London, England, Freedom of the City Admission Papers, 1681-1930from Ancestry

This updated database, now with 710,889 entries, contains papers associated with an application for “Freemen” status. The basic information in this database is:

Surname
Date of indenture
Parent or guardian’s name
County of residence
Master’s name.

There are expected OCR errors. Look at this abstract.

How could someone be admitted as a Freeman 15 years before birth? Check the certificate image.

It shows he was admitted in February 1887, having been born after his father was admitted in 1850.

Out of interest, I asked Claude Sonnet for a transcription of the document. The summary was spot on: “The document appears to be a certificate of admission to the Freedom of the City of London, dated 1887, for Herbert John Allcroft.” ChatGPT4o’s transcription also got the 1887 date correct. In both, there were a few (different) transcription errors.

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