THE ENGLISH POLICE: A BRIEF HISTORY

2.2Policing Officials: The Justices, Constables and Watchmen

The justices of the peace were members of the local elite, often “lords of the manor and therefore they, or their stewards, presided at the courts leet to which the petty constables brought their presentments” (Emsley, EP 9). They were wealthy or influential men but they were not necessarily members of the higher nobility. They were usually less important lords or members of the landed gentry who were chosen for their moral qualities, fairness and honesty in particular. Commissioning was not free of charge; before the applicant swore an oath he had to pay a fee (“Justices”). Justices’ duties were diverse and included, for example, pre-trial investigation and setting the bail. They ranged over various judicial and administrative tasks but detection and investigation of the crime itself were not among them. These were still conducted by the victim and, to a certain extent, by constables and watchmen.

The parish constables were men chosen by their neighbours to act as their representatives and to perform various administrative tasks. “Initially these seem to have been military responsibilities” (Rawlings 34) but they were continually being extended and the constables were expected not only to maintain the peace but also “to enforce legislation on church attendance, keeping the Sabbath, drunkenness, swearing and vagrancy, as well as on taxation and military recruitment” (Emsley, EP 12). They were selected by various means depending on the local custom: “In some parishes, for example, constables were changed annually by house rotation; in others the oldest householder who had not yet served was chosen” (Emsley, GBB 18). They were not poor men; they usually came from the higher-strata families. “Constables often had experience in other local government or community roles: they may have well served as overseers of the poor, surveyors of the highways, or church wardens” (Emsley, EP 11). They came from the community they represented and, since they were appointed just for a year or two, had to continue living in the community after their appointment terminated. This necessarily meant that they tried to resolve disputes or settle offences without going to the courts or even tolerated less serious crimes. The job was not paid and except for expenses and fees (Rawlings 34), the constables did not receive anything. As the number of duties the constables were supposed to perform was steadily increasing, and living in the community they had policed might not have been easy, some people started to be reluctant to serve and found themselves substitutes.

Although it was not allowed, some people “preferred either to pay a fine that went towards paying a man to act in their place, or else to hire a substitute themselves who would serve in their stead. Some of the substitutes appear to have served year after year, becoming something of a constable by trade” (Emsley, GBB 19). This became more and more frequent and consequently, “[b]y 1800, constables of the metropolitan parishes may often have been substitutes, but they were more numerous, better supervised [and] better informed” (Emsley, EP 13). The result of hiring substitutes was a gradual professionalization which did not affect only parish constables but also the other policing officials, the watchmen.

As discussed earlier, the tradition of setting night watches had been long. But in contrast to the constables, watchmen did not come from the upper-strata of the society but were usually “local agents of law enforcement who had long been recruited by, and from among, urban dwellers” (Emsley, EP 9). The service was not easy; the work kept the men “out of their beds at night and was often odious, time-consuming and either dangerous or boring” (Rawlings 64). It was considered a duty of a householder to protect his and his neighbour’s property but by the 18^th century many “sought to excuse themselves on grounds of age or health, other preferred to pay a fine rather than serve or to hire a substitute” (Rawlings 64). This situation was reflected by a series of acts that aimed at improvement and professionalization of the service, namely “the Watch Act 1705 which permitted substitutes to be hired”. As Rawlings further explains, under legislation in 1726 and 1737 the obligation to serve was replaced by a duty to pay a rate out of which professional watchmen would be hired” (66). Nevertheless, the problem of individual parishes setting their own watches was not dealt with and “the issue of parochial boundaries” (Rawlings 66) remained unresolved. The system based on individual parishes organizing their own policing began to appear ineffectual and there were first attempts to establish a more general force.

The level of the services the constables and watchmen provided has also been questioned. Traditional histories describe the ‘Charlies’, the watches named after Charles II, during whose reign they were established in the City of London (Wilson), as “old, decrepit and, like as not drunk or asleep when needed” (Emsley, CSE 220), incompetent and corrupt (Taylor 72). Trevelyan claims that there “was no effective system of police until that begun by Sir Robert Peel in 1830. It was a disgraceful condition of things, and had many evil consequences” (245). Both Emsley and Taylor, however, state that this is generalisation that does not necessarily have roots in reality. Emsley admits that “many parish constables were as bad and uncommitted to their tasks as the police reformers made out” (CSE 218). On the other hand he explains that neither constables nor watchmen have been subjects of a serious study and their skills and characteristics remain unclear (CSE 219). Taylor emphasises that some parish representatives made attempts to select men of appropriate age and character to serve as constables and that in some parishes there was an element of organisation and coordination (72). Therefore, it can be argued that more that one hundred years before Peel’s ‘Bobbies’ appeared in the streets there were parishes that were determined to improve the level of policing and hire men who could perform their duties professionally.