Uncategorised Parish Constable's Truncheon

[Mervyn Mitton]

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_07_2013/post-6209-0-25330700-1374501707.jpgclick

This could be a Victorian truncheon - but, is more likeley to be for William 4th (1830-37). painted black - the

arms are in the lower area. Named CHIPPENHAM HUNDRED CONSTABULARY - this was an old Saxon name ,

going back over a 1000 years. Basically, it is the counting together of 100 houses or, homes and appointing one

of the householders to be the Tything Man or, Parish Constable for that area - the local Church was usually the centre.

This is rare to be named for a Hundred - I think Chippenham is in Wiltshire. The plural of Constabulary is unusual,

normally there would only be one man. However, it is likely a small town could have more - each in his own part of town.

[Mervyn Mitton]

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_07_2013/post-6209-0-60703600-1374502463.jpgclick

[Mervyn Mitton]

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_07_2013/post-6209-0-14744800-1374502581.jpgclick

[Mervyn Mitton]

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_07_2013/post-6209-0-24990800-1374502697.jpgclick

[paul wood]

Chippenham is in Wiltshire, between Swindon and Bath, as a Market town I suspect the constabulary was mainly concerned with livestock crimes, sheep stealing &c, lovely truncheon, must be quite scarce.

Paul

[Brian Wolfe]

An absolutely beautiful example.

Thanks for posting it Mervyn.

Regards

Brian

[peter monahan]

Rustic English villages of the eighteenth century had crime? I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

I though they were full of rosy cheeked milk miads and stalwart local shepherds who sat about the pub drinking home brew - but not too much - while singing rustic folk songs in four part harmony and tugging their forelocks respectfully to the jovial old squire, the firm but fair and only enforcer of the King's peace.

Clearly I have been misinformed! Steps will be taken!

[Brian Wolfe]

That's only in Aliston Peter.

Regards

Brian

[paul wood]

Rural England had it's share of crime in the 18th and 19th century and under the bloody code virtually everything was punishable by death. I recently visited Bodmin jail which is now a tourist site cum boozer (the beer was bloody awful). Ranges of crimes for which people were executed included robbery, sheep stealing and a poor Mr William Hocking who was executed in 1834 for bestiality.

Paul

[peter monahan]

Yeah, sex will do that to you!

Actually, I did a course many years ago on English Crime and Criminal Justice. My favourite tidbit was the constant plaint, from Cromwell on up, of 'jury lawlessness'. That is to say, jury's simply refusing to convict when they felt the crime shouldn't be criminal or that the penalty was too harsh. It was apparently the rule that 'theft to the value of 30 shillings' was what got a bloke topped or transported. It was therefore not uncommon to have juries convict with such patently absurd findings as 'guilty of the theft of 10 yards of fine silk, to the value of 29 shillings' or, even better, 'guilty of the theft of 3 pounds, to the value of 29 shillings'. "Yes, you can punish him, but not too much."

Of course, one factor in the prevalence of the death penalty and such other barbaric punishments was the fact that jails were really only meant to hold the accused until trial, not set up for lengthy sentences until the at least 19th century, so a 'prison sentence' as we know it was usually not an option. And topping them was felt to discourage both crime and social unrest, both real worries in a society where a very few held most of the wealth and power! Not like any countries we know today!

[paul wood]

True Peter,

If Jack Ketch didn't get you then jail fever would. It wasn't until the mid 19th century when the "model" prisons such as Wandsworth were built, mainly because the Aussies decided they didn't want the dregs of our society anymore. Mayhew's rare book on the criminal system is a most interesting read, and gives plenty of information on the new prisons and gives a warts and all view of the criminal classes. Luckily he didn't have televison and new technology so he had the time to produce various great works, many of the charachters who would have been well known to Dickens.

Paul