Before the Bobbies. The Night Watch and Police Reform in Metropolitan London, 1720-1830

(^10) Before the Bobbies
'ministers and assistants and are under the same protection with him, and
may act as he doth'.^22 However, constables had the added duty of supervising
the night watch and charging any malefactors arrested by watchmen before a
Justice of the Peace.^23
Another parish officer was used for law enforcement - the beadle. Beadles
were probably among the earliest paid parish officers. St Marylebone hired a
beadle in 1710 at a salary of £5 a year.^24 Beadles also had a wide range of
duties: for the vestry clerk, the beadle was town crier; for the churchwardens,
he kept order in church on Sundays; for the overseers of the poor, he acted
as pass master and rate collector. As an assistant to the parish constable, the
beadle helped keep the streets clear of beggars and vagrants by day and
often acted as supervisor of the watch by night.^25 These three-constables,
beadles, and watchmen - formed the basic foundation upon which urban law
enforcement rested in the early eighteenth century.
While beadles and watchmen were clearly parish officers, more complicated
lines of authority linked magistrates, vestries, and constables, especially in
Westminster. The authority of Westminster parish vestries overlapped the
Court of Burgesses as well as that of the Justices of the Peace for Westminster
and Middlesex. The Court, created in 1585, consisted of 12 unpaid Burgesses
appointed for life by the High Steward, a manorial officer for the Dean and
Chapter of Westminster Abbey. The High Steward was usually a high-ranking
nobleman, while Burgesses were chosen from among the 'merchants, artifi-
cers, or persons using any trade of buying or selling.'^26 Westminster had no
Lord Mayor or Courts of Aldermen and Common Council and never
attained the privileged status enjoyed by the more powerful City of London.
Each Burgess was assigned to a ward and expected to report any unlawful
weights and measures in the markets, any householders who failed to pave,
clean, and light the street in front of their houses, and any neglect of duty on
the part of constables and scavengers.^27 As a Court, the Burgesses appointed
Westminster's beadles, constables, and scavengers and the Leet Jury, which
nominated the 160 men out of whom were chosen 80 constables. The
Burgesses were also responsible for a force of 170 night watchmen. House-
holders could serve as watchmen in person, provide a man at their own
expense, or pay the rate levied by the Burgesses. In September 1720, the
watch was augmented by an 'Evening-Watch' of 15 men who watched the
streets in the twilight hours.^28
Unlike the Aldermen of the City of London, the Burgesses of Westminster
were not Justices of the Peace; there were separate Commissions of the
Peace for Westminster and the county of Middlesex. Since the 1640s, how-
ever, the magistrates of Middlesex had assumed greater authority over