18th century Glasgow apprentice lists?

David Douglas · Post by **David Douglas** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 6:25 pm

I see on the National Archives site there's details of surviving apprentice lists, but most of them seem to be for the east coast.
I'm looking for a James Cameron in Glasgow. He's listed as a Turner on his 1781 marriage record, and on the baptisms of his children (the last in 1790) - all records in Glasgow parish.

Do these records exist for Glasgow? Or would the names of newly-qualified journeymen be listed in newspapers (I know the Herald started in 1783, so that would be too late) ? What Guild would turners be under?

Happy Christmas to all, or as they say here in Denmark,

Glædelig Jul ( = Glad Yule )

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 6:58 pm

Hi David
I believe some trade records relating to Glasgow are held at the Mitchell Library - might be worth a try. See: http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/Residents/ ... y_History/

Best wishes
Lesley

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 3:23 am

Hello David,

The Gale trial mentioned towards the bottom of this page http://talkingscot.com/forum/viewtopic. ... c&start=45 includes 17th & 18th Century Burney collection of newspapers although they’re usually nowhere near as useful to this sort of research as the later 19th Century collection. There’s only a few odds and ends for Scotland, all being Edinburgh. Nevertheless may be worth a look.

When I saw the occupation Turner I asked myself whether he would be a Wood or a Metal turner. In the 1841 census on Freecen http://freecen.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl Lanarkshire has loads of Wood, Iron and unspecified turners. I guess with Iron the techniques and many of the skills would be completely different to that of Wood. Any apprenticeship records may reflect that with a connection to metal working (Smith’s?) rather than woodworking.

When your fellow would have been an apprentice Iron turning would have been in its relative infancy. The Burney newspaper collection has references to the profession of Iron turning as far back as the 1740s. Much more likely his trade would have been to do with Wood however there were more varieties of turning around at the time. Here’s an interesting preview on the history of Industrial Turning (p394-5) http://books.google.com.au/books?id=fj9 ... #PPA395,M1

Hope that’s interesting,
Alan

David Douglas · Post by **David Douglas** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 5:49 pm

thanks. I'll send an email to the Mitchell asking if they have any relevant records, and I'll try that digital newspaper archive.
I forgot to mention that James Cameron and his wife, according their marriage record, were baptized in Glasgow, so it was probably in Glasgow he did his apprenticeship.