SHEFFIELD CUTLERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22563, 6 May 1935, Page 25

SHEFFIELD CUTLERS

SOME QUAINT RECORDS / T: : INDUSTRY'S EARLY DAYS. Early days of the Cutlers' Company, Sheffield, when apprentices were " chastised reasonably" and were often forbidden to enter taverns, were recalled at the opening last month of an exhibition of documents of the Cutlers' Company in the Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield. The opening ceremony, in the lecture hall of the Sheffield Central Library, was performed by the Master Cutler. Mr Alexander Williamson. The history and activities of the Cutlers' Company, said the Master Cutler, were bound up inseparably with those of the city. The company was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1624, when the principal trades in Sheffield were the making of knives, shears, scissors and other cutlery wares. Hours of labour in those days were regulated alone by the length of daylight and not by any consideration for the strength of the labourers. Boys were, as a rule, indentured at the age of 10 years, anci among the clauses usually inserted in the indentures was one requiring the master to provide the apprentice with food and lodging and to chastise him reasonably. " The word ' reasonably' was usually translated in as elastic or economical a manner as the temper of the master or the exigencies of the case' demanded," said the Master The indentures in those' days also provided that, the apprentice not to enter taverns or ale-houses and was not to contract matrimony.

"It would be difficult to say," commented the Master Cutler, "how the boy would be able to support a wife upon the few pence paid him annually in the tarly days of the apprenticeship or upon the few shillings he received during the latter years of his apprenticeship." Describing the various exhibits the Master Cutler said that one of them was a book containing a record of the freedoms granted by the Cutlers' Compauy from 1706 to 1722. Without his freedom a man could not carry on any of the specified trades within the district under the jurisdiction of the company. Each freeman, on his election, was obliged to select and register a mark, an imprint of which was struck on a lead seal, which was attached to the parchment certificate. Another exhibit was a minute book of the company from 1727 to 1784. This contained the minutes of a meeting held in 1734, when it was decided to allow a delicate apprentice, who could not work " cent up in Sheffield," to cancel his indentures and be apprenticed again to his father at Crookes moorside. A ledger showed the dividends received in 1806, and onward, from the River Don Na igation Company, an enterprise which tho Cutlers' Company helped to finance, whilo among other exhibits were documents relating to scissorsmiths and their work, and a record of indentures and freedoms from 1660 to 1718. Aldermnn A. Hawnt said that even in these days of high speed steels and giant turbines they must hot forget that Sheffield began as a cutlery town and for over three centuries had had the distinction of possessing one of the great trade companies which moulded the early destinies of industry. "The history of the cutlery trade is a fascinating one," he added, " and these documents show clearly how continuous and closely knit its traditions have been. In consenting to allow the documents to be exhibited, the Cutlers' Company is showing the public how firmly Sheflield's present position is rooted in long past causes."