THE CLERK.
The office of Clerk of the Company is doubtless as ancient as the Company itself, although there is no mention of one prior to the year 1530[185]; but as there were always registers to be kept, fees to receive, apprentices to bind, and the multifarious business of a Livery Guild to conduct and record, we conclude that the office has existed from the earliest period.
The Clerk in Queen Mary’s time seems to have combined the occupation of gardener with that of his office, and for this he had but a small fee in addition to his stipend. Later on the Clerks appear to have devised fees for every conceivable kind of business which could possibly be transacted at Barber-Surgeons’ Hall, and in the 17th and 18th centuries the income derived from this source alone must have been very considerable.
The Company has been served by good, bad and indifferent Clerks; we prefer to dwell only on the former and record the names among others, of Francis Rowdon, Charles Bernard and John Paterson as being worthy to be held in goodly remembrance. The books of the Company abound in testimony to their ability as well as to the fidelity and zeal which they displayed in the execution of their office.
1st October, 1555. The first Clerk of whom there is any record is Thomas Apulton (or Apleton), who, being Beadle, was promoted to that office.
As will be seen elsewhere, the Company had a fair garden in Monkwell Street, and the following interesting minute connects it with the Clerk:—