The qualifications necessary to become a Freeman are:
- To be a direct descendant, through the male line, of an Hereditary Freeman.
or
- By completing an apprenticeship to a Leicester Freeman.
Freemen still receive their rights by inheritance. A Freeman must be the direct descendant of a Freeman on the male line of the family. Admission as a Freeman can be made at age 18 years.
Wherever possible applicants will be granted their freedom via their father assuming that he is a Freeman and was made free prior to the applicant's birth. If this is not possible the freedom will be derived via the grandfather, great grandfather, great great grandfather, and so on.
To take up the freedom, the applicant applies to the Town Clerk producing his full birth certificate and identification as to who he is and from whom he is claiming his freedom.
Where an applicant is claiming his freedom other than from his father, documentation will often be required to substantiate his claim - normally birth certificates are required. He then swears the
Freemen's Oath at an
annual ceremony before the Lord Mayor and the Town Clerk. A certificate of his freedom is then handed to him. The Freeman's Roll is kept in the Town Clerk's Office.
A man may also be enrolled as a Freeman if he has served an apprenticeship to a Freeman and his Indentures have been enrolled and recorded in the register by the Lord Mayor.
Prospective Hereditary Freemen residing in other countries may also apply to be made free and can subsequently be enrolled 'in absentia' by a notary public.
