Police
(work in progress}
"Policing" in Cheshire and Chester is a broad subject, especially when it comes to its history, of which some things are known but where there are large gaps before "modern times". Chester had one notable historian , Fenwick, who was a policeman but even he sheds little light on the subject for the period prior to "modern policing" and what the medieval "City Watch" would have been and done. This article looks at what is known about "the watch" and related organisations up to the development of the modern Police Force. For the countryside outside of the major towns even less is known from much of the Medieval period and well into Tudor times, which seems to have been a particularly lawless time in some parts of rural Cheshire.
Early Days
In Saxon and into medieval times, people policed their own community as part of a system of "collective responsibility". Men were arranged into groups of ten called tithings, headed by a chief tithingman. If a crime was committed in the tithing, it was everyone's responsibility to bring the person to justice. Each tithingman was individually responsible for the actions and behaviour of all the members of the tithing, by a system known from Norman times as "frankpledge". While women, clergy, and the richer freemen were exempt, otherwise all men over 12 years of age were organised in the system for mutual surety. If a person accused of a crime was not forthcoming, his tithing was fined; if he was not part of the frankpledge, the whole town was subject to the fine. It is not clear how the system applied in Cheshire.
Oddly, the "frankpledge" system partly survived in English law as unlimited damages for "riot" could be added to the "Police Rate" (which fell on residents) under the Riot (Damages) Act 1886. The Act was repealed and replaced by the Riot Compensation Act 2016.
More serious crimes were dealt with by "Hundredmen". The term "hundred" is first recorded in the laws of Edmund I (939–46) as a measure of land and the area served by a hundred court. In the Midlands, they often covered an area of about 100 hides. The Hundred Ordinance, which dates to 939-961, provided that the court was to meet monthly, and thieves were to be pursued by all the leading men of the district.
Following the Norman Conquest it is unclear to what extent the Normans would have patrolled the City Walls rather than concentrating on guarding Chester Castle. In times of peace the garrison of the average Norman castle would have been quite small, possibly as small as five soldiers not all of which were professional. Even much later garrisons were small: Harlech castle took approximately 1,000 workers 7-8 years to complete, but the full time garrison after it was finished was only 36 men and that was a large castle built to control a rebellious populace in an unstable, newly conquered kingdom. The garrison of Harlech included: a constable, 30 men, including 10 crossbowmen, a chaplain, a smith, carpenter and stonemason. The inhabitants of a more typical castle would include the servants or retainers of a Knight’s family, or their children: the groom, the huntsman. the steward, the butler, the cook, the baker, etc. Only about half of these “men at arms” could be spared from the castle even for warfare and so the part of the garrison available for watch duties during peacetime would have been small. It is unlikely that the Normans would have maintained a sizable "watch" on the City Walls.

There were other officers concerned with law and order. County coroners were appointed after 1190. This role provided a local county official whose primary duty was to protect the financial interest of the Crown in criminal proceedings. They enquired into violent or suspicious deaths, with the support of a jury of local people. The "shire reeve" (Sheriff) was a royal official put in charge of maintaining public order in their shire, and collecting royal taxes. The shire reeve could claim payment for his services from the property of a criminal.
In the later part of the medieval era, as the role of the manor became less important in communities, "constables" gradually replaced hundredmen. Parish constables also replaced the tithingmen.
How all this applied to Cheshire and more especially to Chester is uncertain. The early role of the county Sheriff in Cheshire is unclear given that the Earl of Chester had a form of Palatinate jurisdiction. For Chester a borough court with 12 'lawmen' (iudices) existed in Anglo-Saxon times, and it was probably equivalent to the later Portmote. This was a gathering, i.e. *moot", of the men of a port. Hemingway writes of a survival of the ancient customs in Chester:
- "according to Jacob there was a general assembly of the people to consider of and order matters of the commonwealth. There was anciently used by the Saxons a mote bell, employed by the English Saxons to summon people together to the court. The remains of this custom is still retained in this city to this day where a small bell is at St Peter's church, when the mayor and recorder go into court at each the general courts held in April, August and October."
Nothing further of this bell, which presumably was originally kept at the Pentice, is known.
The citizens could arm themselves against both internal and external threats. The Assize of Arms of 1181 was a proclamation of King Henry II of England concerning the obligation (not the right) of all freemen of England to possess and bear arms in the service of king and realm and to swear allegiance to the king, on pain of "vengeance, not merely on their lands or chattels, but on their limbs". The assize (for more see: Militia) stipulated precisely the military equipment that each man should have according to his rank and wealth:
- "every free man of laity having goods in value worth 10 marks is obliged to have a habergeon (mail shirt), a steele cap, and a spear, and all burgesses and all free men to have wambais (gambesons - a padded defensive jacket of wool/linen), a cap of steele, and a spear."
