----- Original Message ----- From: "Turner" <peter@noduf.com> To: <warwick@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, October 12, 2007 5:44 PM Subject: [WAR] freeman > My elderly aunt recently died and she was telling me that her husband > Fracis Royal Warner was a freeman of Coventry > > Where can I find out more about when he was made a freeman of the city? Coventry Records Office have some details of people who were freemen in the nineteenth century and I found some details of some of my ancestors there. My great great grandfather, James Richardson, was a Freeman's Trustee (though I'm not sure exactly what that entails) from 1895 until his death in 1901. He had been a freeman since December 1863 when he completed a watchmaking apprenticeship. My understanding is that it was not automatic that you became a freeman after completing the apprenticeship - you had to apply to become a freeman and not all people who completed their apprenticeships chose to do so. Regards Peter

Fascinating!! Been reading stuff about City of Coventry from "British History" site. Any who served an apprenticeship successfully could apply to be A Freeman of the City of Coventry. Very different to system that most other cities operate? A Freeman Trustee seems to have received various pensions in compensation for enclosure and encroachment on their "commons". Lot more complicated than that, of course!! http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=16028 That's what I love about Family History research. You have to read about what was happening in those times to understand what was happening to your ancestors ... Anne Paling SHEFFIELD, U.K. >From: "Peter J Richardson" <pjrich.ntl@googlemail.com> >To: "Turner" <peter@noduf.com> >CC: warwick@rootsweb.com >Subject: Re: [WAR] freeman >Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 00:19:03 +0100 > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Turner" <peter@noduf.com> >To: <warwick@rootsweb.com> >Sent: Friday, October 12, 2007 5:44 PM >Subject: [WAR] freeman > > > > My elderly aunt recently died and she was telling me that her husband > > Fracis Royal Warner was a freeman of Coventry > > > > Where can I find out more about when he was made a freeman of the city? > >Coventry Records Office have some details of people who were freemen in the >nineteenth century and I found some >details of some of my ancestors there. My great great grandfather, James >Richardson, was a Freeman's Trustee >(though I'm not sure exactly what that entails) from 1895 until his death >in 1901. He had been a freeman since >December 1863 when he completed a watchmaking apprenticeship. My >understanding is that it was not automatic that >you became a freeman after completing the apprenticeship - you had to apply >to become a freeman and not all >people who completed their apprenticeships chose to do so. > >Regards >Peter > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >WARWICK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes >in the subject and the body of the message