A vaguely European, vaguely 14th-15th-century AU setting
Two questions:
1. How did rural craftsmen such as millers, village blacksmiths, potters etc. take on apprentices in the late Middle Ages? An apprenticeship was a major legal commitment on both sides, I can’t see late-medieval people being satisfied just with a verbal agreement. (And even
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As to continuing practice: yes, women who were the heirs of masters would carry on their 'craft or mystery', and would take new apprentices, too. I've not seen direct evidence of what happened when a business packed up totally, but I believe apprentices could be transferred to new masters, for an appropriate consideration, to serve out their indentures.
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That's true of the 11th-12th centuries, and no doubt of much of Eastern Europe throughout the medieval period, but certainly not true of late-14th/15th century England. The better-off peasants of the period kept themselves busy writing wills, leases, marriage settlements, legal accusations against each other - all sorts of stuff. They were seriously keen on documentation ( ... )
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A *journey*man would literally *journey*. Having finished his apprenticeship if he wasn't set up to inherit a particular business (from, say, his father) he would go around, working for different Masters, seeing who he could impress, saving up to start his own business (if he ever can).
Oh, and randomly - the Silk Women in London were IIRC the only guild to be exclusively female, and the only guild to take female apprentices (there were women trading as master craftsmen, having inherited a husband's or father's business, but they didn't serve a formal apprenticeship). They were concerned with making silk narrow-wares - ribbons and laces and such.
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I'm not entirely sure a rural craftsman could formally take on an apprentice, as opposed to just taking on a boy as a servant and teaching him the trade. If he could, I'd assume either the manorial court or the Justice of the Peace would be the legal authority before whom you'd swear oaths and to whom you'd appeal if something went wrong.
I've seen court cases as late as the 19th century where there was no more than a verbal contract; or indeed no contract at all but just an assumption that local custom would apply.
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