signing thereof, till she might receive some farther information therein, as well from the Lord Warden of the Stannaries, as from Mr. Carmarthen, and Mr. Middleton, who were very knowing Merchants in those Times. From whom the Queen receiving Satisfaction, signed the same. And so it passed both the Signet and Privy Seal.

After all this Trouble, Cost and Charges, sustained in prosecuting this Suit four Years, the Earl of Oxford wrote to the Queen; to have the Benefit of the said Patent granted to himself. And so would have undone the Pewterers, their Wives and Children. Whereupon the Company petitioned Sir Thomas Egerton in the Year 1598. and in the Month of April, then Lord Keeper; to be a Means to her Majesty, that they might have their Patent to pass the Great Seal according to her Majesty's gracious Grant thereof unto them. All this Fatigue did these Pewterers go through for the Good of their Company.

The Fellowship of the Craft and Mystery of Pewterers of London and elsewhere, was before Henry the Eighth's Reign, one of the best Handicrafts within the Realm: And grew and continued by means of sundry good Acts and Statutes made for the Exercise of the same; as in the 19th of Hen. VII. and 4 Hen. VIII. And the English Pewter was had in much Estimation in strange Regions and Countries, by a good mixing of Pewter, and forging of Pewter Vessels. See the Act concerning Pewterers 25 Hen. VIII. Cap. 9.]

THEIR Arms, Crest and Supporters were granted by Sir Gilbert Dethike, Garter, Robert Cook, Esq; Clarencieux, and William Flower, Esq; Norroy (by Patent under their Hands and Seals, June 2. 1569.]

The Barbers-Chirurgeons, being a Company of no mean Credit and Estate, became a Brotherhood and Fellowship, incorporated by the Charter of King Edward IV. afterwards by the Henrys, the Seventh and Eighth, Philip and Mary, and Queen Elizabeth. Last of all, they were again confirmed by King James, with other Additions also to their Charters. And all those former Charters have been re-confirmed, with large Additions, by King Charles I.

To rectifie and explain what is said of these Barbers-Surgeons, let this that follows be added.

THE Barbers, long before they were united with the Chirurgeons, were an ancient Company of themselves; being incorporated in the first Year of the Reign of King Edward IV. Febr. 24. at Westminster. And their Company confirmed by King Henry VII. and King Henry VIII. by sundry Letters Patents. These Barbers anciently practised Surgery also.

Thomas Colard, Citizen and Barber, by his Will dated Anno 1467, gave his Book of Fysyk and Surgery, called Rosse and Constantine, to the Hall of Barbers, to be laid into the Library.

Robert Scot, Citizen and Barber of London, by his Will dated Decemb. 1490, gave to the Fellowship of the Craft of Barbers, his Tenements in the Parish of St. Barth{query}omew the Less; and to their Successors for ever.

THE Surgeons were not incorporated till the Reign of Henry VIII. yet they were a Society long before. And there was an Act of Parliament for them 3 Hen. VIII. viz. That none should practise Surgery, no more than Physick, but first to be examined and approved upon pain of 5l. for every Month. In the beginning of the said King Henry, there were but twelve Persons that were Surgeons in the City of London (though in former times many more) and yet they consisted of a Warden and a Fellowship, called Of the Craft and Mystery of Surgeons, infranchised in the City of London. In the 5th of Henry VIII. they had an Act made in their Favour, to be discharged of Quests, Watch, or other Office; whereby they should use or occupy any defensible Armour, or Geer of War. And the Cause assigned of this was, because time out of mind, as well in London as in other Cities and Boroughs of the Realm, they had been exempt and discharged from all such Offices and Business; for their continual Service and Attendance, that they daily and nightly, at all Hours and Times, gave to the King's liege People. But they were not as yet incorporated.

IN the 32. of Henry VIII. there was an Act passed for the Barbers and Surgeons; importing,