At the Sign of the Barbers Pole | Page 7

any Inn or other
public or private house or place, or shall go in or out of any such house
or place on the said day with instruments used for that purpose, albeit
the same cannot be positively proved, or made appear, but in case the
Lord Mayor for the time being shall upon good circumstances consider
and adjudge any such brother to have trimmed or barbed as is aforesaid,
that then any such offender shall forfeit and pay for every such offence
10s., one half to the Lord Mayor, and the other to the use of the said
Company, unless such brother shall voluntarily purge himself by oath
to the contrary; and the searchers of the said Company for the time
being are to make diligent search in all such as aforesaid public or
private places for discovery of such offenders."
The following abstract of an order of the Barber-Surgeons of Chester
shows that the members of the Company were strict Sabbatarians:--
"1680, seconde of July, ordered that no member of the Company or his
servant or apprentice shall trim any person on the Lord's Day
commonly called Sunday."
In the Corporation records of Pontefract under the year 1700 it is stated:
"Whereas divers complaints have been made that the barbers of the said
borough do frequently and openly use and exercise their respective
trades upon the Lord's Day in profanation thereof, and to the high
displeasure of Almighty God. To prevent such evil practices for the
future it is therefore ordered that no barber shall ... use or exercise the
trade of a barber within the borough of Pontefract upon the Lord's Day,
commonly called Sunday, nor shall trim or shave any person upon that
day, either publicly or privately." We have in the last clause an
indication of public shaving performed in the churchyard or the market
place.
The churchwardens of Worksop parish, Nottinghamshire, in 1729 paid
half-a-crown for a bond in which the barbers bound themselves "not to
shave on Sundays in the morning."
At a meeting of the barber-surgeons of Newcastle-on-Tyne held in

1742 it was ordered that no one should shave on a Sunday, and that "no
brother should shave John Robinson till he pays what he owes to
Robert Shafto."
The operation was in bygone Scotland pronounced sinful if performed
on a Sunday. Members of congregations are entitled to object to the
settlement of ministers, says the Rev. Dr Charles Rogers, provided they
can substantiate any charge affecting their life or doctrine. Mr
Davidson, presentee to Stenton in 1767, and Mr Edward Johnstone,
presentee to Moffat in 1743, were objected to for desecrating the
Sabbath by shaving on that day. The settlement of Mr Johnstone was
delayed four years, so persistent were the objectors in maintaining what
they regarded as the proper observance of the Sabbath.
The Rev. Patrick Brontë, father of the famous novelists, was Perpetual
Curate of Thornton in Bradford Dale, from 1815 to 1820. Although a
sense of decency was sadly deficient among the majority of the
inhabitants of the district, they kept watch on the clergy, and were ever
ready to make known to the world their presumed as well as their real
offences and failings. The mistakes of some of them are well illustrated
in an anecdote related by Mr Abraham Holroyd, a well-known collector
of local lore. When Mr Brontë resided at Thornton it was rumoured in
the village that he had been seen by a Dissenter, through a chamber
window, shaving himself on a Sunday morning, which was considered
to be a very serious disregard of the obligation of Sabbath observance
on the part of a clergyman. Mrs Ackroyd, a lady residing in the parish,
had an interview with Mr Brontë on the subject. On his hearing what
she had to say, he observed: "I should like you to keep what I say in
your family; but I never shaved myself in all my life, or was ever
shaved by any one else. I have so little beard that a little clipping every
three months is all that is necessary."
Occasionally, at the present day, barbers are brought before the
magistrates for working on Sunday. They are summoned under an old
Act of Charles II., for shaving on the Lord's Day. The maximum fine is
five shillings, and the costs of a case cannot be recovered from the
defendant. Generally the local hairdressers' association institutes the

action.

FROM BARBER TO SURGEON
From the ancient but humble position of the barber is evolved the
surgeon of modern times. Perhaps some members of the medical
profession would like to ignore the connection, but it is too true to be
omitted from the pages of history. The calling of a barber is of great
antiquity. We find in the Book