The Annals of the Barber-Surgeons of London

Letter L. Folio Thirteen in the Third Year of the Reign of King

Edward the Fourth from the Conquest.

The chief point which strikes us on reading the foregoing Charter is, that it contains a great deal relative to Surgery, and little, indeed nothing, concerning Barbery, and yet it is granted ostensibly to the Barbers!

Now the Surgical side being the more important one of the craft, and the raison d’être of the Charter being in a great measure to provide for the regulation of Surgery and the correction of abuses in that profession, this silence as to Barbery and recognition of Surgery would seem to be an evidence that the practice of the latter, more or less, was the rule rather than the exception with members of the Company of Barbers; and, as the Masters or Governors were empowered to make “statutes and ordinances” (by-laws) for the governance of the mystery, it was doubtless considered unnecessary to descend into any details concerning shaving and the like in a Royal Charter.

The preamble of this Charter is exceedingly quaint and interesting, reciting how through the “ignorance, negligence and stupidity” of various Barbers and other practitioners in Surgery, many of the King’s lieges had “gone the way of all flesh.” Then at the request of “our beloved, honest and free men of the said Mystery of Barbers,” the King grants to them, to be one body perpetual, etc., that two of the chief men of the Company (no doubt the two then existing Masters “exercising the faculty of Surgery”) may with twelve or at least eight other skilled Barber-Surgeons, elect two Masters annually: this provision in itself is singular, as it would seem to imply that the body then incorporated was to be ruled by two Masters only; but a reference to our list of Masters and Wardens will shew that from the year 1448 the Company has been ruled by four Masters, and so on in unbroken succession to the present time; these other two Masters therefore were Masters of the Barbers proper, about whom nothing was said in the Charter, but who were chosen annually in accordance with ancient custom, the Chief or First Master being alternately a Barber, and a Barber-Surgeon.

The term “Wardens” is a more modern designation used for convenience sake; the Master and the three Wardens are, strictly speaking, the four “Masters or Governors.”

The Corporation was to have perpetual succession, and a Common seal, to hold lands of a certain value, to be able to plead and to be impleaded, to make by-laws, to have the scrutiny and correction of (apparently all) Surgeons in the City and suburbs, as also the oversight of all their instruments and medicines, etc., and to have the power of inflicting punishment, by fine or imprisonment, on offenders. None were to practise Surgery until examined and approved by the Masters and presented to the Mayor, and authority was given for the freemen of the Company to be admitted into the freedom of the City.

Another clause in the Charter was one which, whilst it conferred a valuable privilege upon the Company, was a source of continual strife and conflict with the Civic authorities, for by it all our freemen claimed to be exempted from serving on Juries and inquisitions, and this immunity, though constantly disputed, was as often asserted and maintained, with various qualifications.

In The Times, November 26, 1839, is an account of the exemption of certain freemen of the Company from serving on Juries at the Central Criminal Court. In this instance neither the claimants nor the Recorder knew much about the matter--for one of the applicants said, in reply to the Recorder, “I rest my claim on the Charter of Henry VIII”!! And, further on in the discussion, the same bold Barber had the effrontery to declare that “the privilege was confirmed by an Act passed in the reign of George II.” This was the Act which separated the Surgeons from the Barbers, and which did not confirm to the latter the exemption claimed, but our freeman gained his point, and the Recorder only grumbled.

As recently as 1868, a case was submitted to Sir J. D. Coleridge (now Lord Chief Justice) as to the legality of the exemption, and he gave his opinion in favour of it. However, since then the Jury Act has, alas! swept away this cherished immunity, and thus let the Barbers down to the level of their fellow citizens.

With the possession of their Charter the Company were now in an unassailable position, and we hear no more of their molestation by the Guild of Surgeons.

