On this day in 1637, £10 was paid towards the ransom of the surgeon Thomas Wright who had been captured by the Turks. Presumably Wright was a surgeon on board a ship.
The charter granted to the Company in 1629 stated that all surgeons for the Navy were to be examined and approved by the Company without paying a fee, that all ships leaving English ports had to carry a surgeon approved by the Company, and that those surgeons had to have their chests and instruments inspected by the Company.
Image of "The Surgeons Mate" by John Woodall (1655) a copy of which is in the Barbers' library.
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