Been doing abit of searching...barber surgeon?

[FidgeonJ]

So I've been doing abit of searching online tonight.

Found a "William Fidgeon" living in Rochford, Essex in 1620. Which is where my family are from.

This record is from "extracted probate records".

It refers to William as a "barber surgeon".

What is this profession? I haven't heard of it before.

This is the first record I have found of what could more than likely be my family befor 1800 so I'm quite excited!

 

[gibbo]

Barber, Barber/Surgeon .. Cut hair and also a surgeon.
In the 18th Century, an Act was passed, limiting Barbers to hair cutting, shaving, dentistry and bloodletting.

This site is handy to keep.

http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/

 

[FidgeonJ]

Barber, Barber/Surgeon .. Cut hair and also a surgeon.
In the 18th Century, an Act was passed, limiting Barbers to hair cutting, shaving, dentistry and bloodletting.

This site is handy to keep.

http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/

Thanking you

What was the shocked face for?

 

[gibbo]

Been a barber and a surgeon sounded weird. Wonder if they were qualified as a doctor/surgeon?

 

[jay]

Surgeons at one time did not have the same status as doctors who did not perform operations: they did not even carry out dissections but read from a book, written by the Roman medic Galen who was the authority for aspiring doctors until the Renaissance, while an assistant dissected.

The act in the 18thC, confining barbers to cutting hair, shows how long it took for surgery to be regarded as a respectable branch of medicine. Although before anaesthetics and Lister's carbolic spray, it remained a very dangerous procedure with a high death rate.

 

[leefer]

Been a barber and a surgeon sounded weird. Wonder if they were qualified as a doctor/surgeon?

Probably great at doing skinheads.

 

[Steve Kean]

I suspect that the possession of sharp razors was a key qualification & the association of surgery with barbering may well have lead on from simple blood letting, which was the general "cure" for many ailments.