The Internal Police Administration of England
| Author | Harold Benjamin |
| Published date | 01 July 1931 |
| Date | 01 July 1931 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X3100400312 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Internal Police Administration
of
England
PART
I
By
HAROLD
BENJAMIN, B.A.
OXON.
The Seventeenth Century Police Administration
THE unit of police administration in the seventeenth
century was the petty constable. He was its principal
executive agent; the other police officers,the high constables
and the justices of the peace, worked through him and it was
upon his efficiency or inefficiency that the whole system stood
or fell.
The
office
was gratuitous and compulsory.' Every
householder was liable to serve, with the exception, as in the
case of the frank pledge, of certain privileged persons who were
exempt ex
officio:~
The
powers and obligations of the
office
were purely local, they extended only to the parish or township
for which the constable was elected ; 3and no one could be
elected constable for a township or parish in which he was not
a householder.
The
election took place at the court leet of the district.'
This was a strictly local court held by the lord of the manor.
It
had once possessed extensive criminal jurisdiction,
but
by
1660 its powers had shrunk
considerably-it
had cognisance
only of offences of the nature of public nuisances." But it con-
tinued down to the end of the eighteenth century to be the
principal organ for the election of local officials.
The
method
1The Exact Constable, by E.
W.,
of
Gray's
Inn,
5th
ed.
London,
1688,
p.
13.
(For
it is understood
that
constables have no allowance
but
are
bound
to
perform
their
office
gratis.'
I
For
a list of persons exempt, see The Exact Constable by
E.W.,
of
Gray's
Inn,
5th ed.
London,
1680,
pp.
14-15, lind The Office
of
Constable, by J. Ritson,
London,
1815,
p.
312;
The Parish Officer's Complete Guide, by J.
Paul,
6th
ed.,
1793,
pp.
134
and
135.
3The Office
of
Constable, by J. Ritson,
London,
1815,
p.
2.
&Ibid., p, 32.
5
Mr.
and
Mrs.
Webb.
The Manor and Borough, vol. i.,
London,
1908, p, 26.
438
INTERNAL
POLICE
ADMINISTRATION
439
of election emphasizes the local nature of the
office
of constable.
All the male inhabitants of the manor from twelve years old
upwards were summoned to attend by the steward of the
manor on the first day of the meeting of the court
leet;
and
though the review of Frank Pledge was obsolete, ' the roll of
the inhabitants was still supposed in
1689
to be called over and
everyone had to answer to his name.' 1
'Here
the legal
functions of the ordinary inhabitant ceased. But the bailiff or
reeve had to summon two or three dozen of the more respect-
able and substantial inhabitants to serve as jurymen.' aThis
jury
then proceeded to the election of the local officers; the
procedure in each case being the same.
The
jury chose the
number of men whom they considered suitable for the office
and out of these the steward picked the required number to
serve the
office,"
The
compulsory nature of the office is shown by the fact
that after election the constable was bound to serve his
office
under penalty of a fine or imprisonment.' He could be
amerced by the leet jury 6or the justices and even imprisoned
by the latter for such refusal.s
Where the court leet had ceased to be held or was not held
through the neglect of the steward of the manor, the constables
were appointed by the justices of the peace. This power of the
justices to elect a constable in default of election by the court
leet appears to have been exercised long before it had been
given statutory sanction," By the statute of
1661
which
legalized this practice the justices were given the additional
power of appointing a successor in the event of the death or
removal out of the parish of a constable after election by the
Ieet,?
Theoretically the office of constable was one of great
dignity and importance.
It
was one of the oldest offices of the
1Ibid.,
p.
22. aIbid.,
p,
23.
aIbid.,
p,
28.
'Shropshire County Records.
Abstract
of
Quarter
Sessions
Orders,
1638-1888.
Sir
O.
Wakeman
and
R.
Ll.
Kenyon,
passim; see also below,
p.
442,
and
Wm.
Brown,
The Office of Constable, Ed. of
1677:
p.
II.
ISee Court Leet Records of Manchester,
Manchester,
1884, vol. x,
p.
v, for instances
of
leet
fines as late as
the
nineteenth
century.
I
Sir
John
Fielding, Extracts from the Penal Laws,
etc.,
London,
1768, p, 329.
714 Charles
II.
c. 12, §IS.
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