As recently as 1868, a case was submitted to Sir J. D. Coleridge (now Lord Chief Justice) as to the legality of the exemption, and he gave his opinion in favour of it. However, since then the Jury Act has, alas! swept away this cherished immunity, and thus let the Barbers down to the level of their fellow citizens.
With the possession of their Charter the Company were now in an unassailable position, and we hear no more of their molestation by the Guild of Surgeons.
Grant by Richard Thornbury, Citizen and Draper of London, to Robert Ferbras, Citizen and Surgeon, John Dagvile, Surgeon, William Sipnam, Grocer, and Walter Bartlot, Fishmonger, Citizens of London, for ever, of all his title in two shops and solars with their appurtenances, in the parish of Saint John upon Walbroke, formerly belonging to John Blounde of Braughyng in the County of Hertford, and which had been already conveyed to the Grantees by John Thornbury, gentleman, and Walter Thornbury, Clerk, which shops were situate between the tenements of William Horn, Citizen and Draper, towards the north and south, and the tenement of the Prior and Convent of the Blessed Mary without Bishopsgate towards the east, and the King’s highway leading from Walbroke to Dowgate towards the west. Dated 11th May, 2 Edward IV (1462).
1470. The Company about this period came into possession of some freehold houses in St. John the Baptist upon Walbrook, to be held both for trust and corporate purposes. These houses are stated in our books to have been devised to us by Will (dated 2nd Dec., 1470) of Robert Ferbras. There are three old title deeds of the period still at the Hall, relating to these houses, and in the Court of Husting at Guildhall are two Wills of Robert Ferbras, Surgeon, both proved, one dated 4th Nov., 1470, and the other 17th April, 1472—but neither of these contain the bequest to the Barbers. It is, therefore, probable that Robert Ferbras conveyed the houses to the Company in his lifetime, and this fact being overlooked in course of years, it came to be said that they passed by his Will.
1482. 26th April.—The Company applied to the Court of Aldermen, presenting a set of ordinances for the government of the craft and for the regulation of apprentices, praying that the same might be allowed and ratified, which was done. The official entry under this date is in Letter-Book L. 174, and the following are the Ordinances:—
Ordinacio
BarbitonsoꝜ
Memorand qˀd sexto decimo die Aprilis Anno regni Regis Edwardi quarti post conq̃m vicesimo scᵭo pˀᵬi hõies Artis sive mistere BarbitonsoꝜ Civitatis london venˀ hic in Curˀ dc̃i Dnĩ Regis in Camˀa Guyhald Civitatꝭ pˀdcĩ coram Willm̃e Haryot milite ac maiore & Aldr̃is ejusdem Civitatis et porrexer̃nt eisdem maiore & Aldr̃is quandam billam sive supplicacõem Cujus tenor sequitur in hec verba.