New Means to Old Ends 63particular Spot'. When the Watch Committee had inspected the watch, it
found that 'the Watch were regular and vigilant, but there being no compul-
sion, the Gentlemen that composed such Committee slackened their attend-
ance'. The new officer was placed under the authority of the constable.^33
Larger parishes developed more elaborate organizational structures.
St Marylebone, which adopted a three-tiered structure in 1775, provides
one of the earliest and best examples. Each watchman was assigned one of
five specific beats in a division. A new officer, the 'sergeant of the watch', was
placed in charge of one of seven divisions. A beadle of the night was placed
in authority over the sergeants, responsible for reporting any lapses of
discipline on the part of the watchmen or sergeants to the constable of the
night and to the Watch Committee. Beadles were also required to report any
neglect of duty by the constables to the Watch Committee.^34
In Piccadilly, the watch committee was concerned about a recent rash of
burglaries in February 1796. Vestry clerk Luke Ideson reported he had
taken the Liberty to Instruct the ten Patrols to parade the Streets sepa-
rately and not two together as heretofore in order to their more frequently
seeing and obse"'ing ... the Conduct of the other Watchmen since which
Regulation took place no further Outrages had been Committed and
that this measure appears to have given General Satisfaction amongst
the Inhabitants [Emphasis added].The vestry made Ideson's experiment a permanent change and it sparked a
major overhaul of the St James watch in 1796.
Not all parishes could afford to restructure their entire watch.^35 A favour-
ite compromise between the need for better supervision and the reluctance
to increase costs was to assign new duties to someone already on the payroll.
This frequently happened to beadles, who served both the overseers of the
poor and the watch committee. In St Leonard, Shoreditch, the duty of
inspecting the watch fell on the parish surveyor. His salary was increased
to £40 a year and he was allowed a greatcoat at the trustees' expense.^36
Parishes also encouraged residents to make complaints as a check on the
behaviour of the watch. In some, notices were posted encouraging parish-
ioners to report any lapses of duty and watch committees took such reports
seriously. The St James, Piccadilly watch committee certainly took notice
when Anthony Gell, Coroner for Westminster, wrote to complain about a
watchman named Pollock who, with the help of two patrols, had moved a
dying man across Wardour Street so that he died in Soho, the parish next
door. According to the coroner, this was 'only to save them the trouble of
taking him to the Watchhouse which in all probability would have saved his
life'. Pollock was promptly fired.^37
Watch committees expected supervisors and inspectors to encourage vig-
ilance and prevent petty corruption, such as watchmen consorting with