The Assize of Arms of 1252, of King Henry III concerned the enforcement of the Assize of Arms of 1181, and the appointment of "constables" to summon men to arms, quell breaches of the peace, and to deliver offenders to the sheriff. The appointment of watchmen in towns was first required by law in the thirteenth century. Requirements for towns to appoint Watchmen were again stated in orders issued in 1233 and later in the 1285 Statute of Winchester. The latter became the most prominent of the "Nightwalker Statutes" allowing or requiring night watchmen to arrest those found on the streets after sunset and hold them until morning. However the histories available on "Watchmen" are biased towards what occurred in London and again, little is known of "Watchmen" in Cheshire.
In 1300, Edward I's charter granted the citizens of Chester the right to try "pleas of the Crown" before the mayor and sheriffs of the City - the first time any city in England obtained this privilege. With the combination of the interests of the Castle, mayor, merchants and Earldom/Palatinate the "policing" of Chester (and Cheshire) seems to have become a very complex operation.
Constable of Chester
The Constable of Chester was a mediaeval hereditary office, which according to tradition, was held from the Norman Conquest by the Barons of Halton under the overlordship of the Earls of Chester. The function of the office is unclear, some authorities state that it was the custody, as castellan, of Chester Castle but others have argued that he was the constable for the entire "Palatinate". The term "constable" itself derives from a meaning as "the person in charge of the cavalry": it originates from the Latin comes stabuli, meaning "count of the stable". Before the end of the 14th century the office changed to Governor of Chester, a military officer responsible for the garrison at Chester Castle, later assisted by a Lieutenant-Governor.
It has been suggested by historian Geoffrey Barraclough that the first constable of Chester was Robert of Rhuddlan a Norman adventurer who became lord of much of north-east Wales and for a period lord of all North Wales. Robert appears to have served on the Welsh Marches under Edward the Confessor even before the Norman Conquest. While never officially called constable by 1072 he had been appointed the "commander of troops" to Earl Hugh of Avranches. He was killed in July 1093 after single-handedly charging three shiploads of maurading Welshmen who left his body full of javelins and took his head at the masthead of their ship. It is posssible that only after this did the constableship pass to William fitz Nigel of Halton (1080-1134), but this is somewhat complicated by his age. In the alternative, the first constable is named as Nigel of Cotentin (c. 1071–1080) who died before Robert of Rhuddlan. There are several other difficulties with dates in the traditional view.
There were also apparently "religous police". The Cathedral website states that "since the 13th Century" the Deans and Chapter of the Cathedral appointed Cathedral Constables under common law to police their estates. There must be a slight error here as the Cathedral only came into existence in 16th Century, but the earlier Abbot may have had similar retainers. The sworn Cathedral Constables had (after 2017) the right to carry rigid batons and handcuffs and carry out arrests. In January 2021, "after more than 700 years of service" (according to Wikipedia), the Chester Cathedral Constables were stepped down. However, that might not be the full story, the British Police History suggests that the force had been dormant for some years and was only recreated after a decision in 2011.
It would appear that the main tasks of the "Cathedral Police" were to protect the interests of the Abbot and later to provide some security at the Cathedral. In the days of the Abbey several of the monks themselves seem to have become directly involved in quite violent fights with the townspeople over various issues. They were not "religious police" in the sense that it sometimes used today, enforcing laws against heresy, witchcraft, etc.
Justices of the Peace
An act of 1327 had referred to "good and lawful men" to be appointed in every county in the land to "guard the peace"; such individuals were first referred to as "conservators of the peace", or "wardens of the peace". The title "Justice of the Peace" derives from 1361, in the reign of Edward III.
In Cheshire
Some evidence suggests that in Cheshire policing was at first a somewhat more pragmatic affair and the office of “hereditary master-serjeant” came into existence. He recieved his appointment from the Earl. It is not clear when this office came into existence. Ranulf de Blondeville's Magna Carta of Cheshire (1215/16) mentions that there were itinerant law enforcing sergeants and that his barons could hold their own courts.
