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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1990-08 > 0651074684


From: Kay Allen AG <>
Subject: Re: Age of competency
Date: Sun, 19 Aug 1990 07:04:44 -0700


Renia wrote:
>

snipped
>
> My suspicion on this case, is that this was a young lad, no more than a
> boy, and he must have travelled over with someone, perhaps even the person
> to whom he was apprenticed. He could have been an orphan, without any
> family, so without any legal guardian. But he must have travelled over with
> someone from his own home area.

The person to whom hew was apprenticed came over much earlier.
The lad could have come with his parents and they died shortly after
arrival. But if he was as young as 10 the Plymouth council or court
would surely have appointed a guardian to act in his best interests.
Or his home parish could have sent him to avoid his becoming a charge on
the parish, but again, there should have been some sort of certificate
or paperwork from the parish authorizing his being bound out.

The copies of the records also do not seem to have the ususal
stipulations that the master should take care to educate him in reading
and writing which appear in the apprenticeship papers of young children.
This is one reason that I felt that he might be an older lad already
able to read and write. And there are cases of adults apprenticing
themselves to a trade for a longish period of time which would end after
the 21st birthday.

Kay Allen AG
>
> Renia
>
> Kay Allen AG wrote:
>
> > I have a question concerning when a young person might be considered
> > competent to act for himself.
> >
> > A young man, possibly only a lad, comes to New England in 1634 (sorry
> > for the out of periodness), apparently alone, and apprentices himself
> > to a carpenter for 11 years. Would he have had to have been at least 18
> > or 21, or could he have done so at a younger, say 15. Some people have
> > surmised that this young man was only 10, but I maintain that at that
> > young an age, he would have had a guardian appointed for him, in loco
> > parentis (?sp.) [in place of parents].
> >
> > I would very much appreciate it if someone would discuss these
> > points for me.
> >
> > Thanks much.
> >
> > Kay Allen AG

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