Parish constable

Last updated November 15, 2023

A parish constable, also known as a petty constable, was a law enforcement officer, usually unpaid and part-time, serving a parish. The position evolved from the ancient chief pledge of a tithing and takes its name from the office of constable with which it was originally unconnected.

History of position

Origin

The office of parish constable originated from the tithing, a small unit of local administration. Each tithing was obliged, by frankpledge, to be responsible for the actions of its members. The heads of each household would often select one of their number to take charge of the tithing – an appointment usually known as "chief pledge", except in Kent, Sussex, and parts of Surrey, where the position was called "headborough".

View of frankpledge, a judicial process, obliged each tithing to attend the shire court at regular intervals, and hand over any person in their tithing who the court had summoned; if they did not, and could not swear on oath that they were not involved in helping that person evade justice, the remaining people in the tithing had to pay the damages incurred by the actions of that person. Since this created an incentive for each tithing to enforce standards of behaviour among its own members, the chief pledge of each tithing was effectively obliged to police behaviour in the tithing.

The emergence of constables

The term constable was originally unconnected with the chief pledge, and referred to officers in charge of the cavalry; it originates from the Latin comes stabuli, meaning count of the stable. By extension, constable referred to the officer in command of the army – one of the Great Officers of State. In times of relative peace, this officer was sometimes given a role in keeping order, on account of his command of military resources. Additional constables were sometimes appointed, if order needed to be kept in multiple places, or the main constable was busy in his main role.

The term constable consequently began to have a more general meaning related to enforcing order;^[1] in 1285 King Edward I of England "constituted two constables in every hundred to prevent defaults in towns and highways".^[2] In England and Scotland, the officer in command of the army then came to be called the Lord High Constable, to avoid ambiguity over his role. As the chief pledge were also involved in policing people's behaviour, though at a much smaller scale, and with much-lowered resources, they gradually came to be referred to as petty constables.

Tithings were originally connected with the hundred, but the courts baron introduced by the feudal system, attracted more attention, and the significance of the hundreds decreased. To shift the balance of power away from feudal lords again, magistrates were introduced, and the kings gradually transferred various functions to them, including from the shire courts. In 1381, magistrates acquired responsibility for the remains of view of frankpledge, thereby gaining oversight of the activity of petty constables.

The feudal system had gradually been weakened over the Middle Ages, and by the time of the Reformation, the focus of local administration had shifted away from manors and towards civil parishes. Tithings consequently came to be seen as a division of the parish, and so petty constables became seen as parish constables; there are records of parish constables by the 17th century in the county records of Buckinghamshire.

Functions

Parish constables derived most of their powers from their local parish. Traditionally, they were elected by the parishioners (just as the tithing had chosen their chief pledge forebears), but from 1617 onwards were typically appointed by the magistrates in each county.^[2] It was, however, only in 1842 that the power to appoint constables was formally stripped from manorial courts, and transferred to civil parishes by the Parish Constables Act 1842 (5 & 6 Vict. c. 109). Although the constables had had to be sworn into their role by the magistrates, magistrates had never formally had the power to actually choose them.

Like many official positions at the time, the position was obligatory, and unpaid, although the chosen constable had the right to employ someone to perform the role on their behalf. It was often a resented burden, as it involved a wide variety of extremely time consuming tasks.

In accordance with the ancient obligation for tithings to present indicted individuals to the courts, each civil parish typically had a small location in which the constable could confine criminals. The constable was responsible not only for confining such people, but also for delivering them to the courts. Similarly, constables were also expected to try to prevent crime within their parish; they were among the people with authority to read the Riot Act , and were expected to do so if a riotous assembly arose in their parish.

Vagabonds and beggars could be a drain on parish resources, under the Elizabethan Poor Law. They could also be a potential source of crime. Constables were expected to implement the Vagabonds and Beggars Act 1494, under which vagabonds and beggars were to be set in the stocks for three days, and then whipped until they leave the parish. The constable also had general responsibility for the local stocks, as well as for the pillory, and was expected to punish poachers, drunks, hedge-damagers, prostitutes, church-avoiders, and fathers of bastards.

Just as the tithing was a general administrative unit, and not exclusively limited to policing matters, so the parish constable had functions that would not be recognised as police matters, unlike hundred-constables (which had derived from the military constable).

