The War ~ars, 1793-1815 93Because the payroll was the single largest item in any watch budget,
authorities were in a severe bind, especially where property values declined
and/or large numbers of poor residents were exempt from local rates. Rate
ceilings had been set in the legislation that first established most night
watches, and many acts were decades old. There were two possible solutions- to lower expenses or increase the rate ceiling.
In StJames, Piccadilly, the vestry did the former because the expense of
their improved policing instituted in 1794-96 became difficult to sustain. The
vestry chose to abandon the reforms in order to increase wages. In Septem-
ber 1800, the vestry resolved 'that the mode of shifting the Beats of the
Watchmen, and relieving them during the Winter Months by the means of
additional Watchmen, be from henceforth discontinued'. The parish went
back to having one set of watchmen on duty the whole night. Still, by 1804
the watch account was overdrawn and the number of watchmen was cut from
64 to 58, wages reduced, and patrols hired only for the winter. Some beadles'
expenses were shifted to the church and poor rate accounts. The vestry had
to borrow £200 five months later because the watch account was still ser-
iously overdrawn. The watch fund had gone from a surplus of £2324.2s.1d. in
1796 to a £200 or more deficit in 1804.^68 In 1810, the fund recovered some-
what and the vestry ordered
that in consequence of the present high price of every necessary of Life the
difficulty of procuring able and sufficient men at the Wages now paid by
this Parish and the higher Wages now paid by several of the surrounding
Parishes it is expedient to increase the Wages of the said Watchmen and
Patroles during the Winter Months.^69
Piccadilly never reinstituted its double shift so reforms adopted in 1796 were
never fully regained.
In the united parishes of St Giles and St George, Bloomsbury, the joint
vestry took the alternative path and raised its rate ceiling. The watch rate had
reached its legal maximum in 1796 of 6d. in the pound, reduced in 1798 and
1800, it was set at the ceiling level in 1801 and stayed there for the next six
years. In 1806, the watch committee reported that because of the low rates of
pay offered, it could not find 'able and proper men'. 1b be able to increase
the rate and offer better pay, the parish obtained a new local act in April
1807 which increased the rate ceiling to 8d. in the pound.^70 The watch
committee used the increased funding to establish a double winter shift of
sergeant patrols and watchmen.
By 1809, however, the watch committee recommended that the vestry
discontinue the winter shifts and go back to having one set of better-paid
men watch the entire night. The sergeants' pay remained the same but the
watchmen's was increased to 2s. a day in summer, 2s.4d. in spring and
autumn and 3s. in the winter. The new winter wage represented a 100 per