X Samuel CHESTERSDear DeeThank you for your nicely worded request forinformation concerning Samuel, you would besurprised how many enquires we get from people whonever say please or thank you. Firstly, I have topoint out a few things. We do not have aphotograph and sadly we have little informationrecorded about him, it is not just Samuel but allofficers who joined around 1857, in particulartheir year and place of birth are not recorded.However, there is only one Samuel Chesters,recorded, so I am assuming he is the one.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; the informationwhich you seek would therefore be recorded inVolume 1. The information regarding an officersmarriage is retained in CJP24/2, 1847-1966,however Samuel do not appear. With regard to anofficers pension CJP20/2/1, 1857-1965, againSamuel does not appear.I say all this because I want to try and reassureyou that what I give you is as it appears in therespective volume. However if you so wish, you canof course have the records confirmed by theChester Records Office Archivist. But it would beremiss of me if I did not point out that whilstthis Museum works on a donation basis, (madepayable to the Museum of Policing in Cheshire).The Record Office however, will charge you aminimum of £27 per search per volume; thereforeyour total bill would be a minimum of £54, soplease be aware.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 1960'severy Chief Constable of Cheshire was an exmilitary officer and they of course brought withthem the military codes of practice.You state he was stationed at Loch Street, Runcornin 1851, I am assuming that you mean 1861. Havingchecked the Census returns for 1851, I note that aSamuel Chesters, born Alsager Circa 1829 isserving in Norton in the Moors, Staffordshire;i.e. a member of the Staffordshire Police, I amassuming that this Samuel Chesters and the SamuelChesters born Alsager in the 1861 Census inRuncorn is the same officer. The following isrecorded in the archives:-Collar Number/Rank. Sgt. Samuel CHESTERSBorn. Not recorded.Date of Entry. 12 August 1857.Date of Leaving. 11 September 1865.Final Date of Leaving. 11 September 1865.How Discharged. DESERTED. (I will explain moreshortly)Initial Posting. Bucklow.Other Postings and Dates. Subject posted 11September 1865 Wirral.Promotion/Misconduct. 20 April 1861 PromotedActing Sgt. 22 November 1864 Merit class. 03January 1865 Sgt 3rd Class. Pay 22 February 185819/- to 21/- pw. 22 November 1864 21/- to 22/- perweek.Awards/Good Conduct/Other information. Nil.Miscellaneous Information.With regard to the desertion, there are severalother officers in the records who also deserted,in each case they had deserted for reasons ofcommitting a Criminal Offence, when arrested laterthey were taken before the Justices, jailednormally anywhere between 7 and 14 days and alsofined about 40/-, this was for the desertionalone. The Criminal offence was dealt withseparately. I am not saying that Samuel hadcommitted a Criminal Offence, but why not simplyresign? It is not recorded that he was everarrested and brought before the Justices. As Isaid life was hard in the force and punishmentssevere, if Samuel had been brought before theJustices he would have been fined a minimum ofnearly two weeks pay. The only other thing that Ican think of for his desertion was that you willnote his posting date to the Wirral was also thedate he deserted, but as I say why not justresign?Can I ask you when you get a moment would you senda quick mail so I can mark of your enquiry ascompleted? If you have any further questionsplease don't hesitate to contact me. Jim Talbot.Trustee and Researcher, Cheshire Museum ofPolicing.Our Ref: JT36/2007You're Ref:Date: 29 August 2007Museum of Policing In Cheshirehttp://www.museumofpolicingincheshire.org.ukSamuel CHESTERSHello again Dee,I understand where you're coming from with thedilemmas that arise from the Census returns, andto be honest since starting the Museum Database in2004, I have lost count how many Census checks Ihave done trying to cross reference with what isheld in the archives, I only use the Censusreturns as a very rough guide. It is also knownfor an officer to shave several years off his agewhen joining either. I honestly would take it thatthe Samuel in Staffordshire and in Runcorn is thesame person.With regard to the Chester Archives holding ourrecords, it is a very long storey, but they weredeposited there in 1964, by some far thinkingsenior officer, there are not many around withregard to archiving material. When I started thisproject i.e. to record every officer that servedin the Cheshire Constabulary and its ConstituentForces it took us two years hard work with theCounty Archivist for him to allow us to copy thedocuments. By some stroke of luck we found theoriginal document in the Museum stating that thedocuments were only deposited and not given to theCRO, and when we waved this at him he had torelent. It all boils down to the fact that the CROcharge for information and they would lose thatrevenue. Which they have and to be honest must nowrun into several hundreds of pounds.To answer you're other queries, the Police Stationin Runcorn at the time was inside the Town Hall,being built in 1831, it is situated HighStreet/Bridge Street. With regard to the transferof service between forces, for pension purposes itdid not count, however it was a dismissibleoffence not to declare that you had served inanother force, so again it leads to me wonder whyhe did not declare that he had served inStaffordshire. Was this a possible reason thatcaught up with him later whilst in the CheshireConstabulary? Sorry Dee, the cynical policeman isstill in me and the romantic one, well yourdescription is a better scenario than mine.But just to give you an example in the recordsthere is a Jacob Chesters, born 1844, Dodcott,Audlem. He served 23/10/1867 to 04/12/1867 and wasdismissed for concealing that he had served in theManchester Force and been ordered to resign therefrom, he having repeated this statement that hehad not been in the Manchester Force.Incidentally there is also a John Chesters born1846 Bunbury. Joined 14/12/1867 resigned20/05/1874. Also James Chesters born 1857Handley, Joined 23/07/1880 discharged 29/09/1880.Just thought you may be interested. If you haveanything else please don't hesitate to contact me.Jim (Talbot)The Curator, Museum of Policing in Cheshire,Warrington Police Station, Arpley Street,Warrington, Cheshire, WA1 1LQ