It was in beginning to read a book passed onto me by a neighbour 'Revelation' by C J Sansom, a thriller set in Tudor times, that I came upon a reference to a barber surgeon of Cheapside who fashioned false teeth, recycled from dead people, and set into wood, detachable and quite the French fashion. Ok, now this was interesting, as I had just been, in my genealogy research, noting this very profession of barber surgeon to be in my own London based Aylward family and with my Bunney lineage too. I'd assumed this to be olden terminology for a hairdresser and not looked more into that. But now, as I realised, caring for ones hair and shaving off stubble was but one part of a barber surgeons role. Indeed they did dentistry too, as the book had referenced, and more than that, as the very word surgeon suggested they also performed surgery, and bloodletting, either with leeches or the cut of a razor, and they were called upon to care for soldiers wounds in battle. And where were the actual doctors in such times; well, they were more about providing intellectual insight rather than hands on practicalities. This was a fascinating subject really, although somewhat gory and demanding of ones trust, as maybe it still is with medical matters today, and anyway, when one is desperate one surrenders regardless, even if it is ones limb being sawn off to avert gangrene. Body snatchers, such as the resurrectionists, would raid graveyards and in this way provide corpses for surgeons to practise on. Such a profession was surely not for the faint hearted. The Aylwards of London did appear to have a penchant for this, at least as far back as a Thomas Aylward of the late 1600's. My ancestress Ann Aylward had a brother, John Godson Aylward, who apprenticed in 1768 to their uncle Robert Aylward, although at such a late date the surgeon aspect had finally been separated from the work of a barber. Uncle Robert himself though, born in 1720 in Bermondsey, trained to be a traditional barber surgeon from the young age of 13, in 1733. And what I found most interesting was the discovery that Ann Aylwards husband, Robert Bunney, my direct ancestor, had himself begun an apprenticeship as a barber surgeon when a teenager, even though he later changed course and became a cooper instead. The apprentice information matched up to him entirely, the correct place, time, name of father (William Bunney), all revealing this was indeed his earliest career choice. He would have been 14 when beginning his apprenticeship in 1743, his guide and teacher being Samuel Hucks, who was also a skilled cooper, reverting to that trade himself. Why did they both change tack? I imagined the dissecting of animals and human cadavers to be somewhat off-putting for young Robert, but in reality times were changing, doctors pressuring for the prestige of surgery for themselves, such as that in 1745, just two years into Robert's apprenticeship, the barber surgeon combination was rent asunder, from which date barbers were no longer to exercise their medical skills; all was ended. Hence why Robert would have switched to learning of Samuels barrel and cask constructing skills instead. What would Robert have been learning in those two years of his youth. the apprenticeship should have lasted for seven years. During that time he would have sutured wounds, set broken bones, assisted in surgical care, bloodletting and other medical procedures, along with pulling teeth, shaving and hair dressing. Human dissections would take place in the company of other barber surgeons at the official Barber Surgeons Hall on Monkwell Street, the only company building to survive the Great Fire of London in 1666 due to a buffer zone created by the surrounding herb garden, the herbs from which would be used in their medicines. Doctors would class this old profession as quackery in time, although actually they were highly trained, their origin having been as assistants to monks in the earliest days of monastic Christianity, seen as pioneers of medical healing and surgery, which anyway would have preserved and advanced centuries of accumulated folk healing and care for the sick. So many days I had been trawling through genealogy records, getting no joy, wondering if there was anything more to learn of my family at all, and then *boom*, there it is, my Robert Bunney had as a teenager begun training in the understood medical care of his time, in the curious profession of the barber surgeon; only for his course to be thwarted by a historical change of roles, by which he instead became a cooper, taking on a different set of his teachers skills, which in turn he would teach to his son Robert the Younger, whose daughter was Hannah Aylward Bunney, who interestingly herself became a nurse at the Sailors Hospital in Greenwich. And a friend wanted me to come out for the day, but I was making too great a discovery in my genealogy. Looking to old newspapers I found some interesting stories in relation to the barber surgeons. The barber surgeons were ever busy and were regarded as important persons. They shaved, dressed hair, drew teeth and bled most of the people at regular intervals. In time past the letting of blood was regarded as a cure-all for any ailment, phlebotomy as it was called, and the people had great faith in this. One article talks of live music being provided for waiting customers, whether lute, violin or even bagpipes, reckoned to be so that the groans of those being seen to would be drowned out. And while ladies would be bled they were soothed and diverted by story telling. Tooth drawing was a painful affair with the crude instruments of the time (it's scary enough even now). In the ballad of the death of Robin Hood it is said that when he took ill he was bled by a prioress who so hated him for his crimes that she bled him to death: 'And hers was the deadliest sin, For she blooded him in the vein of the arm, And locked him up in the room, There he did bleed all the live long day, Until the next day at noon' In 1765 one poor woman of Petticoat Lane was indeed bled to death by a barber surgeon (of little skill) who did a blood letting on one of her arms, cutting into her artery. Before proper assistance could be secured she died. It became kind of a threat to be 'shaved, blooded and have your teeth drawn by a barber surgeon'. In 1738 when the trade was still commonplace and respectable, a story was published about a barber surgeon in Bermondsey who fell foul of the law, no name given, but that was where the Aylwards lived and worked. This barber surgeon and his wife were locked up for two months in the Southwark Bridewell, this being a house of correction, all due to a scam. An 'artful slut' had one day come into their shop complaining of sickness and desiring to be relieved by bleeding. Scarcely had she been punctured when she 'shammed a fainting fit' and upon recovery desired a 'dram' to support her spirits, which they naively fetched for her. And she demanded a second drink, upon declaring the great benefit she had received by the first. She then informed on them to the authorities, the husband having received money from her for one dram and the wife for the other. Thus they were convicted of selling spirit liquors contrary to an act of parliament, and were ordered to the Bridewell to receive their punishment. One job placement for a barber surgeon was put out by a 'nervous invalid' requesting someone of good education and cheerful manners, to eat and ride with him, and to shave and dress him. The payment was high for the time at £50 a year. As it was commented 'the medical profession is looking up'. In one story of 1756 a man among a drunken group of butchers in a pub, for them having found themselves in the company of a notable barber surgeon, proposed all of them should be blooded, which was soon agreed to, sixpence a piece collected from the butchers. The barber surgeon took from each a good quantity of blood, after which the same man to have proposed the blood letting suggested each should next have a tooth drawn. None other agreed to this; their courage had by now left them.
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AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. Categories
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