This Indenture Witnesseth, That [Robert Shaw Son of Robert Shaw of the City of Lichfield Book Seller with his father’s consent .... ] doth put h[im]self Apprentice [to Richard Robinson of Wolverhampton in the County of Stafford Toymaker]..

[Lichfield, England], 1736. Oblong document on vellum, upper edge scallopped (143 x 214 mm.), recto with letterpress form accomplished in manuscript, in brown ink (slightly faded but legible, one passage erased), large woodcut armorial initial and 2 pence duty mark, strip of three blue sixpence stamps, red wax seal, paper stamp on verso. (Slight soiling to corners and part of top edge.)***

A bookseller joins the toy trade: Robert Shaw, son of the Lichfield bookseller of the same name, agrees to an apprenticeship of seven years, during which he promises to serve his master, keep his secrets, to not waste or lend his Goods; and “Taverns, Inns, or Ale-houses he shall not haunt, At Cards, Dice, Tables, or any other unlawful Game he shall not play”... For this the toymaker Richard Robinson agrees to pay 5 pounds into the public charity, pledges to feed and lodge his new Apprentice, and (added in manuscript) promises his father Robert Shaw [Sr.] “to fund and provide for his said Son wearing apparell of all sorts as well Linens as Woolens during the said term.”

Lichfield, Staffordshire, was the childhood home of Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), whose father Michael Johnson was also a bookseller; as a boy Johnson sometmes bound books for his father to help earn money. Contemplation of the latter’s debt-ridden career may throw light on the motives of his colleague Shaw Sr. in sending his son out to learn another profession.

A bookseller Robert Shaw is known from archival sources, including a payment to him in 1737 by Lichfield Cathedral for lettering books in the library (cf. Peter Hanks, The Bookbinder and Historical Invisibility: Bookbinding and the Staffordshire book trade 1750-1850, thesis, University of Wolverhampton [2024]). (Booksellers in this period were more involved in actual book production, and their duties included supplying bookbindings.)

A colleague who previously owned this document remarked: “I have not been able to determine how Robert Shaw the Younger fared in the toy trade or if he was able to follow the indenture’s commandment `Taverns, Inns or Ale-houses he shall not haunt,’ which he never could have done if he’d followed his father into bookselling.”