24 Before the Bobbies
shilling fine levied on offenders.^93 Vestries instructed their beadles to keep
an eye out for con men who claimed to collect for charity and 'such other
idle persons as [they] shall find wandering abroad ... or using Subtile [sic]
Craft or unlawfull Games or Playes ... and all ... Bearwards, Common
players of Interludes, Minstrels, Juglers and pretended Fortune tellers .. .'.^94
The beadles in St James's were also ordered to help keep 'the Passages to
and from the Houses of Parliament free from Obstructions and Disorders'.^95
Beadles were thus the primary daytime officers of the parochial police - they
enforced the liquor laws, assisted poor law officers, directed traffic, dealt
with vagrants. They also supervised night watchmen.
Watchmen were expected to prevent crime. The preambles to the acts
which established these night watches state this clearly. The act for St
Martin-in-the-Fields asserts
the keeping of a sufficient and well regulated Watch in the Night Time [is
necessary] for the Preservation of the Persons and Properties of the
Inhabitants ... and very necessary to prevent as well the Mischiefs which
may happen from Fires, as Murders, Burglaries, Robberies, and other
Outrages and Disorders.^96Little is known about those hired as watchmen. The legislation only stipu-
lated who was not to be a watchman: no servants were to be hired as beadles
or watchmen.^97 The vestrymen of Westminster worried about increasing the
numbers of paupers in their parishes. No watch ratepayer or man hired as a
beadle or watchman would gain a poor law settlement in that parish; vestries
gave preference in hiring to men who already had settlement in the parish.^98
The statutes specified what hours the constable was required to keep watch
and ward which effectively determined the watchmen's hours of duty. In all
the Westminster watch acts the year was divided into summer and winter,
dividing at Lady Day, 25 March (or close to it), and Michaelmas, 29 Sep-
tember. In summer, the watch was on duty from lOpm to Sam; winter hours
were from 9pm to 7am.^99
The watchmen were required to report to the watchhouse half an hour
before they were to be on the streets for roll call, to collect their accoutre-
ments, and to be given the watchword for the night. The constable or beadle
called the roll and filled any gaps in the ranks from amongst the reserve, or
supernumerary, watchmen, to use the eighteenth-century term. The watch-
men of St George's were required to
provide themselves at their own expence with Lanthoms [sic] and Candles
and be well armed with Ashen Sticks or Quarter Staves of the Length of
Six Feet, and that the Candles be made of the best Thllow ....
The parish provided clappers for the men, used for 'a signal to be given when
Occasion shall require to come presently to the Assistance of each other'.