young ‘living-in’ household worker fell ill, c. 1690–1820?

Abstract Apprenticeship was important from the late sixteenth century for training and maintaining the English workforce. Masters and mistresses were committed by the apprenticeship indenture to provide food, clothing, shelter and training. Reference was rarely made, however, to what happened should the apprentice fall ill. Much the same was true of contracts between an employer and the young person who was hired to live and work in their household. Both sides of the agreement accepted that responsibility for sickness was part of the employer’s or master’s wider obligations. For some household heads, this was an unwelcome undertaking and from the early eighteenth century it became more common for them to opt out of this role. The fall in the age of these young workers during the eighteenth century and the relaxation of the rules of apprenticeship seem to have encouraged this development. Severe outbreaks of smallpox occurring throughout the country, particularly until the 1770s, highlighted the wider problem of sickness. An examination of the experiences of individual children who fell ill in this period provides insight into the lives of young workers when at their most vulnerable and dependent.