On this day
A look through the Barbers' Company archive and library to highlight important and interesting events during the Company's history.
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On this day is held the feast day of saints Cosmas and Damian, patron saints of the Worshipful Company of Barbers. It is celebrated in the Catholic Church calendar on 26 September (27 September in the traditional calendar). Cosmas and Damian were twin brothers born in Arabia, and martyred as Christians in the during the […]
September 24, 2023
On this Day
On this day in 1562 diarist Henry Machyn recorded the following entry: “The x day of August was Barbur surgyons fest, and they capt ther communion at Sant Alphes at Crepull-gat, and master Recherdson dyd pryche, the skott ; ther was good syngyng ; and after to ther halle to dener, and after dener a […]
September 21, 2023
On this Day
On this day in 1606, Christian IV of Denmark with his brother-in-law of James I of England (and VI of Scotland) entered London as part of a lengthy state visit and processed through the city to great pageantry. On the 21st, the Livery companies had received a precept from the Lord Mayor ordering them to […]
July 31, 2023
On this Day
In July 1915 a letter was sent to Company members by the Clerk Frank Chorlton Lingard stating that: ‘The Court have decided to form a list or Roll of Honour of all freemen and liverymen of the Company serving in the present War and of their direct descendants who may not be actually members of […]
July 31, 2023
On this Day
On this day in 1722 the Court Minutes recorded that ‘The Court takeing into their Consideration Whether they wou’d renew the Lease of their Bargehouse at Lambeth of the ArchBishop of Canterbury by Virtue of a Lease which will expire in Aprill next The Court in regard the Company have no barge And That the […]
June 30, 2023
On this Day
On this day in 1600 it was recorded in the Court Minutes ‘…that George Langton apprentice to Mr. Ffrederick shall be committed to the compter for his irreverent behaviour towards his master’ Sidney Young’s Annals of the Barber-Surgeons notes that ‘apprentices always seem to have been a fruitful source of trouble both to their Masters […]
July 31, 2023
On this Day
On this day in 1676 Edward Arris, distinguished surgeon and Master of the Company in 1651, died two years after his wife Mary. Their marriage had lasted 60 years and produced 23 children, only one of whom (Thomas) survived their mother. A 1651 portrait of Arris and Sir Charles Scarborough performing an anatomical dissection remains […]
July 31, 2023
On this Day
On this day in 1747, after the separation of the Barbers and Surgeons it was recorded in the Court minutes that “The Master…had employed Mr Whiston the Bookseller to putt the Company’s Library in order and to make a Catalogue and valuation thereof. And that Mr Whiston had appraised the same at Twenty Guineas And […]
July 31, 2023
On this Day
On this day in 1635, the Court ordered that £10 be paid to the Churchwardens of the Church of St Alban, Wood Street, towards its rebuilding. This payment is recorded in the Wardens’ Great Accompt Book covering 1603-1659 (archive ref: D/2/1) and a photograph of the entry can be seen at the bottom of this […]
March 20, 2023
On this Day
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 […]
March 20, 2023
On this Day