X PatronGerald Cavendish GrosvenorDuke of Westminster, KG, CB, OBE, TD, DLOur Ref. JT469/2012Charles PRICE.Dear Bill,Thank you for your nicely worded request forinformation concerning Charles you would besurprised how many enquires we get from people whonever say please or thank you.Chester as you are no doubt aware has always beenpart of Cheshire County, however it was policed byits own police force i.e. Chester City Policebetween 1836 and 1949 only then did it become partof the Cheshire Constabulary, sadly when theamalgamation took place very few records cameacross with them, having now said this during thepast twelve months Mr. John Burton from our Museumstaff has trawled Chester Public Records office,where most of the police archives are retained forCheshire and its Constituent forces records,having now found a great number of records we havefound that they are not as detailed as theCheshire Constabularies. But at least now we areable to give enquirers some background to theirpolice officer ancestors as opposed to last yearwhen we were unable to supply anything and ofcourse the searching goes on. I want to reassureyou that we give you is exactly how it is recordedin the archives, however you can of course searchthe archives yourself but failing this the PROstaff will research on your behalf but it would beremiss of me if I did not point out that the PROwould charge you about £27 per search and if theyhave to search more than one set of records thecost will greatly increase so please be mindful ofthis if you do go down this road.Officer. No 4 Inspector Charles PRICE.Born. 14th October 1838, Handbridge, Chester.Date of joining. 9th February 1864.Date retired to pension. 8th February 1894.Total service. 25 years, 9 months and 5 days.Misconduct. 10th February 1870 for leaving hisbeat one and half hours before time. Cautioned andwithdrawn from Special Duty by the ChiefConstable.On the 8th February 1894 the Chief Constabledeclared at a meeting of the Chester City PoliceWatch Committee that Inspector Charles Price hadresigned the Force after 30 years' service andthat he was entitled to a pension of 2/3rds of hispay which was 38/- per week which is equal to apension of £1.5s.4d per week, which was approvedby the Watch Committee.An article written in the magazine 'Police Review'states "At Chester on the 15th instance, InspectorLeech, on behalf of the Force, presented InspectorPrice a handsome timepiece, bearing the followinginscription". "Presented to Inspector CharlesPrice by members of the Chester City Police Forceon his retirement, as a mark of their esteem, June1894.Approximate time on pension. 1 year, 10 months,and 5 days.Married. 8th November 1864 at St. Johns ParishChurch, Chester to Mary Thomas, aged 23 yearsof Boughton, Chester (Copy of marriage certificateattached).On the 2nd January 1896 the Chief Constabledeclared to the Chester City Watch Committee thatPolice pensioner Charles price had died on the13th December 1895 at Chester. (Buried 17thDecember 1895, Chester. Parish Death recordattached)Age on death. 57 years, 1 month, and 27 days.18th December 1895, William Price, son of CharlesPrice resident at Granville Cottage, Swindon Road,Cheltenham sent a postcard which states "Mr.Beckett, Sir, I hereby make application for anypension due to my late father Inspector Price upto the time of his death on 13th December 1895. Ifyou would kindly forward on, I will send a receiptfor same. Sorry I was unable to call having beenobliged to leave Chester this morning. I remainyour respectfully, William Price (Son).It was ordered by the Chief Constable that thequestion of paying over the balance of the pensionand to whom be referred to the Town Clerk. (Theoutcome of this event is not recorded).1871 Census shows that Charles and wife Mary areresident at 5 Gloucester Street, Chester withtheir three children, Elizabeth, born 1866,Chester. William and Letitia (twins) born 1869,Chester.1881Census shows that Charles and Mary areresident at 2 Steam Mill Street, Chester; he isnow a Sergeant of Police. They have an additionalchild named Ann Jane born 1872 at Chester. (Theparish Baptism records for the 4 children areattached).1891 Census shows Charles is now an Inspector ofPolice, a Widower and still resident at 2 SteamMill Street, Chester with his two daughters andgranddaughter.The following article is taken from the CheshireObserver Newspaper dated Saturday 12th March 1892.ILLICIT DRINKING IN CHESTER A LICENCE ENDORSED Atthe Chester City Police Court on Wednesday, beforeMessrs' L. Gilbert, J. Salmon, F. L. Bagnall, andDr. Stolterfoth; Harry Foster, the licensee of theBrewers' Arms public-house, Foregate-street, wassummoned for keeping open his licensed premisesfor the sale of drink during prohibited hours, andfor assaulting Police-Inspector Price in theexecution of his duty. Mr. W. H. Churton appearedfor the defence. - Inspector Price deposed that atabout 11.40 on Sunday night, the 28th February, hewas on duty in Foregate-street with SergeantCulliford, when they observed a number of peoplestanding outside the entrance