Westminster, 1720-39 19All of the acts had similar provisions but while they gave parish vestries new
authority to appoint the night watch, constables were still appointed by the
Court of Burgesses. The parochial acts did give the vestries the authority to
determine what hours the constables should keep watch and ward and
required the constables to go around the parish at least twice a night, to
check on the 'behaviour and performance' of the watchmen. Watchmen were
given the power to apprehend 'night walkers', but they had to take all such
charges to a constable as soon as possible.^72 Each act gave the vestry power to
make yearly rates to defray the cost of the watch. St Margaret's and StJohn's
set no limit; the others stipulated the watch rate was not to exceed either four
or six pence in the pound annually. Vestries were empowered to obtain
warrants for the distraint and sale of goods in the event of non-payment of
the watch rate, a power the Burgesses had not enjoyed. Rate collectors were
required to present their accounts each year or else be liable to imprisonment.
Finally, all of the Acts stated that those paying the watch rate were exempted
from performing watch and ward as required by the Statute of Winchester.^73
Thus, the Acts of 1735-36 emphasized the substitution of taxes for service,
moving local government away from the tradition of personal obligation to
the more modem practice of paying others to perform these duties.
Why were the vestrymen of St James, Piccadilly, and St George, Hanover
Square, successful in obtaining Parliamentary approval for a new night watch
in 1735 when previous efforts, most notably that in 1720, failed? The answer
lies in the fears about rising crime, linked to changing demographics and the
local politics of Westminster.
Of the seven parishes that obtained night watch Acts, all but one (St
Paul's, Covent Garden) were administered by select vestries. In the 1720s
the West End began to take on an increasingly aristocratic character. St
George's, Hanover Square, for example, did not become a separate parish
until 1725. The men who served on the vestries of these parishes were used
to governing, at both national and local levels, in rural and urban settings.
Dissatisfied with the Burgesses, chosen from the ranks of tradesmen and
artisans, the aristocratic vestries in the West End had the political clout in
Parliament to obtain these measures. The role played by Lord 'I)'rconnel,
churchwarden of St George's, Hanover Square, and MP, as shepherd and
guide for the 1735 bill, speaks eloquently to this point. Eloquent too is the
silence from the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey, who had sup-
ported the Burgesses in 1720 but did not in 1735.
What concerned the wealthy property owners of Westminster was the
apparent rising rate of property crime. In all these discussions, rising rates
of burglary and robbery were most often mentioned as causing worry. This
also appeared in the press. The London Daily Post and General Advertiser
commented in March 1735 that 'Robberies are now become so frequent, that
its [sic] dangerous passing the Streets after dark, therefore its hoped the