CLEMENTS, Robert (Grimwade p.315)

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Indentures were signed by him in 1752 as the son of Thomas Clements, a carpenter from Brentford, to be the apprentice of Henry Taylor, Citizen and Goldsmith.
He married Elizabeth Moore in 1765 at St Sepulchre, Holborn. She was a spinster from St Mary, Aldermanbury.
Also in 1765 as a watch case maker from Aldermanbury he paid duties for the Apprentice Indentures of Caleb Lorrod.
Also in 1765 a maker’s mark was entered by him as a case maker from Aldermanbury and another in March 1770 as a case maker from 3 Little Britain.
The burial of a Robert Clements recorded at St Gregory by St Paul in July 1770 may be relevant.
At a later unrecorded date his wife Elizabeth signed for another maker’s mark for him from 18 Flett Lane and could relate to items assayed after his death.

[MCB]

Thanks to Pat (Silverly) more light can be thrown on the apprenticeship of Robert Clements.
Notes of a hearing in the King’s Court at the Guildhall, London before the Mayor and Alderman in October 1757 show that Robert was first turned over from Henry Taylor to Gabriel Rowlat (sic) of the Clockmakers Company and turned over again to John Foster of the same Company. John Foster turned Robert out of his service and refused to have him there again. The Court ordered that Robert should once again be turned over to another (unidentified) freeman for the remainder of his apprenticeship.
Robert Clements was eventually made free in the Goldsmiths Company in 1765 or 1766, this following City of London practice to grant freedom in the Company of the original master.
For an apprentice to serve four masters in seven years is unusual. Business failure is often the cause of one being turned over but here, it seems, the cause may have had something to do with the personalities of those involved.

Mike