Local History Notes
Law and Order in Richmond
From early mediaeval times until the 19th century,
the maintenance of law and order in Richmond
was largely the responsibility of the Lord of the
Manor through his Court Leet. The Court Leet
was presided over by the Steward of the Manor or
his deputy. The Steward was the judge with all
administrative matters such as the empanelling of
the jury and the election of officials being handled
by the bailiff.
The elected officials of the court were the
constable, headborough (chief of the 10 men who
made up the jury of frankpledge) and the
aleconner who was the forerunner of the present
day Public Protection Officer, responsible for the
quality of the ale and beer and also for ensuring
that they were sold to the proper weight and
measure. Richmond, Ham and Kew each had their own officials. The constable was
responsible for supervising the 'Watch and Ward' under the Statute of Westminster 1285.
This was the forerunner of our police service, the 'ward' being daytime patrols and the
'watch' night time ones. He was also responsible for inspecting alehouses and suppressing
gaming houses, the apprenticing of poor children, the supervising of the settlement or
removal of vagrants and beggars, the welfare of the poor, the collecting of taxes, the
supervision of military arms supply and military training and ensuring the upkeep of the
local means of punishment - in other words he was the equivalent of the local council and
the police. It was a considerable undertaking and a highly unpopular job. In 1631, Edward
Monday 'obstinately refused to perform his office.' The court records show that the
constable was not exempt from being brought before the Steward for failing to carry out his
duties and was subject to punishment. In Richmond those duties relating to the poor were
dealt with by the parish constable of whom more later.
The Steward had the power to fine or make an amercement and to punish by means of the
stocks, pillory, ducking-stool or whip. In the Richmond court rolls there are references to all
of these. The pillory stood on Richmond Green following an order of 1631 and it was still in
use 130 years later when Daniel Bland was put in it on 2 Thursdays in succession before
being sent to jail for assaulting an infant with intent to rape. The stocks were erected near
the Town or Great Pond - now the site of the Dome Buildings at the junction with George
Street, Sheen Road and the Quadrant. There were also others at Ham and Kew. The
ducking-stool was also by the Town Pond - we find Constable Thomas Coggdall was in
perpetual trouble during the 1630s for 'converting this to his own use and not maintaining it
properly' and there was at least one whipping post that stood on Kew Green.
Fines were fixed and unalterable, amercements were imposed at the discretion of the jury.
Failure to pay meant the distrainment of goods or cattle. These were put in the pound. The
'pound overt' (open pound) stood on Pest House Common, the site in Queens Road being
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Local History Notes
near the present 'Lass of Richmond Hill'. This was used for animals and it remained the
responsibility of their owners to feed and water them. The 'pound covert' (covered pound)
or pound house was near the engine-house which stood on the site of the clock tower
building in Sheen Road, close to Waitrose supermarket. Perishable and damageable goods
were stored there.
Of the instrument of final punishment - the gallows - there is but one mention in a
newspaper cutting. In 1767 Richard Mihil was executed on Richmond Hill for the murder of
his brother Robert whom he had stabbed to death in their father's bakers shop in George
Street.
Amongst the crimes tried by the Richmond Court Leet were assault and battery;
infringements of 'fair trading' laws such as baking of unwholesome bread and the sale of
musty beer; nuisances such as disturbing the neighbours, the dumping of rubbish and
sewerage on the highway or in the pond or ditches, the stopping up of footpaths and
thoroughfares; and 'building' infringements such as the erection or demolition of buildings
and the digging of gravel without permission or allowing property and fences to fall into a
ruinous state.
It was illegal to keep bulldogs and harbour people who may become a charge on the town.
It was also unlawful to refuse to pursue a felon when required - in 1638 Christopher Towne
was presented by a jury for this - and to refuse to assist the constable with a prisoner.
Failure to carry a 'hue and cry' was also a punishable offence - this was the method by
which a person wishing to make an arrest could call on the rest of the manor to join him in
pursuit. Everyone was obliged to join the hue and to cry aloud to attract other people's
attention. It was illegal to start an unnecessary hue. Public participation in the arrest of
criminals was encouraged by a system of fixed awards made from a special fund.
The crimes that attracted the greatest coverage in the late 17th and early 18th centuries
were those perpetrated by footpads and highwaymen who frequented the roads leading out
of town, particularly that leading to Putney. Their presence was responsible for many men
going about armed after dark and there are reports of deaths caused by pistols going off
accidentally through the jolting of the carriage.
