William Squire is recorded as having taken at least 3 apprentices; Charles Carless in 1754; Richard Knight in 1760 (each 15 guineas premium); and James Rees (sometimes: Reece) in 1777 (30 guineas premium). In the first indenture, Squire's trade is described as: SpringSaw-maker; in the second: Springsaw & Plain-maker Recent research has shown that Carless - son of a wealthy (then bankrupt via the pursuit of claims in Chancery) Midlands ironmonger/"nailman" - remained local to the St Anne's/St Marylebone areas after serving his indenture to William Squire . . . . even after inheriting a substantial house & its land in Staffordshire in 1779. His last two known London addresses were paying Westminster Rates from 1789-1792 in Fauconberg Court (just East of Soho Square, just South of Oxford Street - from context a plausible workshops site); & also, as listed in Wakefield's 1789; then 1794 Directories, trading as a saw-maker a few hundred metres North of Oxford Street, in Windmill Street: James Rees was listed as a saw-maker in the 1789 edition of Wakefield; & as a saw-maker in the 1790 Westminster Poll Book: . . . repeatedly in Westminster Rates Books between 1784-1792; & as a saw-maker in a Sun Insurance Policy of 1790 ref: MS 11936/368/569808 - all for an address in Crown Court, Soho - East of #102 Wardour Street, about half-way to Soho Square. James Rees died before July 1792 - the month his widow, nursing their 18 months-old first-born, took out a Sun Insurance Policy ref: MS 11936/389/602293 on 3, Crown Court; there is no London record for Charles Carless after the listing in the 1794 Wakefield Directory. Sadly; there is no record of any of William Squire's 3 apprentices themselves taking an apprentice; and John Peters' known apprentice of 1785 - Thomas Tidd - died that same year. On a potentially happier note, a couple of weeks before Christmas 1795 an eight-year-old orphan - Henry Bedford - left the St. Martin's Workhouse: "On likeing to Mr. Geo: Stevens Saw Maker No.22 Crown Street" . . . . and as of January 13th 1796 was "bound" ie employed. If any saws bearing the stamp of either of these two ex-Squire-apprentices have surfaced, I would be grateful if images were posted here.
Nice in-depth research, I've not come across Wakefields 1794 Directory. Worth keeping an eye out. https://books.google.com.au/books/a...desman_s_Gen.html?id=TxZe5ffcpIkC&redir_esc=y The British Library might be worth looking up.
Ray - Hi - happily, have obtained a print copy of Wakefield's 1789/90 Directory, to consult alongside the (2001) CD version of the 1790s Universal British Directory, & Google-books online Wakefield's 1794 Directory - between them, they give fair coverage of London in that half-decade.