to the Brewers'Arms. Shortly afterwards two of them left, andcame down the street, the remainder appearing toenter the house. Witness and Culliford thenproceeded to the front door, from which they sawthe bar lighted up, and heard people both in thebar and in a back room talking. They also heardcorks drawn from bottles, and the jingle ofglasses as if someone was handling them. Someperson went from the bar towards the back-room,and in a few minutes returned, dropped some moneyinto a drawer, and closed it. The gas was thenlowered, and the parties went towards the back-room, closing the bar door behind them. Witnesssent the sergeant for Police Constable Jones, whoopened the passage door, and they walked up to thedoor of the farroom. People were talking inside, and when witnessknocked there was a noise of scrambling, and ofpeople walking sharply out of the room. Afterkeeping them waiting four or five minutes, thedefendant answered the door and asked who wasthere. Witness replied "Police," whereupon thedoor was opened, and they were allowed to enter.Witnesses enquired where were the parties who werein the room, to which the defendant replied "Whatparties, where they are?" Witness said. - "That iswhat I want to know," and stepped into anotherinner room, where he found several personsincluding two men and a woman, who were strangersto him. He asked "What are these people doinghere?" Defendant replied "What people? Who arethey? Don't you know them?" which he repeated inan excited manner several times. Witness demandedtheir names and addresses, and instructed thesergeant to take them down. While this was beingdone, the defendant pushed Culliford and witnessin the breast with his hand, and said, "Take thenames yourself; you are inspector, aren't you?"Witness replied, "Yes;' but I am not going to bedictated to by you." Foster then put his fist inwitness's face, and threatened to knock his b*****head off, but he was pulled away by his friends.The following names and addresses were thenbooked: - Charles William Shaw, Belvedere -road,Lambeth; Bagnall Holland, 62, Cornwall-street,Chester; and Floss Cambridge, of the CollingwoodPantomime Company, Widnes. It had since beenascertained that Shaw, who was a cutler fromLondon, was working in Chester, and resided at 7,Deva terrace. The room was afterwards searched,and in the bar they found on the counter threeglasses and three bottles, one about three-partsfull of beer. Witness said to the defendant, "Whatabout these?" He repeated several times, " Whatabout them?" Witness said, "Now listen to me.Before coming here we heard corks being pulled andmoney put into the till." Foster replied, "You area liar." Witness then informed him that he wouldbe reported for having his house open for the saleof beer during prohibited hours, and for theassault. He said with regard to the first, "I denyit; my house was closed at ten o'clock," and withregard to the second, "You are a liar, I didnothing of the sort." The officers then left,defendant following them to the door and makinguse of abusive language.-Cross-examined by Mr.Churton: They had not been watching the house, andhe did not notice where the people came from. Theywere standing in front of the house (five or sixof them) when witness and Culliford came up thestreet. He did not ask the persons found on thepremises whether they had been drinking out of theglasses on the counter. The defendant did notactually touch witness's face with his fist. Hewas very angry, but Culliford did not push him.The lady said she was on her way to Widnes.Witness did not taste the beer, but smelled it. -Sergeant Culliford, in corroborating, stated thatthe defendant pushed him away, saying, "I amtalking to your superior, you are a nondescript, awastrel." - Cross-examined: Floss Cambridge was atChester with the recent pantomime company. He didnot know if she was staying that night at theBrewers' Arms. He denied putting a hand on thedefendant. - P.C. Jones also gave evidence, to theeffect that when stationed at the street door, heheard someone come into the bar and put glasses onthe counter, after the inspector had knocked. -Mr. Churton, addressing the Bench, said he hadadvised his client that what had taken place couldnot be justified. The men did not intend to commitany offence, but he was afraid the defendant hadbrought himself within the purview of the law. Nowthat he had recovered his temper, he felt it hisduty to say he had done wrong, and could onlyleave the case in the magistrate's hands. It wasperfectly true there were several men collected inthe street on the Sunday evening in question at11.40. They had been to a club, the defendantamong the number, and it was suggested that theyshould go into the house for a parting drink. Theresult was that two of them did go in, and whetherthey paid for the drink or not, their presencecould not be justified. As to the young lady whowas lodging at the house, there had been noattempt on the part of the police to make out acase, while, as to the assault, he asked themagistrates to find that, though the defendant hadno right to put his fist in the officer's face,there was no intention to commit an assault. He(Mr. Churton) had advised his client that theconstables took a perfectly legal course inentering and searching the house, and he did notin the least complain of the way in which the casehad been brought forward.