"APPRENTICE BOND" [manuscript title at head of a partly printed document, completed in manuscript, between William Steele, Chairman of Wilson County Court, on behalf of Johnson Underwood, an orphan, and George W. Scroggins, binding Underwood to Scroggins as an apprentice, until age 21, in the business of tayloring]. Signed at the end by Steele and Scroggins, 23 March 1829

Broadside document, 12 1/8 x 7 5/8 inches. Crude letterpress, probably in, or near Wilson County, located just east of Nashville. "Said county court hath this day bound unto the said ["Geo. W. Scroggon" (sic)] the said orphan ["Johnson Underwood"] now about ["twelve or 13"] years of age . to serve and oblige ["Scroggon" (sic), smudged] in all lawful commands &c. and the said ["Geo. W. Scoggon" (sic)] on his part doth oblige himself to learn the said apprentice the art and mystery of ["tayloring business"] and to provide . diet, clothes, lodgings . and shall teach . ["him"] . to read, write, and cypher, as far as the rule of three, and at the end of ["his] apprenticeship to pay the said apprentice ["a full & complete set of tools and a good suit of clothes"]." Wilson County was first settled in 1797 and William Steele is listed as one of the early settlers. A "Johnson Underwood," of Smith County, appears in several court documents during the 1850s and 1860s as a Tennessee slaveholder; Smith County is adjacent to Wilson County, to the east. Clean splits at folds, neatly repaired on verso. (11130). …