3 An Expanding Watch,
1748-76
After 1748, when another post-war crime wave developed, publicly funded
professional night watch forces spread. Variations arose, rooted in the dif-
ferent socio-economic characteristics and legal peculiarities of varying jur-
isdictions. Other local authorities besides vestries took on the task of crime
prevention and detection. For many parishes, the night watch was still very
much a part of policing in the wider sense of the term, connected to other
aspects of local administration. In parishes where the middling (as opposed
to aristocratic) ranks predominated, a less formal approach to parish govern-
ment persisted. They were somewhat slower in obtaining legislation and the
acts they did seek usually addressed several local needs.
For these vestrymen the decision to seek legislation came from more
mixed motives. The reform of the night watch was not directly associated
with concerns about political riots or strikes because that was not the func-
tion of parish forces and because of the ambiguous meaning crowds could
have for local authorities. While crime, both petty and serious, was a primary
worry, added to this were concerns about dirty, dark, badly paved streets,
and other petty annoyances of urban living. These kinds of nuisances were
increasing as London grew more rapidly. The need to have more stable
funding for paving, lighting, and watching became increasingly evident.
Professional night watches were thus part of a shift away from personal
towards professional service for all aspects of local administration.
Regional differences became more evident later in the century and played an
important role in the debate about the centralization of policing. However, as
London grew and expanded, local authorities exhibited increasing concern
about both the apparent increase in the amount of property crime and its
spread from urban to suburban areas. By the 1770s, those seeking permissive
legislation to establish professional night watch forces began to use what
Jenifer Hart calls the migration theory-the idea that criminals would move
their activities from well-guarded neighbourhoods to less well-protected ones.
Reform of the night watch was clearly a response to rising crime in particular,
increasingly a part of policing in its more narrow and modem sense.
The London Magazine reported in 1748 that 'not only pickpockets but
street-robbers and highwaymen, are grown to a great pitch of insolence at
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