X Early Policing in FrodshamDear Sheila,Thank you for your enquiry concerning earlypolicing in Frodsham, it is somewhat difficult toanswer and think it is better and more fullyexplained not just for Frodsham but for Cheshirein its entirety by reading The History of theCheshire Constabulary "To the Best of Our Skilland Knowledge" Chapter One, which is under thedrop down section marked 'History' on the MuseumWeb Site. However, rather than you having to sitin front of your computer I have added it belowwhich you can print off and read at your leisure. The County and its Divisions Hundreds Parishes or Townships Boroughs Police "Authorities" PoliceIn the early years of the nineteenth century civiladministration in Cheshire was carried out as ithad been for centuries. The pattern was: TheJustices in Quarter Sessions, The Hundred, and theParish (or Township). In addition there were fourchartered boroughs - Chester, Congleton,Macclesfield and Stockport - all to a large extentself-governing.The Court of Quarter Sessions was the Countyadministrative authority (in addition to being aCourt of justice) until relieved of general countybusiness by the newly created County Council in1889. The Hundreds of Broxton, Bucklow, Eddisbury,Macclesfield, Nantwich, Northwich and Wirral,earlier of some importance, still retained a fewfunctions, one of which was the appointment of aHigh Constable. The Hundred and the High Constablewere later to provide the territory of the policedivision and the title of the first paid officerequivalent to the superintendent.The civil parishes, or townships, as they weresometimes called, were the smallest units of localgovernment. Their responsibilities were wide andvaried. Their officers, the most important of whomwas the constable, were residents of the parish.They were chosen each year at the annual "vestry"meeting and presented to the appropriateauthority, either the Court Leet or the justices,for formal appointment.In the early 1820's there were some 450-500parishes in Cheshire, all electing one or moreconstables annually. In 1828 at the MacclesfieldHundred Court Leet, forty-eight persons were"sworn-in" as constables for thirty-eighttownships.The office of High Constable was abolished in1869, but by then it had long been little morethan an empty office.The four boroughs of the county were largelyserved by the same methods of vestry elections,but as in the non-borough towns some degree of"protection" came from the system of nightwatchman employed for a miserably small wage bythe local authority or private syndicates.One other type of "authority", often imperfectlyunderstood, should be mentioned here. This was asort of stop-gap authority created for specialpurposes. It was a system of local government by alocal body of "commissioners" acting under theauthority of a local Act obtained by petition toParliament. Briefly, it provided a means whereby adistrict made up of a group of adjoining parishesripe for advancement into an urban or town statusbut lacking the charter necessary to provideborough status (the only known municipal authorityof the time) could, for special purposes, beadministered by an authority having power to levya rate.These Acts were usually of an omnibus characterand whilst providing an authority to carry outhighway works, sewerage and lighting schemes,control markets and make bye-laws, onlyincidentally provided for the employment of a fewpaid constables. The district later to form thetown of Stalybridge (Borough in 1857) obtainedsuch an Act in 1828 and Birkenhead (not to becomea Borough until 1877) obtained one in 1833. Anexample of the rapid growth of towns and the needof something more than parochial powers is to beseen in the case of Birkenhead. In 1824 it wasestimated to have a population of 120 inhabitants.By 1839 it had 9,200. In this period of fifteenyears building land had grown in value from oneshilling a yard to twenty-five shillings andsixpence.The Commissioners were local people (inStalybridge twenty-one in number) annually electedat a town's meeting of ratepayers by a show ofhands.The parish constable has been so well and so oftenpictured that little can be added to what isgenerally already known. He may have been ashopkeeper, a farmer, or a superior artisan. Hehad no value in preventing crime and only becameactive after an injured party had obtained processand delivered to him the document, warrant, orderor summons, together with the appropriate fee andtravelling expenses, if any. It was notinfrequently the case that a victim of say,larceny, having set the law in motion eventuallyfound himself saddled with a bill of costs much inexcess of the value of the property stolen.If he were a busy man in his private pursuits hewould often employ a "deputy" to perform hisduties. The "deputy" of the times may, perhaps,best be pictured as the local odd-job man who, fora small fee, would undertake a variety of tasksfrom clearing a drain to posting bills and actingas a bailiff to the debtors' court. The name waslater commonly applied to full-time paid officersappointed under the Town Commissioners system, asat Stalybridge and other places.If the constable did the work himself, he wouldgive the least time possible to it. His attitudemight well be considered as adequately summed upin the words of the parish constable of Taxall(then in Cheshire) who whilst at Chester Assizes -he having found the body of a murdered man - onbeing told on his return to his inn that theOstler (Stableman) had been found dead in theprivy at noon, said: "Yes, I saw him dead therethree hours ago, but I had had trouble enough infording one dead man, I'll be - if I ever findanother".A surviving tattered ill-written Constable'sAccount Book for the parish of Astbury (1807-1840) shows the variety of tasks which fell to aconstable through whose parish ran a main highway.In the year 1821-22 for example, the constable,Charles Shaw, handled nearly £100. Of this £80represented county and parish rates, which, itseems, the constable collected.Over most of these years the time of successiveconstables was taken up with the duty of findinglocal transport (Astbury apparently being astaging point between Newcastle, Staffordshire,and Macclesfield) for military forces en route asshown