1470. The Company about this period came into possession of some freehold houses in St. John the Baptist upon Walbrook, to be held both for trust and corporate purposes. These houses are stated in our books to have been devised to us by Will (dated 2nd Dec., 1470) of Robert Ferbras. There are three old title deeds of the period still at the Hall, relating to these houses, and in the Court of Husting at Guildhall are two Wills of Robert Ferbras, Surgeon, both proved, one dated 4th Nov., 1470, and the other 17th April, 1472--but neither of these contain the bequest to the Barbers. It is, therefore, probable that Robert Ferbras conveyed the houses to the Company in his lifetime, and this fact being overlooked in course of years, it came to be said that they passed by his Will.

1482. 26th April.--The Company applied to the Court of Aldermen, presenting a set of ordinances for the government of the craft and for the regulation of apprentices, praying that the same might be allowed and ratified, which was done. The official entry under this date is in Letter-Book L. 174, and the following are the Ordinances:--

Memorand qˀd sexto decimo die Aprilis Anno regni Regis Edwardi quarti post conq̃m vicesimo scᵭo pˀᵬi hõies Artis sive mistere BarbitonsoꝜ Civitatis london venˀ hic in Curˀ dc̃i Dnĩ Regis in Camˀa Guyhald Civitatꝭ pˀdcĩ coram Willm̃e Haryot milite ac maiore & Aldr̃is ejusdem Civitatis et porrexer̃nt eisdem maiore & Aldr̃is quand{a}m billam sive supplicacõem Cujus tenor sequitur in hec verba.

TO THE RIGHT hono{r}able lord the Mair And the right wirshipful Sovˀaignes the Aldermen of the Citee of London Mekely besechen your goode lordship̃ and maistershippes all the pˀsones enfraunchesed in the crafte and mistere of Barbours w{t}in the Citee of london That it wold pleas the same your lordshipp and maistershippes for the Wirship̃ of the said Citee And for the goode Rule to be had w{t}in the saide Craft to graunte and establissh thise articles folowyng And theym to be entred of Recorde in the Chambre of the said Citee before your said lordship and maistershippes hereafter for to be observed and executed.

FFIRST that there shall no ffraunchesed Barbo{r.} w{t}in the said Citee take any man or Child to be his Apprentice before that he hath pˀsented the same man or Child unto the maister and Wardeyns of the said Craft for the tyme being, to thentent that the same maister and Wardeyns may duely examyne ovˀsee serche and behold by the Colour and complexion of the said man or Child if he be avexed or disposed to be lepur or gowty maymed or disfigured in any pˀties of his body Whereby he shall fall in disdeyn or lothefulnesse unto the sight of the Kingꝭ liege people And also to be examyned of his birth and of his kynrede or if there be on hym any bonde claymed, And if he be founde defectif in any of thise poyntꝭ that than no fraunchesed Barbo{r.} of the saide Citee shall take hym to his Apprentice uppon payn to pay v{li.} Whereof that one half shall Remayn unto the Chambre of the said Citee.

ALSO that evˀy enfraunchesed barbour that taketh any apprentice shall pay to the almes of the said Craft for the same Apprentice iij{s.} iiij{d.} to be paied in fourme folowyng that is to sey, at the first pˀsentacion of the Appˀntice xx{d.} and that other xx{d.} in the same yeere When he shall be enrolled And the names of the maister and appˀntice and the yeres of appˀntishode of the same appˀntice shalbe writen in a book by the said maistˀ & Wardeyns And he that disobeith this article or orden{a}nce shall pay unto ye almes of the said Craft of barbours xiij{s.} iiij{d.} that one half thereof to be applied to thuse of the said Chambre and that other half to the almes of the said Craft. And if it so be that the said Apprentice Dye w{t}in the first yere, or voide so that the said maistˀ take none avauntage by the same Appˀntice, that than the same money stonde for the next Appˀntice, And if it hapne the said maister to take any pˀfet [profit] for the said Appˀntice by way of Sale or sˀvice and that so pˀved before the said maister and Wardeyns that than the saide maister of the said Appˀntice to be charged for the said iij{s.} iiij{d.}

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