The admission to membership in the Company has ever been by servitude, patrimony, or redemption, and the fines and fees payable have varied so much at different periods in our history, and have frequently been so capricious, that no attempt has been made to tabulate them, though references will be made here and there to the prevailing fees of the period. The fees for apprentices have always been of a nominal description, and generally so of freemen, though, in olden time, the Court, as became the Masters of the mystery of “bleeding,” not unfrequently bled a new member by a substantial fine on admission, but also put him to the expense of a dinner into the bargain.
The initial letter T is reduced from one in the Audit Book 1614–15.
An ample fine, suited to the period, has always been taken from the Liverymen who were, in the days of the Tudors and Stuarts a comparatively small section of the Company, and rarely exceeded fifty in number; they were always chosen from the more substantial of the Yeomanry, and if on election they refused “to take the clothing,” as was frequently the case, a heavy penalty was imposed, which, if not paid, the unhappy yeoman was forthwith committed to the Compter, where, upon reflection, he generally came to the conclusion to submit. It is right, however, to state that at all times the Court have, in cases where the proposed Liveryman was actually a poor man, remitted the fine, and allowed him to continue a yeoman; on the other hand, contumacious refusal was invariably met in the firmest manner and conquered.
The practice of calling up yeomen to the Livery was at times resorted to as a means of putting the Company into funds, and as these calls generally took place at periods of national trouble, when the coffers of the Company had been emptied by the King or the Parliament, the intended Liverymen were themselves not unfrequently in sore straits, and great contentions arose.
About one hundred and fifty years ago the practice of enforcing these fines was in regular operation, but since then it has been attended with varying success; not that the Company has not by law the power of enforcement, but a prejudice had grown up against the system, and the Court has been unwilling to sanction a resort to extremities.
Early in the present century three or four actions were brought against freemen to recover penalties of £20 for refusing to accept the Livery; in one case which was ripe for trial the Company withdrew the record and paid the costs, and the others seem to have been abandoned.
All freemen on being sworn were liable to pay “quarterage,” which has been from the earliest period, and still is, 2s. per annum.[169] On a man coming up for admission he was “presented,” that is, seen by the Court who enquired into his position, knowledge, fitness and general qualifications, and if approved he paid his fees and was sworn. Some of the earlier forms of oath will be seen on reference to the Ordinances, and that used up to a very recent period was as follows:—
You shall swear That you shall be True and Loyal to our Sovereign Lady Queen Victoria and faithful and true in all lawful things unto the Corporation and Company of the Mystery of Barbers of London, whereof you are now made free, and accordingly be obedient to the Master and Governors thereof: and as much as in you lieth maintain amity and unity therein; and obey observe and perform all the lawful rules statutes and ordinances thereof; and be proportionably contributory to the best of your power, to all lawful or reasonable charges contributions and payments belonging or necessarily appertaining to you to bear and pay as other Brethren of the same Company do. And also you shall obey all manner of summons or warnings done, or to be made by the Clerk Beadle or other officer of the said Company thereunto assigned in the name of the Master and Governors, having no lawful or reasonable excuse to the contrary. All these articles you shall duly, truly, fully and faithfully observe, perform and keep to the best of your power. So help you God.
A few years since, this oath was changed into a declaration, the words “You shall declare” being substituted for “You shall swear.”