- After retiring, theBench fined Foster £5 and costs, and endorsed thelicence. They also fined him 10s. for the assaulton the police, and imposed a penalty of £1 eachand costs upon the two men, Shaw and Holland, forbeing found on the premises during prohibitedhours, to which they pleaded guilty.Lastly If you also read the history of theCheshire Constabulary "To the Best of Our Skilland Knowledge" which is on the Museum Web Site, Ifeel certain that a useful picture can be obtainedof life in the force at the time, there was verylittle difference in the rules and regulationsbetween a County and City force. In my opinion itdid not matter in which force you serveddiscipline was draconian 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. Foryour convenience I have extracted Chapter 17 ofthe Cheshire Force History below.CHAPTER SEVENTEEN PREVIOUS to the Police Act, 1946, Cheshirecontained eight independent Borough Police Forces.The Act reduced the number to three. The fiveextinguished forces were Chester City (1949),Congleton, Hyde, Macclesfield and Stalybridge.Each of these forces had a police history of somelocal interest. That concerning Macclesfield wasput on record in 1947 by the last of its ChiefConstables - Mr. W. G. Symmons now Chief Constableof St. Helens. The others, in detail, remain to bewritten. What follows here must, of necessity, bebrief.Each of the forces, except that of Hyde, may besaid to have begun as such in the year 1836 whenpolice administration, was to some extent, tidiedup by the Municipal Corporations Act of the yearbefore which, amongst other things, created WatchCommittees having the duty of employing asufficient number of constables and administeringthe force.The 1835 Act made no provision for an Exchequergrant and, of course, no system of inspection withits concomitant of standardized administration andprocedure which came only in 1856. It is in thislight, therefore, that the pre-1856 days of theBorough Forces should be looked at.CHESTER CITYAt the beginning of the nineteenth century,Chester had a body of Commissioners to administerthe very elementary needs of local government.This body, under an Act of 1762 had power, amongstother things, to employ and pay watchmen. Some fewconstables existed elected by parishes or wardsand appointed formally by the City Court ofQuarter Sessions.A register of watchmen of I806 shows that eighteenmen were employed on this duty. One was oversixty-nine years of age and eleven of them areshown as being "old soldiers". In 1815 it isrecorded that during the months October to Marchthe Watch was increased by ten, giving a total oftwenty-eight. At the same time wages were reducedfrom twelve shillings to ten shillings per week.The Commissioners met at The Exchange. This was apublic building occupying the site on which thepresent Town Hall was built in 1862. The onlypolice station house in the City was in thisbuilding. On theerection of the present Town Hall a police stationwas included and it has been the city policeheadquarters until to-day.In addition to the Watch, a certain number ofconstables were serving; quite how many is by nomeans clear. A report of a special committee ofthe Council dated 18 39 says: "It appears to theCommittee that previous to January, 1836, theConstabulary and Police Force of the Cityconsisted of- Mr. Hill, Mr. Dawson, Mr. Haswell,The Mayor's Porter, The Beadle, Thomas Worrall.Three row constables from six to nine o'clock atnight, and about fifty ward constables. That the`Police Force' consisted of thirty-two watchmen,twenty-one firemen, viz., one superintendent, fourcaptains and sixteen firemen. That the presentestablishment consists of Mr. Hill, Mr. Haswell,The Mayor's Porter, Thomas Worrall and twenty-sixconstables. That Mr. Hill and Mr. Haswell areprepared by the next meeting with informationrelative to the salaries and emoluments asconnected with their respective offices."From this rather confused picture it is possibleto guess that probably Messrs' Hill, Dawson andHaswell, and maybe Thomas Worrall, were full-timepolicemen in the period immediately pre-ceding1836. It seemed that Haswell had a specialresponsibility as "superintendent of the Watch",and Hill as "superintendent of Police", for eachwas respectively so described in 1839. The threerow constables were probably part-time and thefifty ward constable's probably annual vestry orparish constables.Before 1835 the only disciplinary authority restedwith the Magistrates for in 1829 the ChesterCourant reported: "Four parish constables werebrought up on a summons for neglect of duty on theSabbath. They were all discharged on excuse andpromise of being punctual in future. One had apain in his knee; another didn't know; a third wasaway from home; and the fourth blamed his