In 1694 Thomas Best of Elizabeth City was assigned by his master to a blacksmith for a period of seven years, with a view to his instruction as a smith, at the end of which time he could claim a full set of tools used in that trade, and the amount of grain and quantity of clothing allowed by the custom of the Colony.
In 1694, a child aged five years was apprenticed in the same county for a period of sixteen ears. One of the duties performed on the part of the master was to teach his youthful servant so that he should be able to read a chapter in the Bible, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. Failure on the part of the master subjected him to pay a fine of five hundred pounds of tobacco.
Source: Records of York County, vol. 1684-1687, pp. 60, 61, Virginia State Archives
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