London apprentices

See Virginia Woolf, A Passionate Apprentice The Early Journals 1897-1909, ed. Mitchell A. Leaska (London Hogarth, 1990), details from which are not noted here. 

By Charles Collins, Anthony Bristlebolt, William Trabret, Stephen Smith, Edward Waldgrave, Thomas Frisby, Edward Stanley, William White, Nicolas Blowd, John Floyd, in the name and behalf of themselves, and the young men and apprentices of the City of London. Who are cordial approvers of the paper called The agreement of the free people, i May 1640, and the defeated Burford-men s late vindication, dated 20 August i64g... 

Signed in the behalf of ourselves and the unanimous consent of the agents of the young men and apprentices of the City of London, that love and approve of the Agreement of the People, dated i May 1649, and the vindication of the late defeated men at Burford, entitled The Levellers vindicated. 

Petty (or Pettus), Maximilian (1617-after 1660) A Leveller. Of an Oxfordshire gentry family, he met Sexby when they were both apprenticed to the Grocers Company of London. Perhaps he was one of the group of radical apprentices who supported Lilbume in his troubles with the bishops and Star Chamber in 1637-9. prominent figure in the Leveller movement, he helped write the Agreement of the people and was chosen with Wildman as a civilian speaker at the Putney debates. He helped write the second Leveller Agreement of 1648 which the army offices remodelled. Obscure after 1649, he was a member of the republican club, the Rota, in 1659 to 1660. 

Except for the extract from the Pumey debates and the Young men s and apprentices outcry, all the texts are taken from editions in the Thomason Tracts in the British Library, all readily available on microfilm. The extract from the Putney debates is taken from Woodhouse s edition in Puritanism and liberty, with reference to C. H. Firth s edition in The Clarke Papers (Camden Society, London, vol. 1, 1891). The young men s and apprentices outcry is taken from the Bodleian Library edition printed at Oxford (which is exactly the same as the Thomason Tract edition printed in London, except for the title the London edition is called The Outcrys of the Young men and apprentices). 

Davy, Sir Humphry (1778-1829) A chemist, teacher, and inventor born in England, Davy began conducting scientific experiments as a child. As a teen he worked as a surgeon s apprentice and became addicted to nitrous oxide. He later researched galvanism and electrolysis, discovered the elements sodium, chlorine, and potassium, and contributed to the discovery of iodine. He invented the Davy safety lamp for use in coal mines, was a founder of the Zoological Society of London, and served as president of the Royal Society. 

In 1799 Marcet married Jane Hallimand (London 1769-28 June 1858), also of Swiss parentage and later very wealthy. She wrote a very popular Con-versations on Chemistry which first appeared anonymously, her name being given first in the 13 ed. (1837), and there were many American editions, by 1853 more than 160,000 copies were sold there. The book first interested Faraday in chemistry when he was binding a copy in his early days as a bookbinder s apprentice. In it two young ladies carry on conversations and perform experiments with Mrs. B. (Bryan ). Mrs. Marcet also wrote Conversations on Natural Philosophy, 1819, 1824, 1827, 3 1858, 14 ed. 1872 ... 

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