I mentioned in my last post Finding the Parents of William Hawley... One Step Closer..., that I found my 2nd great grandfather William Hawley in the 1850 census. William was 14 years old and living in the household of John W. Lockwood in Urbana, Steuben County, New York.
As you can imagine, I was very excited to find William in the 1850 census. However, finding him not living with his family, but with another family, at the age of 14, brought up more questions. I started to do some more research into reasons that a boy might not be living with his family at such a young age.
Something I found seemed to be a good possibility. I read a local history book about Steuben County that mentioned a young boy that was "bound out" at a young age to a local tradesman. I wasn't sure exactly what this meant but it made me curious, so time for more research.
Based on my research, when a young child was "bound out", they were basically an indentured servant. This practice was also sometimes called "pauper apprenticeship". This type of arrangement was typically treated as a guardianship in court records. There were many reasons that a child could be "bound out".
Some of the reasons could include:
- Working to earn money for their family
- The financial burden to support them had become too great
- Children that had
- lost their parents,
- been abandoned
- been abused
- become such a burden that their parents gave them up
Based on my research, children were typically bound out at around the age of 14, unless there was a need for them to be placed with a guardian at an earlier age. The guardian was typically responsible for teaching the child a trade and basic literary skills.
So if William was indentured to John Lockwood until the age of 21, as was typical, William should still be able to be found living with or near the Lockwood family at the time of the 1855 New York Census. So I started looking and I believe that I found him.
I found a Wm Haley, age 19 living in the household of Drew Glann in Urbana, Steuben County, New York. Also in the household was Drew's wife Mary and 2 other servants. The two other servants were Sarah Atwell, 23 years old, who had been blind from birth, and a young girl of 3 named Harriet Delong.
Although I had previously assumed that William would already be married and living with his wife Mercy by 1855, this record looked promising. The name was close, the location and the date also seemed correct. But, if William wasn't married yet, why wasn't he still living in the household of John Lockwood and his family?
Remember that we should always use the FAN club methodology when looking for connections in our genealogy. If you read my previous post, you will notice that the Surname Glann sounds familiar. That is because Drew Glann is the brother of Nancy Glann making him the brother in law of John Lockwood, with whom William was living in 1850.
So it appears that sometime between July 21, 1850, and June 21, 1855, William moved from living with John and Nancy to living with Nancy's brother Drew. Based on the 1850 census, Drew and his wife were married in 1850. The census also states that Drew is a farmer. My thought is that Drew may have needed help on the farm or building a new homestead for himself and his new bride and William moved in to help out or continue his apprenticeship.
- Age 0 - 1836 - William is born in Urbana, Steuben County, New York
- Age 14 - 1850 - William is bound out to John Lockwood (Assumption)
- Age 19 - 1855 - William is living with Drew Glann (Brother in law to John Lockwood)
- Age 21 - 1857 - William's indenture/apprenticeship to John Lockwood would have been complete (Assumption)
- Age 24 - 1860 - William is living in Nunda, Livingston County, New York with his wife Mercy and son Franklin and Charles
Steuben county did keep very good records for these guardianship agreements, which can be found online. I have spent the last few days looking for a record regarding William but have not yet found one. I have read that legal guardianship records were not always recorded if it was an agreement between the child's parents and the guardian. I will keep looking.
In the mean time, I believe that it is possible that something happened early in William's life that made it necessary for him to be bound out at a young age. Based on what I already know of William and his life in Michigan, it appears that he learned the trade of farming from John Lockwood and his family and went on to continue in this line of work for the rest of his life.
Thank you for following along on my journey to get to know my 2nd great-grandfather William Hawley. I have a feeling there will be a few more interesting stops just around the bend.
Great post. I had heard of indentured servitude and apprenticeships but did not realize it was still common in the 19th century. Thanks for the information!
Thank you David. I’m glad you enjoyed it. It was a learning experience for me as well. Judy G. Russell (The legal genealogist) did a really interesting webinar on the topic. It’s called DOWERED AND BOUND OUT:
Widows and Orphans Under the Law.
Thanks for reading.
Have a good day.
Rebecca
An amazing find! I think I found a relative in the household of another family too, but as a newborn, highly doubt he was a “bound boy.”