Many indentures found their own positions through family or friends. Dr. Carroll arranged with an employee, probably also an indentured servant, to indenture his son, a trained wheelwright who was living in England. Dr. Carroll wanted his London agent to contract the son, named William Rix, for four years, at 10 pounds per year and pay his passage to Maryland.
"…in case that one William Rix a young man a Wheel Wright by Trade appys (sic) to you That you will have him indented to serve me here for 4 years allowing wages at ten pounds Annum this money, send him in one of yr (sic) ships or any other coming this way & charge me his passage his Father lives with me and desires it may be so ordered…"
Dr. Carroll in a letter to Mr. P. Smith, March 9, 1732.
Image
Wheelwright from The Book of Trades, or, Library of the Useful Arts, 1815. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Libraries.