suggestion that the governors of the City were looking for ways to enlarge their
own authority and indirectly the authority of the Walpole government.^11
Without legislation the body of constables could only be increased by less-
direct means. As we will see, a number of salaried officers were appointed for
specific purposes—particularly traffic control—and given the power of consta-
bles to enable them to carry out their duties; and a few so-called ‘supernumer-
ary’ constables were also appointed.^12 But in the seventeenth and early
eighteenth centuries the core of the City’s constabulary remained fixed at the
230 men elected in the wards and another seven or so elected in a number of
liberties, areas attached to wards but not technically part of them.
For the most part, these constables were amateur and short term. They re-
ceived no training, no official preparation. But of course they were not modern
policemen, who have taken on most of the tasks that were shared among a var-
iety of officials in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and a lot more be-
sides. Nor was it a full-time job. In addition, a householder elected as constable
for his precinct would almost certainly have served in other parish and ward of-
fices—as a churchwarden, member of a vestry, juryman, and the like—and
thereby have acquired some familiarity with the workings of the criminal justice
system and the details of local administration, as well as the nature of his own
community. New constables would also have been broadly familiar with the
duties of the office—more familiar, certainly, than the average citizen today
knows about the real work of the police—because they would have known
relatives and neighbours who had served before them.
In addition, since most constables were elected for relatively small areas, an
artisan or shopkeeper who had lived all his adult life in one of the central wards
of the City and who was taking up the office for his year of service is likely to have
acquired a general sense of its obligations—how much needed to be done and
how much could be avoided—from seeing other constables at close quarters. To
the extent that such local knowledge was insufficient, or for those concerned
about their powers and duties, a new constable could buy a handbook that set
out those matters, a guide similar to the kind of handbook that justices of the
peace were able to acquire, when—as equally unprepared—they came into
their office. Indeed, a new constable might well have acquired such a handbook
already, for the late seventeenth century guides typically set out the duties of
several parish officers—churchwardens, overseers of the poor, and scavengers,
as well as constables—in the expectation that a householder of any substance
would be likely to have need of such guidance several times in his life.^13
118 Constables and Other Officers
(^11) Paul Langford, The Excise Crisis: Society and Politics in the Age of Walpole(Oxford, 1975 ); Rogers, Whigs
and Cities, pts I–II.
(^12) CLRO, Misc. MSS 64. 4 (William Stewart to the town clerk, 23 January 1722 / 3 ).
(^13) Constables could learn about their duties and authority from handbooks, easily carried in the
pocket, several versions of which were published from the late sixteenth century. The earliest was by
William Lambarde, The Duties of Constables, Borsholders, Tythingmen, and such other lowe ministers of the peace
( 1583 ). Several handbooks were published in the late seventeenth century, including that by George