According to one source, for presenting each robber’s head at the Chester Castle (the King’s domain), the officers of the Earl received a payment of one shilling per head. Until 1276, the Pipe Rolls did not always link these payments directly to the master-serjeant; it seems that payments were made to other officials. However, in the Pipe Rolls of 1276 and later, the master-serjeant was expressly linked to the payments and the fee of one shilling per head was by then the established fee. By 1276 the Earldom had been returned to the crown, and after the death of Henry III (1272) it would have been for Edward I to decide how things were run as questionable Earl Alphonso would have been three years old. By the 14th Century the law outside of major town seems to have frequently broken down and there are descriptions of bands of armed men pillaging frequently. The enforcement of law and order in the County of Cheshire during this period of Chester's history seems haphazard.
In some places Parish Constables were later established. Elsewhere in England the position originated from the manorial courts and later became a fixture of the parish structure following the demise of the manorial system of governance. The constable was voted in by the parish ratepayers from amongst fellow ratepayers under the auspices of the parish vestry. Although by the early 17th century, the manor courts had generally ceased to exercise control over the appointment of the constable, it was not until The Parish Constables Act, 1842 that the powers were formally and officially transferred to the parish and the local magistrates. The evolution was probably somewhat similar in Cheshire.

There were two Constable posts, one was known as the High Constable and the other the Petty Constable. This dates from 1285 when Edward I "constituted two constables in every hundred to prevent defaults in towns and highways". The High Constable’s jurisdiction covered the entire administrative area of the Hundred and acted as the assistant to the county Lord Lieutenant. He had a special responsibility for raising the muster when ordered by the Crown.
The Petty Constable was the one which operated at the parish level serving a one-year unpaid term. The duties were varied and included the collection of taxes and rates, arresting suspects, catching escaped prisoners, dealing with church non-attendance, whipping and evicting vagrants from the parish (back to the parish of their birth), compiling juror lists, overseeing the parish militia, catching rats and many others (including, where appropriate, lighting signal beacons). Much of his work was written up in the constable accounts which were kept in the parish chest.
The treatment of vagrants was potentially quite severe under the law, although they do not seem to have been fully applied. in the Vagabonds Act 1530, Henry VIII decreed that:
- "beggars who are old and incapable of working receive a beggar's licence. On the other hand, [there should be] whipping and imprisonment for sturdy vagabonds. They are to be tied to the cart-tail and whipped until the blood streams from their bodies, then they are to swear on oath to go back to their birthplace or to serve where they have lived the last three years and to 'put themselves to labour'. For the second arrest for vagabondage the whipping is to be repeated and half the ear sliced off; but for the third relapse the offender is to be executed as a hardened criminal and enemy of the common weal."
In the Vagabonds Act 1547, Edward VI (then aged 9) ordained that:
- "..if anyone refuses to work, he shall be condemned as a slave to the person who has denounced him as an idler. The master has the right to force him to do any work, no matter how vile, with whip and chains. If the slave is absent for a fortnight, he is condemned to slavery for life and is to be branded on forehead or back with the letter S; if he runs away three times, he is to be executed as a felon... If it happens that a vagabond has been idling about for three days, he is to be taken to his birthplace, branded with a red hot iron with the letter V on his breast, and set to work, in chains, on the roads or at some other labour... Every master may put an iron ring round the neck, arms or legs of his slave, by which to know him more easily."
Parts of these vagrancy laws are still in force. These include parts of the Vagrancy Act 1824. In the previous 1744 Vagrancy Act, (17 George II), the heirs and assigns of John Dutton, of Dutton, co. Chester, deceased, Esq., are stated to be "exempt from the pains and penalties of vagrancy" under the rules relating to Chester's peculiar Minstrel Court.
Some historians have argued that it became apparent, early in Tudor times, that the local legal and administrative machinery was not satisfactory, especially when compared with the more settled order that could be maintained by a regular system of Justices of the Peace possessing local knowledge and with central control, as established in the kingdom generally. Following apparent resistance by the Palatinate, it was not until 1536 that JPs were introduced into Cheshire and Flintshire. Prior to this Tudor Cheshire has been described as:
- "Beyond the control of the crown, despite the King being Earl of Chester, early Tudor Cheshire was a lawless gangland in which warring local magnates battled for power. The Palatinate had its own judicial machinery; it was financially distinct and had its own exchequer (also based at Chester Castle); it had no justices of the peace, no visits from the assizes; it sent no representatives to parliament; and men spoke of crossing from Cheshire into England."
This appears to be an exageration for later Tudor Cheshire as there is evidence that the gentry were capable of acting together to maintain the peace. Dorothy Clayton has shown that the large number of recognisances of the fifteenth century argues not for a lawless area, but provides "evidence that the majority of the gentry were responsible citizens who were making an effort to police their own actions and maintain stability". The expansion of the influence of "England" into Cheshire is discussed further under Dutton.
