and qualificac͠ons as his Majestie shall bee pleased to appoint. IN WITNES whereof the said MAST{RS} or GOVERNO{RS} have hereunto affixed their Com̃on seal the sixteenth day of Aprill in y{e} Thirty sixth year of y{e} reign of o{r} or sovˀaign LORD CHARLES y{e} second, &c., and in y{e} year of o{r} Lord Christ 1684. Similar forms of surrender were adopted by other Companies. I am unable to say whether or no the King interfered with the franchises of the Barber-Surgeons, but think not, as no record of such meddling is to be found in our books, though, doubtless, the Court took care, remembering the rod in pickle, to govern in accordance with the wishes of the King. Some time in this year (1684) certain unquiet spirits, Surgeons of our Company, got up a petition to the King, setting forth that the union of Surgeons with Barbers hindered rather than promoted the end for which the two bodies had been united, and praying the King to incorporate the Surgeons a distinct and separate body. Nothing came of this application beyond a reference (ordered by the King, 15th May, 1684) to the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and the Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, who were directed to examine and report upon the petition, but whether they ever did so or not, I don’t know. 27th February, 1685. James II, in the first year of his reign, granted us a Charter, which is contained on seven skins of parchment, all of which have handsomely designed head-pieces and borders, the first one having a fine portrait of the King as well; only a fragment of the great seal remains, and the charter itself is considerably damaged, apparently by rats. It is in Latin, of great length, and, like others granted to other companies at the period, is an “unreal mockery.” The Charter recites the “Surrender,” and proceeds to grant another charter in which, _inter alia_, the appointment of any Master, Warden, Assistant, or Clerk should be subject to the approval of the King, that all members of the Company should take the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, be in the Communion of the Church of England and receive the Sacrament, and that no person who frequented a conventicle should be eligible for the Livery. 4th April, 1687. The King having published a declaration, allowing liberty of conscience to all his subjects, suspending and dispensing with the penal laws and tests, and even with the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance on admission into offices civil and military, numerous addresses of thanks for this liberty were presented to the King, among others the following one from our Company, which is preserved in the “London Gazette” of 20th October, 1687. THE HUMBLE ADDRESS OF THE MASTERS GOVERNORS ASSISTANTS AND MEMBERS OF THE MYSTERY AND COMMONALTY OF BARBERS AND SURGEONS OF LONDON. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY