29th October, 1751. It is ordered that upon all future days for swearing in the Lord Mayor of this City at Westminster when this Company shall have their Stand as usual No Liveryman shallbe admitted into the same without leave of the Master unless he shall walk in the Publick Procession cloathed in his proper Livery gown and hood according to his summons.
3rd October, 1752. It was further ordered—
That two men and a constable shall be hired to guard the Stand and see that the said Order be complied with.
9th November, 1765. Several liverymen notwithstanding former orders to the contrary, having appeared on the Company’s Stand on Lord Mayors’ days without their gowns and hoods, it was ordered that any liveryman transgressing in the like in future, should be fined half-a-guinea.
THE YEOMANRY.
The Yeomanry of the Barber-Surgeons appear to have had a most chequered existence, having been “established” and “put downe” several times, until finally they appear to have died out both in constitution and in name.
The Yeomanry answered exactly to the class of Members who are now styled “Freemen,” and for a long period were the most numerous body in the Company. In early times the numbers of the Livery or Clothing were strictly limited, and under the Tudors and Stuarts rarely exceeded fifty, but as the persons who were compelled to take up their freedom, and those who came in voluntarily or by patrimony and servitude have always been a numerous section, it appears to have been considered politic to give a constitution to these inferior members of the Mystery, and consequently a Yeomanry, or Company within the Company was set up, and to this the new freeman was admitted after he had been presented and sworn before the Masters or Governors of the Clothing.