The court of quarter sessions was the meeting of the justices of the peace for the county held quarterly at Epiphany (January), Easter, Midsummer and Michaelmas (Autumn). While in the other English counties the office of justice had been in existence since the 14th century, it was not until 1536 that Cheshire was statutorily obliged to have justices appointed by the crown in commissions of the peace and establish courts of quarter sessions. Courts were originally held at Chester, Middlewich, Northwich, Nantwich and Knutsford, but from 1760 the only sessions towns were Chester (Epiphany and Easter) and Knutsford (Midsummer and Michaelmas).
Forest law
William the Conqueror, a great lover of hunting, established the system of forest law. This operated outside the common law, and served to protect game animals and their forest habitat from destruction. "Forest" does not mean that the area was covered in woodland, but that it was an area reserved for hunting. The Norman Earls of Chester established their own forests. Some of these hunting forests (such as the Forests of Mara and Mondrem) may have existed as such in Anglo-Saxon times. The other forests included the Forests of Macclesfield and Wirral.
Offences in forest law were divided into two categories: trespass against the vert (the vegetation of the forest) and trespass against the venison (the game). Inhabitants of the forest were forbidden to bear hunting weapons, and dogs were banned from the forest; mastiffs (a breed possibly introduced by the Normans) were permitted as watchdogs, but they had to have their front claws removed to prevent them from hunting game. During the early Norman period, the penalties for killing "royal" game across England were severe, including blinding, mutilation or execution. These savage punishments were gradually replaced by huge fines. In Cheshire, Ranulf de Blondeville, the 6th Earl, issued a charter in 1215–16 which is said to have granted a more humane legal code for the Cheshire hunting forests.
The justices of the forest were the justices in eyre and the verderers. The chief officials were the foresters and under-foresters, who personally went about preserving the forest and game and apprehending offenders against the law on behalf of the Earl. The Master Foresters answered to the Chester justiciar, who was responsible for the administration of forest law across all three Cheshire forests. The office of the Master Forester was a hereditary position. For the Forests of Mara and Mondrem this was given by Ranulf de Meschines, the 3rd Earl, to Ranulf or Ralph de Kingsley in 1123, and it passed by marriage to the Launcelyn family and later to the Done family of Utkinton and Tarporley. These forests were important as a source of materials, particularly oak bark, used in the process of Tanning by the leather industry in Chester. For the Forest of Wirral, the position soon became a hereditary responsibility of the Stanley family. However, after complaints from minor Wirral landowners about the wildness of the area and oppression by the Stanleys, Edward the Black Prince as Earl of Chester agreed to a charter confirming the disafforestation of the Wirral, shortly before his death from amoebic dysentery. The proclamation was issued by his father Edward III on 20 July 1376. The original Forest of Macclesfield formerly stretched from the foothills of the Pennines east into the High Peak near Whaley Bridge and south to the Staffordshire Moorlands on the River Dane. Along the River Goyt the Macclesfield Forest bordered onto the Peak Forest. It is not known exactly when the Forest of Macclesfield was created but it was definitely in existence by 1160: it was probably created in the reign of Henry II.

The "agisters" supervised pannage (feeding pigs) and agistment (grazing on pasture land) and collected any fees thereto appertaining. The lower-ranking forest officials assumed much of the role of the county sergeants within the forest bounds.
In Chester
The city of Chester had its own quarter sessions, formally established by Henry Tudor's "Great Charter" of 1506 which empowered the mayor and aldermen who had held that office to act as justices of the peace and created the new office of recorder. It was only by the time of Henry Gee's first tenure as sheriff of Chester (1523) and his sitting as a magistrate (1533), the office of the sheriff seemed to be accepted as better solution to maintaining law and order within Chester.
Constables are recorded in Chester from about 1450 (during the Wars of the Roses) and like the common councilmen were listed as associated with the four main streets. Those representing Bridge Street and Eastgate Street were always the more numerous. The number varied from year to year with Eastgate Street having ten in 1474-5 and four in 1476-7. Bridge Street had eleven and five in the same years. Serving as a constable seems to have been part of the pathway to becoming a councilman for those who were not the sons of major mercantile families. The constables also appear to have served as jurors.
A chief establishment associated with law and order in Chester was the Pentice, effectively the office of the Mayor and located on the corner of Northgate Street at the High Cross. From an illustration by Randle Holme the building appears to have had an upper gallery where commercial activities in the four main streets could be watched. The merchants of Chester were so precious about outsider trading in the city that they had two officers known as "Leave-lookers" whose role was to ensure that "foreign" traders left the city promptly after the annual fairs.
