constables to enforce the law more conscientiously—especially when they
themselves were under pressure from grand juries or reforming groups in the
City or from the central government to do something about a perceived in-
crease in crime or immorality. A proclamation by the lord mayor in 1676 , for ex-
ample, about ‘manifold Corruptions, Abuses, and Disorders, which have in and
of late times more exceedingly increased upon us’, was addressed to ‘the Citi-
zens and Inhabitants in general’ to urge them to avoid such evils, but particu-
larly to constables and other officers whose duty it was to put the laws into
execution. The proclamation was a catalogue of the vices and immoralities
prohibited by numerous statutes: cursing and swearing; profanation of the
Lord’s day by illegal trading or working, or by playing at games, or tippling in
taverns, or sitting in coffee-houses during divine service; keeping bawdy houses
and gaming houses; prostitution; drunkenness; vagrancy and begging. It
pointed to numerous other problems visible in the streets, including the dangers
created by inhabitants who failed to clean in front of their houses or to put out a
candle at night. Constables were named throughout as the officers most re-
sponsible for enforcing the law. The mayor’s proclamation reminded them to
make themselves known by mounting their staffs at their street doors, and
ordered them to remain at home as much as possible ‘or leave other fit and able
persons to perform their Office in their Absence’.^27 It also reassured constables
that if they were ‘resisted or affronted or abused’ in doing their duty they would
be supported by the Court of Aldermen and their attackers prosecuted.^28
Reminders of the laws in force against vice and immorality and of the central
role of the constable in putting them into effect were to be repeated on numer-
ous occasions in the years after the Revolution of 1689 , when a powerful move-
ment for the reformation of manners was generated in the metropolis and
engaged the support of William and Mary and then Queen Anne. Royal
proclamations urging greater activity to counter the menace of blasphemy, im-
morality, and crime were reinforced by grand jury presentments that returned
frequently to themes increasingly familiar through the 1690 s and into Anne’s
reign: that God’s favour, manifest in the Revolution, would be sorely tested by
continued immorality and irreligion; and, more narrowly, that such immorality
would certainly result in a deluge of the most serious criminal offences. In
response, the Court of Aldermen published annual proclamations condemning
lewdness and debauchery, outlining yet again the laws on the books that made
such behaviour subject to fines and other punishments, and requiring yet again
the City’s officers to do their duty. All of these declarations make it clear that
constables were expected to be at the sharp end of the enforcement of these
laws. Again and again they were instructed to prevent people drinking or
Constables and Other Officers 123(^27) Men were regularly excused from serving as constables on the grounds that their work took them
from home during the day. Edward Cheeseman was allowed by the Court of Aldermen to decline his
election because he was a ‘Carpenter by Trade and is all day abroade’ (Rep 104 , pp. 158 – 9 ).
(^28) CLRO: P.D. 10. 64.