On this Day - 6 April - Barbers Company

On this day in 1709, the Company received the Ordinances which were compiled in January 1708 and examined, approved, signed and sealed by Lord Cowper, Lord Chancellor; Sir John Holt, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench; and Sir John Trevor, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. A transcript of the Ordinances can be read here on the members section of the website. This is the last royal document issued to the Company which is now governed by the Act of Parliament of 1745. This Act created two separate bodies - The Worshipful Company of Barbers and the Company of Surgeons (later The Royal College of Surgeons of England). It permitted the Barbers’ Company to continue to exercise all the earlier rights and privileges of the former united Company, except those which related to surgery. Today only five sections of this Act remain in force including the Company’s right to hold its land in perpetuity, as originally granted by Edward IV in 1462, which is the reason the Company holds the freehold of the land on which the Hall stands today.

More information about the Company's charters can be found here on the members section of the website.

The Company had close links to Queen Anne through Charles Bernard, her Serjeant-Surgeon. Bernard was admitted to the freedom of the Company on 4 December 1677 after an apprenticeship with Henry Boone. Bernard held positions at Charterhouse and St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and he became the leading surgeon of his day, famous for his skill and caution in operating. Bernard was appointed Serjeant Surgeon to Queen Anne in 1702. Within the Company he became a Court Assistant in 1697 and examiner of surgeons in 1700 where he played an important role in the examination of surgeons for the navy. He was elected Master of the Company in 1703. While serving as Master he helped the Company in two key matters. He obtained from the Queen the remission of a debt of nearly £1000 which was owed by the Company to the Exchequer, and he had a Sheriff of London dismissed for failing to produce the bodies of four executed felons which was a legal requirement.

A portrait of Charles Bernard hangs in the Great Hall at Barber-Surgeons’ Hall. It’s notable for its ornate frame which incorporates real seashells and sand below the gilding - a reference to his links with the navy. The Latin inscription under the portrait translates:

“The Company had this portrait painted of Charles Bernard, principal surgeons to the Queen. He was an excellent Greek and Latin scholar; a highly skilled surgeon, with a frank and honest disposition. His abilities were greatly valued by the Most Serene Queen Anne. He enjoyed and outstanding reputation amongst both friends and strangers. He owned a library of almost a thousand books. This commemorates his outstanding services to the Most Serene Queen, to the Exchequer and his other distinguished services to the community of surgeons.”

It is through the good services of Bernard that Queen Anne gave the Company the beautiful oval wine cistern currently in its collection. The silver cistern is on a gadrooned spreading oval foot. The lower part of the body is applied with cut-card work (thin sheets of silver which have been soldered to the body of the object) and two demi-female figures on an acanthus foliate bracket form the handles. It was hallmarked in London in 1704 and bears the maker’s mark of Pierre Harache. The base of the cistern is engraved with a presentation inscription in Latin which translates:

"To the Company of Surgeons of London in consideration of their fidelity and diligence in examining surgeons to serve in the Royal Navy, the most Serene Queen Anne, the best of Princes, presented this as a gift, 1704, at the request of Charles Bernard Esquire, Principal Surgeon to the Queen, Master of this Company."

NB: In 1707 a relation of Charles Bernard, also named Charles Bernard, became Clerk to Company.