Friday I went to the Guildhall LIbrary to search through the apprentice records for the Worshipful Company of Watermen and Lightermen to see if I could find James Haley.
He was on the first microfiche I looked at, along with his brother Charles.
The records are pretty clear. James was bound as apprentice to Joseph John Sergeant on 11th July 1865 and then freed seven years later on 16th July 1872. Charles was bound to Thomas Charles Farrier on 8th January 1867 and freed on 11th February 1873.
I went through and looked for other Haleys, finding a number of them that I shall look into. Interestingly enough, Charles’s own son, also Charles, was aprenticed to him on 8th May 1894 and freed by the order of the court on 8th April 1902 as Charles died in the March of that year.
I am awaiting the certificates from the GRO so still do not know their mother’s maiden name. Their father was a biscuit baker as was his father before him so I would guess that it is Charlotte’s family who worked on the river. Hopefully that will show up once I can search her by her maiden name.
I feel like I am getting there and next Friday I am back to Guidhall to trawl through parish records which they have on film.
Leave a Reply