Westminster, 1720-39 9of the manor. In Westminster, the Court of Burgesses acted as the court
leet.U If a vestry wanted to change the number of constables appointed for
its parish, it could only do so by sending a request to the local magistrates or
court leet. In 1735, the vestry of St George's, Hanover Square wanted 'to
ease the present Number [of constables] so that their Thrns of Watching may
not be more frequent than once a Week'. In order to obtain the additional
men, they had to ask the Court of Burgesses to appoint two additional
constables for the parish.^12
However, vestrymen were not without influence in the process of appoint-
ing constables. There were very few courts leet still in operation in the
metropolitan districtsP By the early eighteenth century, the authority of
Quarter Sessions had expanded in most places to subsume that of the older
manorial courts.^14 It also became customary for vestries to nominate candid-
ates for constable. The magistrates at Quarter Sessions would then choose
from amongst the names of ratepayers or householders offered by the parish.
As common as this became, however, the vestry had no legal authority over
the appointment of constables.^15 A constable was required to carry out any
arrest or search warrant issued by magistrates and. worked with poor law
officials. The office of headborough was similar in function and authority to
that of constable; headboroughs were chosen and sworn into offiee much as
constables were. However, there was some distinction and therefore the two
titles were not entirely synonymous. Headboroughs seem to have been
subordinate to constables. While there were parishes without headboroughs,
no parish lacked a constable.^16
The offices of constable and headborough could also be carried out by a
deputy. Although frowned on, this practice dates at least to the seventeenth
centuryY A pamphlet from 1710 states a constable 'may not make a Deputy
for the exempting of his whole Office' but then rather matter-of-factly adds
'sometimes one chosen [as constable], hath nam'd a fit Person for his
Deputy, who ... hath been Sworn, and in this case its [sic] said the Deputy
shall answer for hirnself.'^18 Deputies were common enough that some
parishes set regular scales of fees, although it was more common for the
principal and the deputy to make a private arrangement.^19 It is not clear how
widespread the practice was or that the use of de~ty constables necessarily
meant a less effective system of law enforcement.
The medieval Statute of Winchester (1285) required all towns and bor-
oughs to have a body of men on the streets after dark to provide for the
safety of travellers, inhabitants, and their property during the winter. The
men of each town had to serve in rotation, to a maximum of 16 men per
night.^21 The authority of the constable, the officer 'known to the law',
extended to the watchmen as his deputies and allowed them the same powers
and protections as constables. A late eighteenth-century handbook for
constables explained that the watchmen functioned as the constable's