ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the family as a unit, between the beginnings of independence, through its formation in marriage, expansion through the birth of children, to its dissolution by the death of its primary members, the parents, and the aftermath of that dissolution. Apprenticeship represented a much longer-term, more formal relationship, which implied training in a craft or trade. Although a significant minority of the population was excluded, youth often ended, and families began, with the formation of a new household through marriage, and examining the critical process of courtship by which this was achieved is vital to understanding how families came into being. Service and the more formal relationship of apprenticeship often acted as a mechanism for the control, socialisation and education of the young. One set of solutions to the problem of controlling the young was the system of service and apprenticeship.
