Folios 186-187. Letter from J Pym, Clerk to the Guardians of the Belper Poor Law...

Folios 186-187. Letter from J Pym, Clerk to the Guardians of the Belper Poor Law Union, to the Poor Law Board, in relation to the binding of William Harris and William Straw, pauper boys, as apprentices to Henry Winter, Tailor of Mansfield. He states that the board gave notice to the Mansfield guardians of their intention to bind the boys and they received a letter from the clerk stating that they did not think Winter a proper person to have apprentices. Winter had told the Belper board that the Mansfield guardians had offered to provide him with an apprentice from their workhouse but he applied to Belper instead as a portion of the boys in the Belper workhouse were instructed in the trade.

There was an inquiry at Mansfield and a certificate was received from W S Withers, Miller; Charles Allsop and James Waterfield Green stating that Winter is a fit and proper person to take apprentices. In addition the owners of the premises occupied by Winter visited the Belper workhouse and told the master that Winter was a suitable person to have apprentices. The guardians took all this into consideration and ordered indentures be prepared to bind the boys. On the 28 December 1850 the boys came to the Belper workhouse saying they had been removed to Sheffield by their master and that they had run away as he beat them. The board ordered the boys be returned to Winter with instructions to apply to the police office if they had further complaint against their master. The superintended of police promised to attend any complaint. Nothing further was heard of the boys until receipt of the Board's letter. William Harris has not returned to Belper. The Belper guardians regret that the character of Winter was so different from what they had been led to expect. The Board will cause inquiry to be made into the masters circumstances in Sheffield.

Annotated: the Board regret the Belper guardians did not seek further explanation from the Mansfield guardians of the grounds of their objection.

The certificates upon which the guardians relied are obtained too easily to render them satisfactory guarantees.

The guardians should consider if they can make the master [amenable] for his conduct under the provisions of 7& 8 Vict c 101 s 12.

Also annotated: what answer should be given to the Mansfield guardians, see concluding paragraph of 8910/1851.

Further annotated: send copy of 10267 to the guardians of the Mansfield union. State the Board consider the proceedings of the Bleper guardians to be not unlawful. The General Consolidated Order does not require that the consent of the guardians of the union from which it is proposed the apprenticeship should be served be first obtained. Therefore, although the opinion of them as to the unfitness of the intended master should have great weight with the guardians of the other union, it will not legally prevent them from proceeding to effect the apprenticeship. The Board think the Mansfield guardians have no remedy against the Belper guardians or the master.

Paper Number: 10267/1851.

See also Paper Number: 8910/1851.

Poor Law Union Number: 337.

Counties: Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.