This appears to have cost the Company £44 14_s._, whereof they received but £23, the balance never having been paid. The details of the expenditure are subjoined, and in reading them we cannot but commiserate the unhappy men who were barged to Gravesend and thence “transported” to Newcastle. DISBURSEM{T}ꝭ FOR IMPRESTING AND SHIPPINGE OF THE SURGIANS IN THE YEARS IMPLOYM{T} FOR THE KINGS SERVICE. Laid out by Edmund Johnson for ymprestinge of Surgeons for the Kingꝭ service v{li} Delivered to M{r} Collins for the like x{s} Spent in goeinge to Lymehouse Ratcliffe & wappinge to presse xviij{d} Paid to xxiij Surgions who were transported by sea from London to Newcastle xxiij{li} of w{ch} rec{d} by M{r} Serjant Clowes xvij{li} x{s} & my selfe xx{s} so that there doth remayne unsatisfied iiij{li} x{s} Paid unto Tho: Wells the M{r} of the shipp to transport them viij{li} Paid for a barge to carry us & them to xxx{s} Gravesend Spent at Gravesend at dynner ix{s} vj{d} Spent at Supper vij{s} Paid Jo: Mules w{ch} he disburced for Warfage literage caremenn & other like Charges as pˀ bill xxvj{s} ------------------------- Sum̃ is xxj{li} xiiij{s} ------------------------- In accordance with their Charters the ancient practice of the Company had been to elect annually two Surgeons and two Barbers for Master and Wardens; this fell into electing two Surgeons and two others who were often neither Barbers nor Surgeons, and latterly, even the qualification of Surgery came to be disregarded, whereupon (29th March, 1639) a mandate, signed by Charles I and directed to the Company, was read in Court (see Appendix, G) in which the King set forth that divers persons as “hosiers dyers & other tradesmen unskilfull in Chirurgery or Barbarye” had been chosen for Masters and Wardens contrary to the Charters and Acts of Parliament, and further “wee takeing into considerac͠on of what dangerous consequence it maye be to suffer a Companye wherein the lives and safetie of o{r} people are soe much concerned and for w{ch} o{r} progenitors have soe carefully provided to be governed by such unskilfull pˀsons,” the King straitly commanded the Company to elect the Governors in the future as they ought to do, viz.: two Barbers and two Surgeons each year. This order of the King appears for some little time to have been obeyed, and then the Company relapsed into their old practice of choosing at their pleasure, whereupon another mandate came from the King, for we find that:--