X Dear Wendy (if I may be so bold)Thank you for your nicely worded request forinformation on Mr. Scott, you would be surprisedhow many enquires we get from people who never sayplease or thank you. Your mail sounds as thoughyou have hit a brick wall with your searches, solet's see if we can sort it out, but first I haveto point out a few things. The CheshireConstabulary was formed in April 1857; there aremany thousands of records, these are held by theCheshire Record Office, Chester. I as the 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 a very poorstate run from 1857 - 1913; the information whichyou seek would therefore only be recorded inVolume 1, which runs between April 1857 and 1865.Volumes 1 and 2 contain very little information onthe officer's personal details i.e. date and placeof birth, as there were so few officers in thosedays they do not contain a Warrant Number (thenumber which you would normally see on an officersshoulder). I say all this because I want to tryand reassure you that what I give you is as itappears in Volume 1. However, if you so wish youcan of course have the records searched by theChester Records Archivist, or if you don't live tofar away by your good self. But it would be remissof me if I did not point out that whilst thisMuseum works on a small donation basis, and onlyif the enquirer feels the information is worthy ofsuch, the Record Office will charge you a minimumof £27 per search. So now to the point in questionand also as to why I think the Mr. Scott you aresearching for is this particular one, as believeit or not there are 12 Scott's in the databasebetween 1857 and 1865.PC John SCOTT joined the Cheshire Constabulary onthe 20 April 1857; his initial posting wasNorthwich Division and about 6 miles from Runcorn.He was ordered by the Chief Constable CaptainThomas Johnnes SMITH to resign on the 22 December1861, for the following offences: - March 1861Making false reports and assertions in respect ofmatters of duty on several occasions as percorrespondence (no information as to what thiscorrespondence is) Reprimanded. 13 October 1861Neglect of duty in not being on his beat from 2amto 3 am, also falsely stating to the Sgt that hisSuperintendent had given him permission to leaveduty, Reprimanded and Cautioned. 02 December 1861Improperly obtaining goods from a Tradesman oncredit, without any visible means of paying forthem, and on receipt of goods pledging them,ordered to resign in one month. His pay onappointment 20/- per week. During his service hewas also posted on the 30th August 1858 to Bucklow(just outside Northwich) and on the 21 November1860 Hyde.Taking this information, Hyde being a significantclue and searching the 1861 Census there is PoliceConstable John SCOTT, residing as a Lodger inCheapside, Hyde, Married, aged 44 years, and BornBradford, Yorkshire. (born circa 1817, I willattach the 1861 Census printout and send it frommy email). I think you may agree that this is morethan likely your John SCOTT.You may have also noted that the commencement dateof the Cheshire Constabulary was April 1857 andthe commencing date for John was also April 1857,meaning that John was one of the first PoliceOfficer's of the new Cheshire Constabulary. Thiscould also mean that John could have served aswhat was termed a 'Watchman' or 'Parish Constable'prior to April 1857; you may be able to establishthis with perhaps the 1851 Census. If you also read the history of the CheshireConstabulary "To the Best of Our Skill andKnowledge" which is on the Museum Web Site, I feelcertain that a useful picture can be obtained oflife in the force at the time, my own opinion isthat discipline was severe and those who strayedoutside the rules were fined way above what theyearned or dismissed. Also the restrictions ontheir private life, an officer was not allowed todrink on or off duty even in his own home. It allcomes down to the fact that up until the 1920'severy Chief Constable of Cheshire was an exMilitary officer and they of course brought withthe Military codes of practice. Having said thisCaptain SMITH appears to have been quite tolerantwith his men as it would appear he would allow aconsiderable build up of offences against thembefore dismissal.Just to make sure I have not missed anything, Ieven checked the Police Officer Pension RecordsCJP20/2/1 which dates from 1829, but would ofcourse only include those officers who continuedtheir service from being a 'Watchman' or 'ParishConstable' over to the new Cheshire Constabularyand completed their service to pension. Also theMarried Officers Book CJP24/2 which dates between1847 and 1960, strangely he does not appear here,it was dismissible offence to get married and nothaving obtaining the permission from the ChiefConstable to do so. The book also contains thoseofficers who married prior to joining the force,so I am assuming on joining they had to producetheir marriage certificate. Having said this Ihave come across some obviously anti officers whoinstead of asking permission to marry resigned,got married and rejoined. Perhaps one of thereasons for this is that the officers intendedspouse had also to produce four references to sayshe was a fit and proper person to marry a policeofficer!I do hope that with this information you will nowbe able to continue with your research, if youhave any further questions please do not hesitateto contact me.With sincere best wishesJim Talbot.Trustee and Researcher for theMuseum of Policing in Cheshire.The Curator, Museum of Policing in Cheshire,Warrington Police Station, Arpley Street,Warrington, Cheshire, WA1 1LQ