William Cafferata:
Book Keeper and Company Founder
Born on 7th September 1812, William Cafferata was the
youngest son of Lancashire surgeon-dentist,
Joseph Cafferata and his wife Mary (nee Pendleton). He was baptised at St
Peter’s Church (in Liverpool city centre) on
the 20th July with the family recorded as living at Cornwallis Street in the parish register.
(1)
We don’t know much of his early life, but when William was fourteen in 1827, he and his father signed an indenture which apprenticed him to Thomas Rodick for seven years. Rodick pledged to teach William the trade of merchant, and to pay him the sum of £5 in the first year. His wages would increase each year along with his developing skills: £10 in the second year, 10 guineas in the third year and so on. By the seventh year, William was getting good money whilst learning his trade: £30 guineas (The average annual earnings for an agricultural labourer in 1834 was £27 17s 10d (2) ). In return William promised that he would:
“His Secrets keep, his lawful Commands gladly obey and do …
His Master’s goods he shall not waste or embezzle … but in all things shall
demean and behave himself towards his Master and all his, as a faithful
Apprentice ought to do.”
As well as William’s own commitment in return for learning the trade, his father Joseph undertook to provide him with “meat, drink, washing & lodging and good sufficient wearing apparel, suitable for such an apprentice during the whole of the said term”. (3) William completed his apprenticeship on the 7th June 1834,
with Thomas Rodick saying that William had brought “much credit to himself and
much satisfaction to me”. |  |
By 1839, William was living at 13 Windsor Street, Toxteth along with his brother John who, like William, was described as a book keeper. It is probable that William carried on his book-keeping business from this address as he is listed there in Gore’s Liverpool Directory of 1839.
