Barbers` Company - Admission Of A New Member. Editorial Image

Harmworth`s Universal Encyclopedia 1940s. Barbers` Company - From an old engraving illustrating the admission of a new member and showing the painting of Henry VIII delivering the charter. The first mention of the Barbers` Company occurs in 1308 when Richard le Barbour was elected by the Court of Aldermen to keep order amongst his fellows. Barbers originally aided monks, who were at the time the traditional practitioners of medicine and surgery, because Papal decrees prohibited members of religious orders themselves from spilling blood.