Parish constables were expected to monitor trading standards and pubs, catch rats, restrain loose animals, light signal beacons, provide local lodging and transport for the military, perform building control, attend inquests, and collect the parish rates. They were also responsible for collecting national taxes, within their area.

Professionalisation

The historian Stephen Inwood describes the 4,000 parish constables existing in the early 19th century as "of variable quality and commitment"; some London parishes, such as Kensington, Fulham and Deptford (with over 55,000 inhabitants between them at the time of the 1821 census) had no policing at all, and the quality of policing was generally considered inadequate by this period.^[3]

The Metropolitan Police Act 1829 and County Police Act 1839 gradually led to the end of most unprofessional constabulary. The Metropolitan Police Act established a professional and trained police force, in place of the parish constables, within the bounds of London; the County Police Act allowed counties to do likewise. Each new force was to be headed by a chief constable (replacing the hundred-constables) who would be appointed by the county magistrates. The wide administrative functions of parish constables were taken over by various recently established local boards (which eventually were re-organised to become local councils).

The voluntary nature of the County Police Act meant that the change proceeded in a piecemeal fashion. The first county to establish a professional force was Wiltshire, which appointed its first chief constable on 28 November 1839;^[4] Essex followed a few months later, appointing its first Chief Constable on 11 February 1840.^[5]

The City of London had been exempted from the Metropolitan Police Act, and had to use a private act of parliament to establish its own professional force as the City of London Police.

In Guernsey and Jersey, parish constables still exist as elected parish officers.

Related Research Articles

The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health, and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and the use of force legitimized by the state via the monopoly on violence. The term is most commonly associated with the police forces of a sovereign state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. Police forces are often defined as being separate from the military and other organizations involved in the defense of the state against foreign aggressors; however, gendarmerie are military units charged with civil policing. Police forces are usually public sector services, funded through taxes.

A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other people may be granted powers of a constable without holding this title.

Chief constable is the rank used by the chief police officer of every territorial police force in the United Kingdom except for the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police, as well as the chief officers of the three 'special' national police forces, the British Transport Police, Ministry of Defence Police, and Civil Nuclear Constabulary. The title is also held by the chief officers of the principal Crown Dependency police forces, the Isle of Man Constabulary, States of Guernsey Police Service, and States of Jersey Police. The title was also held, ex officio, by the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers under the Police Reform Act 2002. It was also the title of the chief officer of the Royal Parks Constabulary until this agency was disbanded in 2004.

Frankpledge was a system of joint suretyship common in England throughout the Early Middle Ages and High Middle Ages. The essential characteristic was the compulsory sharing of responsibility among persons connected in tithings. This unit, under a leader known as the chief-pledge or tithing-man, was then responsible for producing any man of that tithing suspected of a crime. If the man did not appear, the entire group could be fined.

Avon and Somerset Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement in the five unitary authority areas of Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, Somerset, and South Gloucestershire in South West England.

A resident magistrate is a title for magistrates used in certain parts of the world, that were, or are, governed by the British. Sometimes abbreviated as RM, it refers to suitably qualified personnel—notably well versed in the law—brought into an area from outside as the local magistrate, typically to be the guiding hand amongst other lay magistrates.

The court leet was a historical court baron of England and Wales and Ireland that exercised the "view of frankpledge" and its attendant police jurisdiction, which was normally restricted to the hundred courts.

In Anglo-Saxon England, the reeve was a senior official with local responsibilities under the Crown, such as the chief magistrate of a town or district. After the Norman conquest, it was an office held by a man of lower rank, appointed as manager of a manor and overseer of the peasants. In this later role, historian H. R. Loyn observes, "he is the earliest English specialist in estate management."

The Council of Assiniboia was the first appointed administrative body of the District of Assiniboia, operating from 1821 until 1870. It was this council who is credited for the arrival of a functioning legal system, a local police force, and a militia to the vast wilderness that was the fur-trading territory of Rupert's Land. Over its existence, the Council of Assiniboia transformed numerous times in an effort to bring law and order to a young colonial settlement that was rife with tension and hardship.

The Constable of the Tower is the most senior appointment at the Tower of London. In the Middle Ages a constable was the person in charge of a castle when the owner—the king or a nobleman—was not in residence. The Constable of the Tower had a unique importance as the person in charge of the principal fortress defending the capital city of England.