wife."In 1844 a Watch Committee report stated that theforce consisted of one superintendent, twosergeants and sixteen constables, and that theywere each furnished with a staff, cutlass andhandcuffs. They were issued with a greatcoat, acoat with embroidery to collar, trousers, hat,stock, badge, cape, boots and gloves, the issuebeing a greatcoat every two years, and otherarticles yearly. The "hats" were undoubtedly ofthe common style of top-hats of the periodvarnished or otherwise weather-proofed, for acorrespondent to a local newspaper spoke of "theglazed-hatted policemen" of the City.The wages were recorded as being: superintendent£120 per annum; sergeants £1 per week andconstables fourteen shillings per week.In the same year it was ordered that Mr. Hill "beauthorized to produce a book to be called ThePrisoner's Property Book for use at the policestation."That the policemen's lot was not withoutoccupational hazards is to be seen in the frequentreferences to damage to uniforms or personalinjury, as for example in May, 1844, when theWatch Committee ordered a new pair of trousers forAbraham Price and a new shirt for Henry Johnson,"their own having been destroyed in the executionof their duty in apprehending Robert Edwards forbreach of the peace," and that the Council berecommended to allow Peter Gillan ten days wages,he having been disabled in consequence of injuriesreceived in an affray in Steven Street.In addition to policing the city it seems theWatch Committee had a responsibility for managingthe local prison, for in 1839 it was reported that"this establishment was ill-managed, and owing tothe illness of the Governor the chairman hadappointed Constable Capper to assist him." It wasfurther reported by the chairman that, but for theexertions of Holmes (a policeman in gaol for threemonths for assault), a prisoner named Jackson,under sentence of transportation, would certainlyhave escaped.Holmes had been sentenced a few weeks earlier forwhat was described by the Recorder "as a mostbrutal assault." The City prison went out of usein 1872.In September of the same year (1844) it isrecorded that the cells at the police station wereto be heated with hot water.In 1850 Mr. Hill was authorized to procure a bedfor the use of the constable on night duty at thepolice office with two brown Holland covers forthe same.Chester being a garrison town and a cross-road forEnglish, Welsh and Irish traffic, was always abusy place for the police. The earlieststatistical information available (1865) showsthat of 2,081 persons proceeded against in theCourts, 927 were unable to read or write. As tonationality 1,401 were English, 606 Irish,fifty-five Welsh, sixteen Scots and foreignersthree. The labour and political troubles whichcontinued for so long to affect the peace of EastCheshire seemed not to have affected Chester,except occasionally when, as in 1839, to meetthreats of rescue attempts of some Chartists fortrial at the Assizes some 300 to 400 localinhabitants were enrolled as Special Constablesand armed with cutlasses supplied from governmentstores.John Hill served as Head of the City Force until1864. He was the first of the only four ChiefConstables the City ever had in its 113 yearslifetime as an independent force (1836-1949). Hecommenced service as Superintendent of the Watchin 1824. He gave evidence before the RoyalCommission (1836-9) on the state of thelawlessness in the country surrounding Chester,and in particular in the Hundreds of Broxton. Hewas then described as High Constable of Chester.The second Chief Constable was George Lee Fenwick,who commanded the City Force for a period ofthirty-four years (1864-98). Fenwick was awell-educated man. He is believed to have been aschoolmaster for a time before taking up policeservice. His annual reports and comments were mostcomplete and illuminating. In 1897 he produced agraph showing the movement of annual proceedingsfor drunkenness offences covering the thirty-fiveyears up to 1897. This shows nearly loo cases in1865 and a general gradual decline to about 250 inthe last year recorded in this fashion.His comments on the life of the under-privilegedno doubt provided much food for thought, as: "WhenI inform you (the Watch Committee) that in oneentry containing thirty-eight dwellings I latelyfound upwards of 230 persons, that the width ofthe entry is only four yards, and that thesanitary arrangements are not a model ofcompleteness, I think you will be of the opinionthat if working men or even women who inhabit sucha place occasionally seek a change elsewhere thatthere is not much cause for astonishment. "Probably the outstanding event of Mr. Fenwick'stenure of office was the "Fenian Plot" of 1867,already referred to. This, as we know, came tonothing.Mr. Fenwick retired in 1898 when he was succeededby Mr. John H. Laybourne, who came from Liverpoolwhere he had been a chief inspector. By this timethe strength of the force was fifty, made up ofthe Chief Constable, five inspectors, threesergeants and forty-one constables.Mr. Laybourne retired in 1920 after twenty-twoyears as Chief