X Joseph PRUETTDear Jane,Thank you for your nicely worded request forinformation concerning Joseph you would besurprised how many enquires we get from people whonever say please or thank you, but first I have topoint out a few things. Unfortunately we have nofurther information on his police career otherthan what you have already given and which Ipresume you have researched at the Chester RecordOffice. But do not despair just at the moment, Ihave to try and explain the reasons why we don'thave anything recorded.The Cheshire Constabulary was formed in April1857; there are many thousands of records, theseare held by the Cheshire Record Office, Chester. Ias a retired Police officer and voluntary PoliceMuseum Researcher am slowly extracting theserecords. Cheshire Police Officer Enrolment Recordsare held under Reference CJP7 Volumes 1-5. Thesefive volumes are very large and in poor condition,run from 1857- 22 March 1913. At the same time asthe Cheshire Constabulary was formed a number ofindependent police forces were already in beingwithin Cheshire, these were known as BoroughPolice Forces and basically they were onlyresponsible for that Borough in which they hadbeen formed. Chester also had its own Police Forcei.e. Chester City Police this being formed in1833, it remained as an independent force until1947 and only then did it become part of theCheshire Constabulary. Sadly what did not comeacross with them are the records appertaining toan officer's service and what he did i.e.Misconduct, Promotion, Pay etc. The only record tosurvive is CJP20/7/1 (1833- 1939) which basicallyis a list of officers names and when they weresworn in and this is where Josephs name appears asPC410 Joseph Pruett who served as you say until15th October 1914 and was discharged as medicallyunfit for further service.Right down to the information that you probablywant to hear, when I compiled this database notonly did I scour the Record Office but everywhereI thought I may get snippets of information. Onesuch source on the internet is a website known asthe Black Sheep Index (www.blacksheepindex.co.uk)this is a site that carries newspaper articlesconcerning Police Officers. On occasions theofficer's full name is not given, but we havetried to make a match against what the MuseumRecords show. That index shows 4 entries for anofficer named Pruett at Chester (it really doeshave to be him as there are no other persons namedPruett in the Museum database) the first entry isfor 1901 and it says "Assault on" the next two arefrom 1902 one says "Assault on" the other "Shotat" and the last one is 1903 "Assault on" atBoughton. It could well be that all these articlesrefer to the same incident i.e. they have beeninitially reported on in the Newspaper andafterwards followed up when it has gone to Trial.There are charges involved to obtain thesenewspaper cuttings direct from the owner of thewebsite. It is emphasized that the Museum does notknown the contents of these cuttings and takes noresponsibility for them. The Museum is onlyshowing this as an aid that there is furtherinformation from another source. However if you goahead and contact them please say you have beendirected by the Museum of Policing in Cheshire,you won't get it any cheaper but it may speed upthe process.There was very little difference between theCity/Borough and the County Police Officer and ifyou read the history of the Cheshire Constabulary"To the Best of Our Skill and Knowledge" which ison the Museum Web Site, at the rear of this bookis a very brief history of Chester City Police, Ifeel certain that a useful picture can be obtainedof life in the force at the time, my own opinionis that discipline was draconian and those whostrayed outside the rule's were fined way abovewhat they earned or dismissed. Also therestrictions on their private life, an officer wasnot allowed to drink on or off duty even in hisown home. The Museum is within a working policestation and is open to the public Mondays andFridays via prior appointment with the Curator,Mr. Peter Wroe, he may be contacted via the Museumweb site and for information the address is TheMuseum of Policing in Cheshire, Warrington PoliceStation, Arpley Street, Warrington, Cheshire. WA1.1LQ.I am truly sorry I cannot give you furtherinformation, but if you should follow up thenewspaper articles and would like to part withcopies we will gladly receive them and retain themfor further reference. Sadly we are not supportedin anyway by the Cheshire Constabulary so ourfunds do not extend to buying these cuttingsourselves. Can I ask you when you get a moment would yousend a quick mail so I can mark of your enquiry asbeing complete? If you have any further questionsplease don't hesitate to contact me. Jim Talbot.Trustee and Researcher, Cheshire Museum ofPolicing.