On this Day - 20 December - Barbers Company

On this day in 1745, the Court minutes record the desire of the Surgeons to separate from the Barbers.

This day the Gentlemen on the Surgeons side having made known at this Court their desire of being Separated from the Gentlemen on the Barbers and that each may be made a distinct and independent Body free from each other and producing a Case intended to be Offered to the Honourable House of Commons praying such Separation which being read at this Court It was Agreed that the following Gentlemen on the Barbers side vizt: Mr Warden Negus, Mr Parker, Mr Maurice, Mr Truelove and Mr Haddon & On the Surgeons side vizt: Mr Serjt. Dickins, Willm. Petty Esq., James Dansie Esq., Mr Freke and Mr Sainthill, be a Committee Appointed to meet on Monday next at the Kings Arms Tavern in Saint Pauls Church Yard at One of the Clock at Noon to receive the Proposals from the Gentlemen on the Surgeons side for such Separation and that when they had done so that the Gentlemen on the Barbers side Members of this Court should lay the same before the Livery of their side by a meeting to be held for that purpose and that a Court of Assistants should be held on the Tenth day of January next at which time the Gentlemen on the Barbers side Members of this Court should then Report their Opinion and Assent or Dissent to such proposals made.

In January 1745, the surgeons presented a petition to Parliament seeking the dissolution of the union between the Barbers and Surgeons. The Barbers petitioned against the separation but were unsuccessful and the union was dissolved by Act of Parliament in 1745. The Act is listed on the Parliamentary Archives catalogue as "An Act for making the Surgeons of London and the Barbers of London two separate and distinct Corporations" (Public Act, 18 George II, c. 15). It received Royal Assent on 2 May 1745.

One of the main instigators of the split was the surgeon William Cheselden who in 1744 was Renter Warden of the United Company.