Hello Hilary, The Lightermen and Watermen records have been filmed by the LDS. So you can order them and view them at a local family history centre. They seem to me to be meticulously kept, lovely handwriting. Trinty house did licence Watermen, only, but a lot of their records were lost, in a fire I believe. They had to be ex mariners. I do have one relative that described himself as a Lighterman on his wedding certificate...and I know he was not. However he had inherited a barge or two from his father and is listed in the barge owner's list of the company. I believe that you could only be on this list if you were a time served lighterman, or if you had inherited a barge from a member of the company. My 2gt grandmother is also on the barge owners list as she was left 2-3 vessels on the untimely death of her husband. >From what I have seen in the films the list produced by R.J. Cotteral is correct for the apprentice records. By law the company has a monopoly on trade/passenger traffic on a defined stretch of the Thames. I cannot remember where from and to. Barges did operate outside this limit, taking goods along the south coast and into the tidal inlets of other rivers. I have pictures of barges unloading at the mill at Battlesbridge in Essex, and these barges were unlikely to have been operated by members of the Watermen and Lightermen Company. Hope this helps, Dorri ---------------------------------------- > Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2009 20:31:06 +0000 > From: hilaryblanford@btinternet.com > To: eng-surrey@rootsweb.com > Subject: [SRY] Thames Lightermen and Watermen Records > > > > Hallo > Is anyone familiar with the records for the Thames lightermen and watermen please? > > I have several members of my family (Ambrose/Ambross) who describe themselves as waterman, or more usually lighterman, in census returns, marriage certificates and baptism records. Recently I purchased the set of transcripts of apprentice bindings from Docklands, and although there are some Ambroses and Ambrosses listed, none of them matches any of mine. > > I had understood that these transcriptions were thought to be complete. Can anybody tell me if this is not the case, and if so, suggest some other specific references where I might look, either in Guildhall Library, SOG or elsewhere? > > Would they have been allowed to work on the river as lightermen if they were Freemen of the City because they held hereditary membership of another Guild? > > My 4xggfather was a mariner known to be in Bermondsey in 1805 - 1807, rising to become a chief mate and master. I have a copy of his widow’s application to Trinity House dated 1816. It is his grandsons, b 1827 and 1832, and his great grandsons I am looking at. > > Hilary > > > *************************************** > Send your List messages using **PLAIN TEXT** and always **TRIM AWAY** superfluous old messages in replies. > > List Admin can be contacted at: Eng-Surrey-admin@rootsweb.com. > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-SURREY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message _________________________________________________________________ Save time by using Hotmail to access your other email accounts. http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/167688463/direct/01/

While the Docklands material index much of the apprenticeship records of this company, it is a very complicated archive at the Guildhall Library. Only a few of the series were indexed by Mr Cottrell. The catalogue can be looked at online at http://librarycatalogue.cityoflondon.gov.uk/www-bin/www_talis Enter LWA in a Classification search. Regards Cliff Webb Cliff Webb Director Rattner Mackenzie Limited A subsidiary of HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc. Mailto:cwebb@rmluk.com Tel: +44 20 7480 5511 This e-mail contains confidential information, and may contain privileged information, which is the property of the sender, and is intended solely for the attention and use of the addressee. If you are not the named addressee, you must not disclose, copy or retransmit this transmission or take any other action in reliance upon this transmission, and you should notify us as soon as possible. Rattner Mackenzie Limited is authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority / registered in England & Wales No.: 02303498, with registered office: Walsingham House, 35 Seething Lane, London EC3N 4AH. ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________