As noted above, the county of Cheshire prior to late Tudor times has been percieved as a "lawless" area by some historians (see links below). This seems far less true of the city of Chester itself, possibly due to the way in which the essentially mercantile and guild community needed to work together and keep sufficient order in the city for the intrests of the merchants to be protected. Examination of the Chester court records shows that throughout the Middle Ages the proportion of violent offences perpetrated by citizens of Chester was comprehensively dwarfed by the trading offences, property transactions and debts which formed the bulk of cases handled by the City Courts. See the section below on the City Watch for more on this.
Watch and Ward
The "Watch and Ward" system was an early form of policing used in Medieval England to maintain order and security in towns and cities. The system originated in the 13th century and was enforced by local communities that appointed their own members to serve as guards or watchmen. Under the system, each community was responsible for maintaining a watch and ward, which was a group of men appointed to patrol the streets and keep watch for any signs of criminal activity. The watch was responsible for patrolling the town during the night, while the ward was responsible for maintaining order during the day.
City Gates
One of the duties under the Watch and Ward system was to guard the City Gates. In Chester custody of the gates was initially assigned in a different manner: the main gates were under the control of hereditary sergeants who collected tolls and organised watches on the walls. By the late 14th Century policing activities had been removed from the ancient serganties and had become the reponsibility of a group of 16 leading property holders drawn from the four main streets.
All of the original four gates of the city. except the Northgate (of which Mayor and the citizens had charge from before 1500) were kept by persons who held by sergeancy under the Earls of Chester. These sergeants were entitled to certain tolls which were specified in 1321.
Northgate
The Northgate was granted in the time of Earl John Canmore (1232–7) to Robert of Anjou, in whose family the sergeancy remained throughout the 13th century, together with the Northgate gaol. In the early 14th century Robert's great-great-grandson granted his rights to John Blund of Chester. After 1360 the office passed by marriage to the Dutton and Derby families and in 1491–2 it was held by three co-heiresses of the Derbys.
In 1498–9 the mayor and citizens laid claim to the Northgate, and by 1541 it was in the custody of the city sheriffs, with whom it remained until its demolition. Hemingway writes as follows:
- From time immemorial the keeping of this gate has been confided to the citizens upon a certain tenure of service which can be neither honourable nor agreeable to the city namely that the Sheriffs shall be bound to see the extreme sentence of the law executed upon all malefactors whether condemned by the city or county courts.
County jurisdiction in Chester has until recently been somewhat peculiar. Chester Castle, an area around the castle in Chester, was historically an extra-parochial area and today remains a civil parish, which until recently had no inhabitants. It was part of the Chester Rural District, despite being in the middle of the city, and did not form part of Chester County Borough. This meant that County Hall was actually in the administrative county of Cheshire which it administered. Because of this peculiar jurisdiction, prisoners being brought from trial at the Shire Hall in Chester Castle were handed over to the City authorities at the Gloverstone. In 1651, Chester Castle was described as follows:
- "At the first coming in is the Gate-house, which is a prison for the whole County, having divers rooms and lodgings. And hard within the Gate is a house, which was sometime the Exchequer but now the Custom House. Not far from thence in the Base Court is a deep well, and thereby stables, and other Houses of Office. On the left-hand is a chappell and hard by adjoyning thereunto, the goodly fair and large Shire-Hall newly repaired where all matters of Law touching the County Palatine are heard, and judicially determined. And at the end thereof the brave New Exchequer for the said County Palatine. All these are in the Base Court. Then there is a drawbridge into the Inner Ward, wherein are divers goodly Lodgings for the Justices, when they come, and herein the Constable himself dwelleth. The Thieves and Fellons are arraigned in the said Shire-Hall and, being condemned, are by the Constable of the Castle or his Deputy, delivered to the Sheriffs of the City, a certain distance without the Castle-Gate, at a stone called The Glover's Stone from which place the said Sheriffs convey them to the place of execution, called Boughton."
Hemingway writes:
- It is stated in an inquisition taken in the year 1321 for the purpose of ascertaining the tolls payable at each of the city gates that the mayor and citizens as keepers of the gate had a right to certain tolls for which privilege they were bound to watch the said gate and the prisoners in the prison of the earl there imprisoned to keep the key of the felon's gallows to hang up all the condemned criminals to execute the sentence of pillory proclaim the ban of the earl within the city.
