80 Before the BobbiesParishes like Marylebone and Piccadilly tested the practical and logistical
limits of reform and the strain showed. In 1793, even the efficient and
conscientious men of the St Marylebone Watch Committee felt the burden
of their responsibility. They requested that their chairman, Lord Sommers,
write to the Home Secretary, Henry Dundas, because of the 'frequent
Robberies and dangerous Assaults of the most violent and alarming Nature,
which the ordinary watch cannot control, having been lately committed ... ,
[and] Soliciting the particular attention of Government to this object of
Police'. In reply, Dundas outlined the instructions given to the magistrates
to be more vigilant and said:
These Depredations have I am told most frequently been committed
before the watchmen are placed upon their Stations; and that being the
case, I should think it might not be unworthy of the Consideration of the
Several Parishes, whether the Watchmen they appoint should not be
required to give their attendance to their Duty at an Earlier Hour.^152
Dundas's suggestion must have been disappointing-this was something that
the Watch Committee had considered eight years earlier and implemented in- It is significant, however, that these men did see the Home Office as a
resource for what had previously been considered a local problem.
The use of double shifts and the change from stationary to patrolling
watchmen often entailed increased expense and considerable effort to
redraw beats. Watch committees also tinkered with other details, hoping to
enhance the preventive and detective functions of the watch. The standing
orders of the Clink Paving Commission in 1787 were typical: 'No Person with
a Horse or Cart or without carrying any Load or Burthen, after 1\velve
o'Clock must be suffered to pass without Examination .. .'.^153 The orders
given to the patrols of St Anne, Soho were also standard: 'That each
patrole ... see that no Person or persons of suspicious Character is or are
tipling in Public Houses after twelve o'clock and that if any Public House
shall be kept open ... he shall report the same to the Watch Committee in
order that they may be recommended to the Magistrates not to License such
House in future.'^154
Other questions occupied watch authorities. If watchmen were constantly
on the move, were watchboxes necessary? St Anne, Soho's vestry ordered
that 'the Keys [of the watchboxes] be kept by the patrole of each Division
that in case of tempestuous Weather the Watchmen may be permitted to go
therein for Shelter'.^155 Should watchmen call the hours? Surely this just
alerted thieves to their presence and allowed the guilty to escape. But it
also provided a way to tell if watchmen did their rounds. If a man failed to
call, it could mean he was drunk or asleep and needed to be disciplined or he
might be hurt and need help. St Marylebone experimented with silent
patrolling but reinstituted calling the hours after a few months.^156 Did