The Parish Constable ******************** A Parish constable was a law enforcement officer, usually unpaid and part-time, serving a parish. In some parishes, the position was known as "high constable", e.g. the High Constable of Holborn. The office of constable has its deepest origins in the medieval period; it originates from the Latin 'comes stabuli' or "count of the stable". The term was originally used in England and Scotland for the Lord High Constable. However, the term was also used at the local level within the feudal system, describing an officer appointed to keep order, and the precursor of the Constable as we know them today. In England the very first office of 'Lord High Constable' was in existence during Henry I's reign (1100-35); the principal duty of the constable being to command of the army. The Court of the constable, also known as the court of chivalry, came into existence as early as the reign of Edward I (1272-1307). This ancient title of Lord High Constable is now only appointed for coronations. Towards the end of the 12th century the unpopular sheriff's court, which had its origins in the 10th century, gave way to local manorial courts - which under the lord of the manor took over the sheriff's court jurisdiction, and administrative functions were added to it. The word sheriff derives from "shire reeve". In England before the Norman Conquest, the scír eréfa (also called scírman) was a high officer, the representative of the royal authority in a shire, who presided in the shire-moot, and was responsible for the administration of the royal demesne and the execution of the law. The Sheriff's office reached the height of its power under the Norman kings - while the sheriffs originally had been men of great standing at court, the end of the 12th century saw a process whereby the office devolved on significant men within each county, usually landowners, and somewhere about this time the Norman title of constable acquired the local significance it has held ever since. It had descended the social scale from being an office of the royal court to the petty constable of the tything, or manor. From then on, the Constable that 'kept order' was appointed by the medieval 'Court Leet', the historical court baron (a manorial court, see above) of England, Wales and Ireland that was commanded to exercise the "view of frankpledge", essentially the compulsory sharing of responsibility among persons connected through kinship, or some other kind of tie such as an oath of fealty to a lord or knight. This land owners "pledge" and its attendant police jurisdiction took over that which was previously restricted to the hundred courts. In 1285 King Edward I of England "constituted two constables in every hundred to prevent defaults in towns and highways". There are records of parish constables by the 17th century in the county records of Buckinghamshire; traditionally they were elected by the parishioners, but from 1617 onwards were typically appointed by justices of the peace in each county. Over the fullness of time the constable went from being an officer of the tything and manor into an officer of the parish. This was as a result of the growth of the parish as the unit of local government, with the parish taking over some of the functions of the remnants of feudalism. In the final stages of the process we find the constable as the most important official of the parish; and it was through the constable that these new civil units were linked up and subordinated to the organised rule of the justices of the peace. This system reached its height under the Tudors and progressively disintegrated during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reason for the change is to be found in the reluctance of the wealthier elements of society of the 16th and 17th century to serve their turn in undertaking the onerous and unpaid duties of the office, and their general resort to the practice of paying deputies to act in their place. Hence the office sank lower and lower in public esteem as the old principal of personal service died out. However, these high and petty, or parish constables remained the executive legal officers in counties until The County Police Act of 1839 allowed certain justices to establish a paid police force. The Statute was the only general public measure of any consequence enacted to regulate the policing of the country between the Norman conquest and The Metropolitan Police Act of 1929. The parish Constable's responsibilities were many and varied, it is worth considering the range of his duties which included; The collection of rates and taxes; The supervision of jury service; Inspection of ale-houses; Apprenticing of pauper children; Poor relief and supervision of itinerants and beggars; Collection of maintenance from the fathers of illegitimate children; Training of local militia; The suppression of riot and unlawful assembly; The apprehension of escaped prisoners or suspected criminals; The convening of parish meetings etc etc. As parochial authority developed, and that of the manor diminished, the Vestry took over many of the above duties. In 1842 such parochial duties were legally conferred on vestries, subject to the approval of the justices of the peace. In London, the position was ended with the introduction of the Metropolitan Police Service in 1829, which created a full-time professional force. Elsewhere, parish constables were gradually replaced with professional county police forces after the County Police Act 1839 was passed. Parish constables derived most of their powers from their local parish. The old London metropolitan area was predominantly policed by unpaid parish constables until the introduction of the Metropolitan Police Service in 1829. The historian Stephen Inwood describes the 4,000 parish constables existing in this period as: "of variable quality and commitment"; some 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. The Metropolitan Police Act 1829 ended the position of most parish constables in London, replacing them with a professional and trained police force. The City of London, which controlled its own police force, was exempt from this; its police force continues today as the City of London Police. Outside London, the County Police Act 1839 ended the positions of most parish constables. The Act gave rural counties opportunity to establish full-time police forces, headed by a Chief Constable who was appointed by the justices of the peace of the county. The first county to implement this was Wiltshire, which appointed its first chief constable on 28 November 1839.[4] Other counties followed this pattern; for instance, Essex appointed its first Chief Constable on 11 February 1840. Sources: www.landofthefree.co.uk/site/component/content/article/72-the-oath-of-constable www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ukwales2/hicks3.html en.wikipedia.org