Hemingway also quotes:
- There were certain customary tenants of the city, sixteen in number, who by their tenure were bound to watch the city three nights in the year which are specified and also to watch and bring up felons and thieves condemned as well in the court of the justiciary in Chester in the county there as before the mayor of Chester in full crown mote as far as the gallows for their safe conduct and charge under the penalty which thereto attaches for which services the said customary tenants had certain privileges and exemptions.
The three nights upon which these tenants were expected to watch the City Walls were over the Christmas holiday, an unpopular time to be on guard duty. It is almost certain that these leading figures had their duties performed by paid deputies. It was also the case that these persons were "exempt from attendance on all inquisitions, juries and assizes, except when held before the Lord, the Prince and the Earl of Chester" (which makes sense if they had to hang criminals). William Bingley's history of North Wales (1804) suggests that handing over of prisoners at the Gloverstone may date back to Henry VII, who, in 1506 granted Chester its 'Great Charter', which constituted the city a county in its own right. Bingley proposes that the inhabitants of the city would rather execute felons themselves rather than allow the county any jurisdiction within the city. Thus it was the City and not the County who mounted guard over the prisoners at the Northgate and conducted felons both to the Shire Hall for trial and, if needs be, as far as the gallows at Boughton.
Eastgate
The earliest mention of the Eastgate is in the later 12th century. It seems to have been enlarged in 1270, and a reference to it shortly afterwards as "porta Cestriae" suggests that it was the principal gate of the city. The keepers were responsible for the inspection of weights and measures, and were bound to find equipment for measuring salt. The first known serjeant was Thomas of Ipgrave, whose widow Joan was granted the custody and tolls of the gate in 1275. Joan surrendered her rights in 1278 in return for a pension.
The sergeancy of the Eastgate was given, on January 2nd 1275 (in consequence of a royal mandate by Reginald de Grey, Justice of Chester), to "Henry de Bradford" and Robert his son, together with "Bruardeshalgh" (Brewers Hall) as a compensation for their manor of Bradford, which had been ceded to Vale Royal Abbey. The property upon which Gray's Inn (in London) sits was once Portpoole Manor held by Reginald de Grey. The sergeancy of the gate passed through various hands (including the Earl of Oxford and Sir Christopher Hatton) until in 1662, when John Crewe held it, he released the tolls to the city in consideration of a rent charge on the Roodee of £2 12s. 4d. He also gained an exemption from the tolls for himself and his heirs. The keeper of the gate was expected to find "a crannock and a bushel" for measuring the salt brought into the city. Thereafter the city appointed a keeper who remained responsible for inspecting the city's weights but who by 1666 had ceased to receive the profits of the gate or to pay the rent due to the Crewes.
Forward of the Eastgate, towards Boughton stood the "Barrs" a further barrier which allowed control of the commercial activites along Foregate Street. A similar barrier existed on Frodsham Street near the present day Cow Lane Bridge.
Bridgegate
Pigot writes:
- The Bridgegate was in the custody of the Raby family in the reign of Edward III from whom it passed by co heiresses to the Norris's of Speke in Lancashire and the Troutbecks The moiety which belonged to the Norris family was purchased by the Corporation of Sir William Norris in 1624 the other moiety was purchased from the Earl of Shrewsbury as representative of the Trouthecks in 1660 when a suite of rooms in a house near the Bridge still vested in the Shrewsbury family was reserved for the use of the Earl and his heirs whenever they should visit Chester which house now belongs to John Johnson Cotgreave Esquire.
The "suite of rooms" were at the building which is now the "Bear and Billet" pub, a little way up Lower Bridge Street. Built in 1664 to replace a building destroyed during the civil war, the Bear and Billet is one of the finest original examples of a black and white half timbered building in Chester. For a further discussion on the Troutbecks see: St Mary on the Hill.
Watergate
The lucrative sergeancy of the Watergate descended through the Barony of Montalt (Mold) to the Stanley family, the Earls of Derby. A branch of this family held nearby Stanley Palace. The duty of the sergeant-holder was, according to an inquisition held June 23 1432 to:
- "..find one man, as well in time of peace as in time of war between England and Wales, to open and close the aforesaid gate when necessary and to receive certain profits there of old accustomed, and one other man, bearing a club, called the sergeant of Watergate Street, to make attachments and distriants, and perform other old accustomed duties within the City of Chester."
