Origin doubts

Convict records twice record that William Ward was a chimney sweep before his arrest in London.

I did some looking for records of chimney sweeps. I found a quite a lot of stories about sweeps - many current chimney cleaning companies have a story on their website. If you are interested, and have some time, there is a very detailed story about the exploitation of young boys as chimney sweeps, see:

• The Poor Life of An Apprentice Chimney Sweep - The History of Children at Work

This led me to question whether it is even worth looking for William's parents! Given that Master Sweeps would often source boys from poor families, including boys from outside London, several questions posed themselves:

• What are the chances that William was never baptised? (Remembering that the only records kept in those times were baptisms - no birth registers were kept.)
• Was he even born in London, or could he have come from a rural family?
• If he was very young when apprenticed (some were only 4) would he have had any clear memory of his family?

I will finish my work on the 19 Williams baptised in London, but I have prepared myself to find nothing helpful!