Wiltshire Police, formerly known as Wiltshire Constabulary, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Wiltshire in South West England.

A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides. Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or spokesman was known as a tithingman.

The County Police Act 1839 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was one of the Police Acts 1839 to 1893. The Act enabled Justices of the Peace in England and Wales to establish police forces in their counties. The Act was not compulsory, and constabularies were only established in 25 out of 55 counties by 1856, when the County and Borough Police Act 1856 made their provision mandatory.

In English law, the term headborough, head-borough, borough-head, borrowhead, or chief pledge, referred historically to the head of the legal, administrative, and territorial unit known as a tithing, which sometimes, particularly in Kent, Surrey and Sussex, was known as a borgh, borow, or borough. The office was rendered in Latin documents as capitalis plegius or decennarius (tenner).

The Police Act 1964 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that updated the legislation governing police forces in England and Wales, constituted new police authorities, gave the Home Secretary new powers to supervise local constabularies, and allowed for the amalgamation of existing forces into more efficient units.

Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, temporary work, or social security. Historically, vagrancy in Western societies was associated with petty crime, begging and lawlessness, and punishable by law with forced labor, military service, imprisonment, or confinement to dedicated labor houses.

Whorwellsdown was a hundred of the English county of Wiltshire, lying in the west of the county to the south of the towns of Bradford on Avon and Melksham and to the north and east of Westbury. An arm of the hundred reached several miles southwards into Salisbury Plain, with a detached portion, a tithing of Tilshead, lying high on the Plain about five miles east of the southern arm of the rest of the hundred. At its western end, it reached as far as the Somerset county boundary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Meredith (police officer)</span>

Captain Samuel Meredith was the first person to be appointed to the rank of Chief Constable in the United Kingdom when he was appointed to that rank in the newly formed Wiltshire Constabulary in November 1839. This occurred after a distinguished career in the Royal Navy.

Guildable Manor is a Court Leet in Southwark under the authority of the City of London, along with the King's Manor, Southwark, and the Great Liberty. The name of 'Guildable' first recorded in 1377 refers to the collection of taxes there and was adopted to distinguish this from the other manors of the Southwark area. Its legal title, according to a Royal charter granted to the City by King Edward III in 1327, is 'the ville of Southwark' i.e. 'ville = 'town'; in the more substantive charter of Edward VI it is designated 'The Town and Borough of Southwark' as is stated on its Seal. It is a preserved limited jurisdiction under the Administration of Justice Act 1977. Although neither a guild nor a livery company, the Guildable Manor does have a permanent organization, consisting of Officers and Jurors.

In the United States, there is no consistent use of the office of constable throughout the states; use may vary within a state. A constable may be an official responsible for service of process: such as summonses and subpoenas for people to appear in court in criminal and/or civil matters. They can also be fully empowered law enforcement officers. Constables may have additional specialized duties unique to the office. In some states the constable is an elected or appointed position at the state or local level of local government. Their jurisdiction can vary from statewide to county/parish and local township boundaries based on the state's laws.

References

↑ p72, Bruce, Alistair, Keepers of the Kingdom (Cassell, 2002), ISBN 0-304-36201-8
1 2 p276-7, Markham, Sir Frank, History of Milton Keynes and District, vol.1 (1973), ISBN 0-900804-29-7
↑ p591, Inwood, Stephen, A History of London (Macmillan, 1998), ISBN 0-333-67154-6
↑ Wiltshire Constabulary History Archived 2007-12-18 at the Wayback Machine , Wiltshire Police website
↑ The Making of a Chief Constable Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine , Essex Police website

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] 72, Bruce, Alistair, Keepers of the Kingdom (Cassell, 2002), ISBN 0-304-36201-8

[fm-2] 1 2 p276-7, Markham, Sir Frank, History of Milton Keynes and District, vol.1 (1973), ISBN 0-900804-29-7

[3] 591, Inwood, Stephen, A History of London (Macmillan, 1998), ISBN 0-333-67154-6

[4] Wiltshire Constabulary History Archived 2007-12-18 at the Wayback Machine , Wiltshire Police website

[5] The Making of a Chief Constable Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine , Essex Police website

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]