Waits

From medieval times up to the early 19th century, every British town and city of any note had a band of waites (modern spelling waits or waitts). Their duties varied from time to time and place to place, but in some places included playing their instruments through the town at night, waking the townsfolk on dark winter mornings by playing under their windows, welcoming royal visitors by playing at the town gates, and leading the mayor's procession on civic occasions. The surnames Waite and Wakeman are derived from individuals who worked as waits. The instruments used by waits varied, but the usual instrument was the shawm, a loud and piercing wind instrument suited to outdoor playing. The shawm was so closely associated with waits that it was also known as the wait-pipe.
One advantage of the rather loud musical instument would be it would signal that the waits were approaching. and presumably help avoid any sudden outbreak of violence. While the Waites are depicted on the cover of the "Book of Music" from the Chester Pageant it is unknown whether there was actually a horn-blowing contingent patroling the walls of the Chester.
Mayor Henry Gee in his term from 1539-40 set out the duties in Chester of the Town Cryer and the Bellman, which were separate roles with an unclear overlap. Fees due to the Bellman, who appears to have had the junior role, included:
- "of every worshipful gentyllman that goyth onye gounes at ther buryall ...one goune [at funerals gowns would be given to mourners]. when he gythe or aneything that is lost ...jd [one penny]. for every bote lode with powder mellwylle [salted fish] ...one fyshe, for every boute lode with fresh fyshe that he goeth for ...jd [one penny]."
From this we see the duties of the Bellman extended to "lost and found", but his other "police" duties in Chester are unclear and the duties of other Bellmen elsewhere are known to have varied from place to place. From the records it is clear that there were once both a day Bellman and a night Bellman, in Chester, and it is possible that the role of the night Bellman may have included ringing a bell to announce the time at night and that "all is well".
The Watch Parade
The Midsummer Watch Parade appears to have actually consisted of two parades: one supported by the civic authorities and essentially an expansion of the annual armed watch on midsummer eve, consisting of guards, four giants, the Mayor’s Mount, the Elephant and Castle, four beasts, four hobby horses and the merchants’ mount (a model ship). The other was a series of shows provided by the guild companies, which originally drew on figures from each guild’s respective performance in the Chester Mystery Plays.
Watches made up of unpaid citizens were organized in 1625 and 1632 to exclude strangers from the city during the plague, and an armed watch of 300 men was created to defend Chester in 1642. There was a watch at the Pentice in 1659, but the first clear reference to a permanent paid night watch was in 1703.
The Official Watch
The Chester Improvement Act of 1762 provided for the appointment of up to 60 able-bodied "watchmen" which Fenwick describes as the first Police, but the "Police Improvement Commissioners" had only limited powers to raise revenue. The Police Commission for Chester, was made up of the mayor, recorder, J.P.s, and six inhabitants from each ward, the last elected by owners and occupiers whose property was rated as worth at least £10 a year. The commission, which was chaired by the mayor and met in the inner Pentice, "set up a night watch", supervised by the "ward constables".
Under the 1803 Chester Improvement Act the commissioners acquired more effective financial powers and set up a force of 18 paid watchmen and an officer, who patrolled the city between 11 o'clock at night and an hour before dawn. Most of the watchmen were middle-aged or elderly labourers. In 1811 the commissioners resolved to increase numbers to 24 and recruit younger men, and from 1814 The Rows were patrolled also on winter evenings. Chester also had a "Beadle". One of these is recorded in being involved in the arrest of Rev Lucius Carey who, according to the Admiralty records (1.1532 Capt Birchall, 17th July 1804) was in Chester and:
- "..had contracted the unclerical habit of carrying pistols and too much liquor. In this condition he was found late one night knocking in a very violent manner at the door of the "Pied Bull", and swearing that, while none should keep him out, any who refused to assist him in breaking in should be shot down forthwith. Sam Burrows, the ex-beadle, happened to be passing at that moment. He seized the drunken cleric and with the assitance of James Howell, one of the city watchmen, forcibly removed him to the watch-house, whence he was next day taken before the mayor and bound over to appear at the Sessions. Now it happened that certain members of the local press-gang were Carey's boon companions, so that no sooner did he leave the presence of the mayor than he looked them up. That same evening Burrows was missing. Carey had found him a "hard bed", otherwise a berth on board a man-o-war."
Under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 the council's watch committee took over responsibility for policing (and Waits were officially abolished). By 1835 the J.P.s sat daily as police magistrates. The new force consisted of a superintendent, an inspector, two existing corporation constables, and 26 other constables, many of whom had been watchmen. Eleven or twelve hours of duty a day were normal, mainly on the beat at night, and from 1837 the police also acted as firemen; the pay compared badly with that in nearby borough forces and did not attract good recruits. Dismissals, usually for drunkenness or sleeping on duty, greatly outnumbered resignations. An old tradition was apparently broken in 1837 when the police ceased to cry out the hour. The basement of the Exchange was put into use as a permanent police station in 1839, and this later transferred to the new Town Hall.