Constable. He later became a memberof the City Council and was Mayor 1934-5. He laterwent to reside in Canada.Thomas C. Griffiths, the fourth and last ChiefConstable of the City, began his police service inSt. Helens, in 1903. He later transferred to thePolice Force of Southend-on-Sea from which placehe came to Chester. He retired on the amalgamationof the County and City Forces in 1949 with a totalpolice service of forty-six years, for twenty-nineof which he was Chief Constable of Chester,commanding a force which had grown to anestablishment of seventy.Throughout the whole of its history the CityPolice Force had a busy time. Perhaps the busiestweek of the year was race-week. Year after year asuccession of police officers, imported from asfar afield as Doncaster and Birmingham, followedeach other into the witness box at the Citymagistrates' court to speak of the misdeeds of thepickpocket, the card sharper and the welsher. Inone race-week before the turn of the century itwas recorded that seventy-seven race-meeting"followers" appeared before the justices.Reference has already been made to the behaviourof the denizens of the alleys, entries and slumsof Chester. Whilst public personal behaviour hascontinually improved one police problem stillremains; this concerns the question of traffic. Itmust always have been a problem even in thepre-railway times when all road traffic carryingpassengers or goods to or from Ireland viaHolyhead passed through Chester using the onlyexisting bridge - Handbridge - to cross the river.The problem could hardly have been eased by thecomparatively short life of the local tram-carsystem which operated from the late nineteenthcentury until the 1920s.The visit of Barnum and Bailey's Circus to theRoodee in October, 1898, was the cause of asuspension of tram traffic and the employment ofthe whole force for some hours to keep the wayclear for the traditional procession through theprincipal streets.The personal behaviour and habits of the rank andfile of the force, it seems, was no better and noworse than were to be found generally amongsttheir contemporaries in other forces. However, thelatitude given to some offenders is ratherdifficult to understand. During the middle thirdperiod of the nineteenth century it is noted thatsome constables would be "allowed" up to as manyas twenty convictions for drunkenness on dutybefore the Watch Committee finally decided theywere "not likely to make efficient constables" anddischarged them from the force.Of course the force had its element of good men,hard-working and reliable, without whom it couldnever have earned (in time) and held the good willof the public. Whilst a drunken policeman mightwell set back public trust to a considerabledegree; the work of the good men always more thanoffset the losses.Occasionally the prestige of the force wouldacquire an extra bonus of public favour as in1932, when Sergeant Capper and Constable (laterInspector) Alfred Cleaver rescued persons from ablazing house in Trinity Street. Both officerswere later awarded the medal of the Royal HumaneSociety and Cleaver, for additional risk, receivedthe King'sPolice Medal for Gallantry and the Bronze Medal ofthe Society for the Protection of Life from Fire.Before terminating this short and somewhatinadequate sketch of the Chester City Police,mention should be made of a gentleman who,although not of the force, was intimatelyconnected with it for many years. This was Dr.George Harrison who was doctor to the City Forceand examiner of recruits to the Cheshire police.Such was the esteem in which he was held that in1895 he was presented with a large photograph ofthe force in which he occupied the place ofhonour. In 1900, he entertained the whole force todinner at the Town Hall in celebration of twentyyears' service as Police Surgeon.Payment can be made by going to the Museum websitewww.museumofpolicingincheshire.org.uk within thedrop down 'Index' is the section marked 'FamilyResearch' there it will be seen 'Pay-Pal orDebit/Credit Card' click on this and follow theinstructions, when payment is received by theMuseum Pay-Pal will automatically let the Museumknow. If you prefer to pay by cheque please makeit payable to the 'Museum of Policing in Cheshire'and send it to the Curator, Mr. Peter Wroe, Museumof Policing, County Police Office, Arpley Street,Warrington, Cheshire CW1 1LQ, if you pay in thismanner will you kindly let me know.I trust you have enjoyed the report, can I ask youwhen you get a moment would you send a quick mailso I can mark of your enquiry as complete, this isimportant as whilst we are not funded by theCheshire Constabulary, they are still our'masters' so to speak and I have to account forthe information I send out. If you have anycomments good or bad and you wish to make themplease do so?If you have any further questions please don'thesitate to contact me.Jim TalbotTrustee and Researcher, Cheshire Museum ofPolicing.Museum of Policing in Cheshire,Warrington Police Station, Arpley Street,Warrington. WA1 1LQTel : 01606 36 3848/5803www.museumofpolicingincheshire.org.uk/