by the entry - "Paid Robert Hargreaves forgoing to Newcastle with Baggesh". Frequent entriesconcern the payment of rewards to boys for "burdsyeds" under an old Act dealing with the"Destruction of Noisome Fowl and Vermin".Other typical entries include: S. DPd. Swaring Constables at Astbury Cort 2 0Pd. Constable Staves 5 0Pd. for Militia papers 7 0Expenses when picking Militia 2 0Writing Militia papers 2 0Expenses to Jury at Congleton 13 7Journey to Sand Bach 5 0Pd. for a letter 6Pd. for new guidepost at Sprint Lane £ I 2 0Pd. to Passes *** £ I 18 9What with the corruption of "deputies" by theswelling of expense accounts, and other dubiousfee-catching tricks, and a general disinclinationby the true constable to do more than absolutelynecessary (with no supervision from the distantHigh Constable), it is understandable when ajustice of the time remarked: "We have enoughpenal legislation for six planets. The trouble iswe have no means of enforcing it."The township constable system continued side byside with the trial of a paid constabularyestablished by the Cheshire Act of 1829, and infact it seems to have survived in some parts ofthe county until about 1860, for in that yearQuarter Sessions informed county coroners thatallowances to township constables for inquestduties would be discontinued.*** "Passes" was the term used to describe poorwayfarers; not real vagrants - often accompaniedby their families to new jobs of work to whom fourpence per head would be paid as an aid tosubsistence. They would be in possession of acertificate (pass) signed by a justice of thePeace showing their place of birth and otherdetails - in a sense a passport or identitydocument.The Cheshire Constabulary was formed in April1857; there are many thousands of records, theseare held by the Cheshire Record Office, Chester.As a retired Police officer and voluntary PoliceMuseum Researcher am slowly extracting theserecords. The main records are Cheshire PoliceOfficer Enrolment held under Reference CJP7Volumes 1-5. These five volumes are very large andin poor condition, run from 1857- 22 March 1913;Marriages are retained in CJP24/2, 1847-1966. AndPension records CJP20/2/1, 1857-1965. You willhave noted now that the records commence in April1857, prior to this no records have been foundthat would give information about officers andpolicing in a particular parish. In fact the onlyrecord we have is a single list of officer's namesthat were Constables prior to 1857, who were notretained when the new Constabulary was formed andthese were basically Parish Constables.In other words during the reign of George IV,there were no regular full time Constables, onlyParish Constables and these normally only served atwelve month period and only served within theparish in which they were resident, they had otherfull time occupations. The only individual officerthat we have noted was taken from the 1841 Censusnamed William Phoenix, born out of County circa1811, he was resident in Kingsley which as youknow was within the parish of Frodsham, whether heactually visited Frodsham as part of his policingduties we will never know. The first full timeConstabulary member stationed at Frodsham wasRichard Rowbottom, he commenced his service on the20th April 1849, I have set out below his servicerecord, and he was also the first residentConstable of the newly built police station inChurch Street in 1849/1850, this building alsoincorporated 3 cells. This tends to suggest thatRichard albeit prior to 1857 a Parish Constable,every 12 months continued on with his service.Frodsham Police Station was within the Number 3Division of the County (Eddisbury).The Museum is at this moment transcribing GeneralOrders from day one (20th April 1857), these arebasically the everyday running of the CheshireConstabulary and to date we have completed up to1880, nowhere within these 24 years does itmention the top hat being used as a sort of step,but if one considers that there were no heightrestrictions to enter the force and the averagemale was several inches shorter than today, Icould see it uses. Also it must have offered moreprotection to the wearer than the next style'Shako' which offered no protection whatsoever.When you get a moment can you please send a quickmail so I can mark of your enquiry as completed?If you have any further questions please don'thesitate to contact me. Jim Talbot. VolunteerTrustee and Researcher, Cheshire Museum ofPolicing.Collar Number/Rank. PC171 Richard ROWBOTTOMBorn. 1822 Witton, Northwich, Cheshire.Date of Entry. 20th April 1849Date of Leaving. 15th October 1878Final Date of Leaving. 15th October 1878How Discharged. To pension.Initial Posting. 20th April 1848 Frodsham,Other Postings and Dates. 30th September 1860Wirral; 1st December 1863 Broxton; 25th December1864 Northwich.Miscellaneous Information. Prior service of 1 year7 months with Macclesfield Borough Police. OldCheshire Constabulary 7 years 8 months. 2 Years onNorth Stafford Railways as PC. ReligionProtestant, Height 5' 10", Age 35, Eyes Hazel,Hair Brown, Complexion Dark, Build Proportional.1851 resident Church Street, Frodsham with wifeEleanor b1826 Darnhall, Cheshire and at that timeGeorge Cash a Prisoner.Age on retirement 56 years 6 months.Total service 29 years 54 days.Died 28 April 1899, aged 77 years.Promotion/Misconduct. Appointment Sgt 20/04/1857.11/1859 Promoted Acting Inspector. 09/1860Inspector. 01/12/1863 Promoted Superintendent.Weekly Pay. On appointment 20/04/1857 Sgt at 22/-01/10/1857 22/- to 23/-. 01/06/1858 23/- to 24/-.01/12/1858 24/- to 25/-. 11/1859 Promoted ActingInspector. 09/1860 Inspector at £80 per annum.01/08/1861 £90 pa. 01/12/1863 PromotedSuperintendent at £100 pa. 25/12/1864 £120 pa.15/09/1865 £130 pa. 06/1867 £135 pa. 05/1868 £145pa. 11/1868 £155 pa. 09/1869 £165 pa. 01/1870 £175pa. 04/1873 £192.10s.0d. pa.Discharged on a Pension of £128.6s.8d per annum.Total time on pension 20 years 194 days. Total pension received £2634. 17s. 6d.Awards/Good Conduct/Other information. 06/09/1859Awarded 10/- reward by Chief Constable for hisenergy and gallant capture of 2 Thieves committedfor trial for Highway Robbery, Sgt Rowbottom ishighly commended by the Chief Constable for thisact of duty. (This arrest must have taken place inFrodsham area)