Mr. Caldwell does not appear to have left his widow well provided for, as we read under date 10th July, 1643:
Upon the distressed Petic͠on of Widdow Thamar Caldwall late Wife of Mr Thomas Caldwall deceased there is given to her of the gift of this House vli.
1624 and 1625. In the minutes of this period are constant notices of the “visitation,” and of “the contagious tyme.” The Plague raged with great severity in London in 1625, and it is said that over 40,000 died of it in the year. The Company appear to have been very liberal in their gifts of money to any who had the least claim upon them, the relief being frequently stated to have been given by “reason of the hardnes of the tymes.”
11th April, 1625. This daye the pˀcept for provision of corne sent unto or Companie by the lord Maior of london was here read in Courte, And this Courte is fullie resolved that the present Mrs doe give unto the Lord Maior and returne him this answeare that the Companie is provided of their proportion of corne and more they are not able to provide or receive into their charge.
1628. This year the Company were compelled to “lend” the King £360, which they with great difficulty raised, the greater part being borrowed at interest to enable them to do so. They also paid £30 towards a “present” (?) of £5,000 given by the City to the Palsgrave (Frederick, Prince Elector Palatine, son-in-law of James I).
15th August, 1629. On this day was sealed the Company’s new Charter from Charles I. It is in Latin on five large skins of parchment with the Great Seal of England pendant. There is a portrait of the King with a stiletto beard in the initial letter, and an ornamental heading along the top of the first skin. This Charter ratifies that of James I, directs that public lectures on Surgery shall be given, and confirms and somewhat varies the old regulations for the governance of the practitioners of that science.
22nd October, 1629. The Company evidently began now to kick at the numerous demands made upon its purse by the authorities, for a precept coming from the Lord Mayor demanding £12 10s. contribution towards a pageant, it was ordered that it be not paid until the Court was satisfied that it could be legally demanded, and enquiry made as to whether or no other Companies had paid similar contributions.
1632. The fabric of old St. Paul’s being in a lamentable state of decay, the celebrated Archbishop Laud wrote a letter to the Barber-Surgeons asking a contribution towards its repair. Ever ready to assist in good works, the Company cheerfully devoted a very considerable sum towards that object, notwithstanding the comparative poverty to which they had been reduced (in consequence of the grievous impositions made upon them by the authorities in the shape of forced loans and other unconstitutional demands). Moreover, they recorded their benefaction, in a delightfully expressed minute, which will be found at the end of the following letter.
9th April, 1632. The letter written by William Lord Bishopp of London and directed to this Court concerneing our contribuc͠on towardꝭ the repaire of St Paulls Church in London being now much ruined was here in Court reade, the tenor whereof is as followeth, vidzt