This document is an apprentice indenture, which is a legal contract that binds one person to another in an apprenticeship to learn a trade. The word indenture comes from these indents made by cutting the paper in a curved line. All indentures had two copies of a form with the same wording. Both copies would be placed on top of one another and then cut at the top. Because these curved lines were identical, coming from the same cut, they proved that both copies were two matching versions of the same contract.