The constitution of the governing body of the Company has grown up in the course of time from one Prime Master or Ruler to a Master with three Wardens and twenty Assistants, forming a Court of twenty-four members.
We gather from the earliest records, that the business of the Company was then transacted by the meeting together in Common Hall, of the whole fraternity (which probably included both freemen and liverymen), under the presidency of a single Master, who, as in the case of Richard le Barber in 1308, was invested with the supervision of the craft, and power to make search and scrutiny, and to punish offenders.
In 1376 two Masters were appointed to rule the craft, while in 1388 we find that two Masters and two “Surveyors” formed the governing body.
In 1416 is recorded the admission of five Masters, three of whom are described as “Barbitonsores” (i.e., Barbers proper) and two as “Masters of the Barbers exercising the faculty of Surgery.” In 1428 there were four Masters, two of each class, and this number was the governing body at the time of Edward IV’s Charter of Incorporation, in 1462.
As has been elsewhere remarked, this Charter provides for the appointment of two Masters only, and they to be skilled in Surgery, to be chosen by twelve Electors taken from the Commonalty; but as our records preserve the names of four Masters elected in that year, and so on ever since in unbroken succession, there cannot be any doubt but that (the Charter dealing almost entirely with the regulation of matters surgical) the two Masters of the “Barbers side” were left to be elected in accordance with old custom, or under the By-laws which the Company were, by their Charter, empowered to make.
At what period a Court of Assistants was created in our Company is unknown, but I am inclined to think the date is about 1480 to 1500. The four “Masters or Governors” (answering to our “Master and three Wardens”) were chosen out of the Commonalty by twelve electors yearly, and do not, as seems by the lists preserved, appear to have gone up annually by seniority as now they do, i.e., from third Warden to second, and so on. Those who had served as second, third, or fourth Governors, if not chosen to higher office the next year, as a general rule took their places again as simple liverymen; whilst those who had served as Prime or Chief Governor were, at the expiry of their term of office, designated “Ancient Masters,” and these, with some past Wardens, having become qualified by experience in the affairs of the Company would naturally be consulted by the ruling Governors who sought their “assistance” and advice, and thus grow up into a Court of Assistants[168] (nearly always in early time spelt “Assistance”) and be recognised to a great extent as a power in the direction of the Company’s business.
The earliest mention of Assistants is in the By-laws settled by Sir Thomas More in 1530, though throughout these By-laws the actual ruling power was evidently in the four Masters or Governors. The Assistants are here twice referred to, in one case where it is enacted that the Masters shall not admit a “fforen” to the freedom without the assent of the “xxiiijti assistentes,” and in another place they are to have, with the Masters, the election of the Livery.
The Act 32 Henry VIII is silent as to Assistants, vesting all power in the Masters or Governors. In 1557 at one of the Courts twenty-one Assistants and four Masters attended, and at a Court held 19th July, 1595, the names of twenty-five Assistants are recorded. The number seems to have varied with the times, the full Court, however, never exceeding four Masters and thirty-two Assistants. The Assistants have always been elected by the Court, and the custom became in time to choose the senior liveryman whenever a vacancy occurred, though there does not appear to have been at any time a by-law to that effect, and indeed this practice has been departed from on very many occasions.
The Election of Masters prior to the year 1633 was on the Monday next before the feast of St. Bartholomew the Apostle (Aug. 24); from 1633 to 1745 it was held on the third Thursday in August, and since 1745 it has been held on the second Thursday in August.
The ancient practice was for the whole body of the livery to be summoned to the Hall in their livery gowns, hoods and caps on the Monday at 8 o’clock in the morning “at the furthest” to whom the Masters, sitting in Court, declared the cause of their assembling; this done, the Masters retired, and the livery, sitting there, chose twelve of their number to be “Electors,” of whom six were to be “expert Surgeons,” and four at least must never have served the office of Master or Governor. The Clerk then called the twelve Electors out (the rest of the livery remaining in the Hall). The Masters then delivered to the Electors the “Bills of Election,” each Master nominating two Barbers and two Surgeons, so that sixteen in all were nominated, and, after administering to them the oath prescribed, the Electors retired to a private room apart to make their choice. Should the Electors deem that one or more of themselves ought to have been put in nomination, they were to send for the Masters who were bound to withdraw such person or persons, and choose others in their place. The Bills were to be made out in accordance with seniority, but the Electors were not bound to choose by seniority. Having made their choice, the Electors sent for the Masters and delivered to them a Bill with the names of the four persons selected, and these names were (under a heavy penalty) to be kept secret until after the “dener.”