The Annals of the Barber-Surgeons of London

by Unknown

Item. When any Master of the said Fraternity has a wife dead, the brethren of the said Fraternity shall be at the Vigil and at the Mass on the day of her burial and at the month’s obit, and that brother who is absent at any of the three times shall pay for each time that he be absent, in place of the costs and other expenses which he would have borne if he had been present, three pence to their common box.

Item. That no brother of the said Fraternity entice any servant from the service of his master, privily or openly.

Item. If any dispute arise between any of the brethren, which God forbid, it is to be amicably settled by the decision of the Masters of the said Fraternity [and they are] to deal plainly,[33] and that no one sue another in other manner than at the assize (?) [and then only] if he be empowered by leave of the said Masters to be recorded.

Item. That each brother of the said Fraternity shall come each quarter of the year and pay his quarterage to the collectors[34] . . . . . .

Item. It is agreed between all the said brethren that whoever of them refuses his office when it comes to him, if he wishes to be relieved of it, that he pay to their common box.

Item. If any brother be absent from their Mass and Feast when it shall be once a year, he shall pay so much in offerings and all other things as one present.

Item. That none of the said brethren put [?] another out of his house.

Item. If any brother by chance delay his payments beyond a year-and-a-half, that he make acquittance within two years without any [penalty] beyond the ordinary fine. And if he be thus forgiven that he settle the matter at once.

And to hold these points pursuant to amendment alone if the Mystery will that they be amended, this Fraternity are sworn among themselves and have each of them pledged his troth, and so from each who shall [hereafter] be of the said Fraternity. And it is agreed amongst them that this Indenture be enclosed in their common box, and the counterpart be held by the Masters for the time being of the said Fraternity.