constabulary that is evident by the second quarter of the century. The fact that
four out of ten constables were hired men by 1730 —and many more than that in
the wealthier parts of the City—may well have created (in a society so intensely
conscious of social hierarchy) the negative perception of the constables that was
to increase ever more strongly over the century, particularly the view that they
were ‘ignorant’ and ‘insufficient’. There was no doubt a good deal to fault the
constabulary for, but the criticism in the City was surely intensified by its chang-
ing social character—by the increasing preponderance of hired men in the
inner and middle wards, and elected men of no more than modest means in the
large, populous, wards outside the walls.
Repeated and active service
A second consequence of the changing nature of the constabulary—and
another reason for criticism—may have been the appearance of constables
who came to regard the post as a trade, as a way of making a living, or at least as
one component of a living. We saw in the 1690 s an apparent willingness on the
part of some of the hired deputies to fill in whenever called upon. Some men
held the post for several years together. That was even more common by 1730 ,
when even more constables were remaining in office for sustained periods
of time—perhaps at the urging of the deputy aldermen and the common
councillors.
Evidence about the extent of repeated service can be derived from the ward-
mote presentments and the Repertories of the Court of Aldermen; I have ex-
amined the lists of constables and deputies in all the wards of the City in the four
years 1728 – 31 (and a few years further afield before and after) simply to get some
sense of the extent of repeated service in this period, not to measure it in detail.
What this suggests is that at least half the men who served as deputies were likely
to hold the post for several years. A four-year sample provides merely a hint of
the extent of this long-term service. Half the deputies named in those years
served once only. But 21 per cent acted in two years, 14 per cent in three, and a
group of twenty-seven men ( 15 per cent of the total body of deputy constables in
that period) served in all four years.^108 That many such men settled into the post
of constable of their precincts can be shown by examining deputies over a longer
period than four years: in Table 3. 4 four wards with above average numbers of
deputies are examined over a sixteen-year period. What these data reveal is that
two-thirds of deputy constables in those four wards served more than once, that
on average they served three to four years, and that some men served very
often—eight individuals in ten or more of the sixteen years, one, in Bread Street
ward, in all sixteen.
150 Constables and Other Officers
(^108) Based on the wardmote presentments, which include the names of constables nominated by the
wards, and the Repertories, which record the deputies who actually served.