Worshipful Company of Barbers
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| Location | Barber-Surgeons' Hall Monkwell Square, London |
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| Date of formation | before 1308 |
| Company association | Surgery, Barbering |
| Order of precedence | 17th |
| Master of company | Professor James Carley FSA FRSC (2016 - 2017) |
| Motto | De Praescientia Dei |
| Website | http://www.barberscompany.org |
The Worshipful Company of Barbers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London, and ranks 17th in precedence.
The first mention of the Barbers' Company occurs in 1308, when Richard le Barbour was elected by the Court of Aldermen to keep order amongst his fellows. Barbers originally aided monks, who were at the time the traditional practitioners of medicine and surgery, because Papal decrees prohibited members of religious orders themselves from spilling blood. In addition to haircutting, hairdressing, and shaving, barbers performed surgery: neck manipulation; cleansing of ears and scalp; draining/lancing of boils, fistulae, and cysts with wicks; bloodletting and leeching; fire cupping; enemas; and the extraction of teeth.
Soon surgeons with little expertise in the haircutting and shaving arts of the barbers began to join the Company, but in 1368, the surgeons were allowed to form their own, unincorporated Fellowship or Guild. However, the Barbers' Guild retained the power to oversee surgical practices in London. The Barbers' Guild continued this oversight after it became, by Royal Charter of 1462, a Company.
The Fellowship of Surgeons merged with the Barbers' Company in 1540 by Act of Parliament to form the Company of Barbers and Surgeons. The Act specified that no surgeon could cut hair or shave another, and that no barber could practice surgery; the only common activity was to be the extraction of teeth. The barber pole, featuring red and white spiralling stripes, indicated the two crafts (surgery in red and barbering in white). Barbers received higher pay than surgeons until surgeons were entered into British war ships during naval wars.
The first Master of the Company of Barbers and Surgeons was the superintendent of St Bartholomew's Hospital and royal physician, Thomas Vicary. The presentation of the charter is the subject of a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger, in the collection of the Barbers' Company.
However, with the rising professionalism of surgery, in 1745 the surgeons broke away from the barbers to form the Company of Surgeons, which became the Royal College of Surgeons in 1800.
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