Outside the City

Before the 1856 County and Borough Police Act responsibility for the administration, as well as the enforcing of law and order lay in the hands of magistrates selected for the responsibility in the Hundreds Divisions of the Shire Counties. Hoole and Newton, for example, were in the Broxton Hundred, whose magistrates' meetings and hearings were usually held at the Egerton Arms in Broxton (see: Charles Moston), where matters of a mainly rural nature were dealt with. The magistrates were responsible for the police service and a County Police Court at Chester Castle also dealt with local offences. In 1896 the Broxton Police Division of Cheshire Constabulary comprised 18 small police stations, generally housing one or two officers each. Thus, the decision in 1910 to build a large new police court on an isolated plot at the junction of A41 Whitchurch Road and A534 Barnhill Road at some distance from any centre of population is probably explained by its proximity to the Egerton Arms. The building is in the style of an Elizabethan manor house, with “E” shaped plan of Ruabon brick and slate roofs. The architect was Harry Beswick. It is now a private residence.
During this time many cases were brought as a result of the work of Associations for the Prosecution of Felons, formed by landowners concerned about the rising level of crime, the local one being the Trafford Association. Its public notices issued annually from 1795 to 1820 listed the local landowners and spelt out very clearly the nature of the crimes about which they were concerned. For example, in 1827 Phillip Bickerton of Newton was charged with stealing timber, the property of Robert Brittain Esq. of Hoole Bank - and ordered to be transported for seven years.
As the population of Chester's suburbs grew, crime increased so that in 1856 a petition was sent to the Broxton magistrates asking that a police officer be based in the area outside of the City. The magistrates ordered the constable based at Trafford, (then in Cheshire), Manchester, to transfer to Bishopsfield (Hoole), but representations from gentlemen at the Trafford end saw the order countermanded. In the autumn of 1856, the Court of Quarter Sessions set up a special committee of Justices to advise on the application of the County and Borough Police Act 1856. The Justices were now obliged to establish a paid police force for the whole of each county.
The first full Cheshire Police committee met at the Crewe Arms Hotel, Crewe, on 3rd February 1857 under the chairmanship of Mr. Trafford Trafford. Cheshire Constabulary was officially formed on 20th April 1857. The first Chief Constable was Captain Thomas Jonnes Smith. He was soon to move to Chester. Hoole Lodge was owned by the Earl of Shrewsbury and was reputedly Hoole's manor house. For over 50 years the Hamilton family lived there, at the same time renting their newly built Hoole House to Lady Eliza Broughton. When she died in January 1857 the family moved into Hoole House; as a result Hoole Lodge was available when an official residence was being sought for Cheshire's first Chief Constable. Johnes Smith was its first occupant, the 1861 Census recording his wife and four children, his mother-in-law and eight members of staff living there. A coachman was employed for the journey into Seller Street, the location of the County Police Headquarters. In 1862 this office was removed to 1 Egerton Street, Chester and remained there until 1870, when it was removed to 113 Foregate Street. In 1893, the Court of Quarter Sessions approved the building of a new Headquarters which was erected at 142 Foregate Street and designed by John Douglas. The Museum of Policing in Cheshire preserves and researches the heritage of policing in the county.
Conclusions
The keeping of law and order in pre-Victorian Cheshire and Chester involved a complex system and is a vast study. There were at times various "police" organisations acting on behalf of a number of legal systems. For a period after the Norman Conquest large parts of the county were under "Forest Law". The county was also subject to the Manorial Courts and later came Parish Constables, elected locally for a period of one year. In Chester, policing was organised by the Assembly on behalf of the merchant community, although the Abbey (later the Cathedral) had its own officers within its extensive holdings. Many of the offices held, such as the Foresters and the keepers of the Gates of Chester were originally hereditary.
Sources and Links
Related Pages
Online
- Cathedral Constables;
- QUARTER SESSIONS RECORDS: (1559-1760);
- A Decade of Disorder?: The Performance of Justice in Cheshire in the 1590s;
- England Parish Constable;
- Cheshire Quarter Sessions: records collection;
- History of the High Sheriff of Cheshire;
- Law and Order in Medieval Chester 1066-1506;
- Peace Bonds and the Maintenance of Law and Order in Late Medieval England:
- THE CHARTER AND HORN OF THE MASTER-FORESTER OF WIRRAL;
- The Forest of Macclesfield;