The 1563 Statute of Artificers and Apprentices had codified the structures of a juvenile socialisation process, rooted in the patriarchal household family, in which the years between childhood and adult status were spent living with a master as an indentured employee for up to ten years. By 1750 this arrangement was out of kilter with prevailing attitudes towards both childhood and schooling, and it was in this context that the apprenticeship system was substantially restructured during the second half of the eighteenth century. Investigating this transformation in youth employment illuminates economic and social factors that were acting in tandem with developments in educational practice and family life, and two distinct phases of change are uncovered that echo the generational chronology identified in Section One.

An increasing emphasis has been placed on the economic importance of apprenticeship in pre-industrial Europe in relation to the dissemination of knowledge, and the training provided in eighteenth-century England was seemingly ‘far more effective and flexible’ than elsewhere on the continent, which gave Britain an added economic advantage. It is, however, impossible to fully appreciate the significance of apprenticeship, and any role it played in economic developments, without an understanding of the social and cultural trends that were transforming this system of juvenile employment. The records of Newcastle's trade guilds offer an invaluable opportunity to explore the experiences of apprentices as company rules were modified mid-century, and to consider these adjustments in light of the national legislative changes that established new mechanisms for employing and policing juveniles. This exposes the ways in which several factors converged to effect a fundamental shift in practice; but, first, the chapter begins by establishing the broad pattern of change that is to be investigated.

Concentrating upon trade guilds inevitably leads to a male-centric picture of youths, and in many respects this chapter is the story of the boys that grew up to become men during the second half of the eighteenth century. Yet, while girls are missing from company records (as are a considerable proportion of male youths), many were being apprenticed and entering into service. So there is an implicit sense in which the changes investigated here affected both sexes, and the concomitant story of the girls that grew into women is not overlooked.