On this day in 1308 the presentation and admission of Richard le Barber as Supervisor or Master of the Barbers took place at Guildhall before the Court of Aldermen :
Richard le Barbour dwelling opposite to the Church of Allhallows the Less, was chosen and presented by the Barbers of London, on Tuesday next after the feast of Saint Lucy the Virgin (13th December) in the second year of the reign of King Edward, son of King Edward, before Sir Nicholas de Farndon, then Mayor of London, John de Wengrave and other Aldermen, to have supervision over the trade of the Barbers &c. And he was admitted and made oath that every month he would make scrutiny throughout the whole of his trade, and if he should find any among them keeping brothels, or acting unseemly in any other way, and to the scandal of the trade, he was to distrain upon them, and cause the distress to be taken into the Chamber (of London) &c.
Sidney Young in his Annals of the Barber-Surgeons tells us that this was the ‘first express entry which we have concerning our Company.’ The entry was recorded in Latin in book C of The Letter Books of the City of London, dated from 1275-1509 and lettered from A-Z, record the business matters and administration of the City of London.
It is from this entry 716 years ago, ‘Tuesday next after the feast of Saint Lucy the Virgin’ falling on 17th December 1308, that the Barbers’ Company takes its date of existence.
The Letter Books contain a number of further entries concerning the Company and individuals associated with it, including the following noted by Sidney Young:
‘1310. On Wednesday next after the feast of the Nativity, 4th Edward II, Gerard the Barber was sworn keeper of the Gate of Newgate (Letter-Book D. 1 13), and there are other entries of Barbers being appointed keepers or porters at the City gates ; from one of these, in 1375, it would seem that they were to keep a strict watch that no lepers should enter the city, and it was doubtless on account of their surgical knowledge enabling them to distinguish those afflicted with leprosy, that these offices were conferred upon them.‘
The business of the Company in its early days was transacted by the fraternity meeting in ‘Common Hall’ (a term used to describe a gathering of liverymen). In the 1440s, the Barbers built a Hall on the edge of the City in the area of the north-west corner of the Roman Fort of London, where the Company remains to this day.
Further reading:
Calendar of letter-books preserved among the Archives of the Corporation of the City of London at the Guildhall, Edited by Reginald R. Sharpe (London: 1899-1912). Available to read online
Company entries in the Letter-Books from Annals of the Barber-Surgeons of London, Sidney Young, (London: 1890). Available to read online