The law and order situation was somewhat confused in Richmond by the fact that the
Manor covered 3 parishes, each with their own vestry that had the duty to elect constables
and maintain law and order. Presumably there was a working agreement as to the duties
that were undertaken by the manor constables and those by the parish constables. In
practice it appears that the parish constable was responsible for the 'social' and 'military'
aspects of the work. In 1651 the constable presented to the Vestry certain strangers and
inmates who had crept into the parish and were likely to be a charge on the parish and in
July 1654 "several persons were ordered to remove tenants out of their houses, or give a
bond to the Churchwardens, to save the Parish against expenses to be incurred for their
relief" and Thomas Raymond was ordered "to remove his wife's mother out of the parish
within a fortnight."
A small watchhouse and lock-up can be seen in the ‘Prospect of Richmond’ map of 1726,
standing in the wide part of George Street near the junction with Duke Street. By 1730,
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Local History Notes
there was a new watchhouse with "a convenient house…to contain the two fire engines"
adjacent to it
The first Act to regulate the government of Richmond was passed on 30th April 1766
entitled "An Act for the Relief and Employment of the poor, and for repairing the highways,
paving, cleansing, lighting and watching the streets…" It provided for the appointment of
the Minister, Churchwardens, Justices of the Peace…residing in Richmond together with
31 trustees who were to be responsible for implementing the Act. In 1768, the Parish
Trustees appointed 2 able-bodied men to watch and patrol the streets , by 1772 there were
six men on regular watch and that number was doubled in1783 and 1785 saw the
introduction of a "nightly watch within the said parish."
It does not appear to have been very successful for in 1785 a further Act was passed "for
making new provisions for the relief of the poor…and watching the streets…" and the
trustees were replaced by Vestrymen. This seems to have been much more successful – or
perhaps the clerk was more efficient – for from this date there are detailed minutes of the
Vestry meetings. The first meeting of the newly-constituted body was at The Greyhound Inn
in George Street, thereafter they met at the Parish Room in the churchyard. However, this
was not convenient and on 7th June 1790, it "was resolved that it is expedient to build a
new Vestry Office and that the spot on which the houses now stand on the ground
purchased for the purpose of a new burial ground is the most convenient place for that
purpose." The surveyor or architect was Mr Faulkner and it was built by Thomas Taylor for
£282.20 which included £2.20 for demolishing the old buildings. The furnishings were:1 string plain chairs
1 armchair
1 proper table with a green cloth
1 desk
1 iron bath stove, shovel, tongs, pokers and fenders
with 4 guineas being set aside for heating and cleaning, The first meeting in the new office
at the corner of Vineyard Passage and Paradise Road took place on 11th April 1791.
The time of the Vestry was largely taken up by the relief of the poor and by provision of a
new workhouse on Pest House Common in Queens Road to replace the one in Petersham
Road. The old workhouse occupied Rump Hall in Petersham Road (then Lower Road)
which the Vestry had leased for some 30 years.
However, they also had a duty to maintain law and order in the town and one of their first
acts in this direction was on 24th April 1786 when they ordered "that the surveyor give
notice to the inhabitants who leave out carriages… in the streets, highways…that if they
cause such obstructions in future this Vestry must be obliged to levy the penalties upon
them for their neglect." – the precursor of parking problems in Richmond.
In 1787 the beadles were sent to remove the stage of a mountebank and threatened to
prosecute him while Robert Tasker was let off with a caution for allowing his swine to roam
the streets.
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Local History Notes
In 1793 the Vestry had to deal with problems caused by an influx of emigrants from France.
There was a "complaint…that some idle and disorderly persons have of late made a
practice of assaulting and grossly abusing several of the foreigners resident in the town
without cause… it is ordered that the beadles be particularly attentive in the discovery of
such persons." – who would then be taken before the magistrates. The magistrates were
appointed by the county and the two resident in Richmond had a seat on the Vestry.
Offenders were taken before one of them sitting in his own home - throughout the latter part
of the 18th century there is frequent mention of offenders being taken before Sir William
Richardson at his home on Richmond Hill (later known as Doughty House).
In 1794 John Thatcher, apprehended by the Sergeant of the Night for stealing malt from
Edward Collin’s brewery, was taken before the magistrate and later sentenced at the
Guildford Assizes to 7 years transportation. Offenders were generally sent by the
magistrates to Southwark Jail to await the assize – which could be held in one of several
different towns in Surrey including Reigate, Dorking and Guildford. Sentences included
transportation for stealing to hanging for murder.
The Vestry was empowered to send men to Bridewell Jail for failing to maintain their wives
and families and to the House of Correction at Kingston for embezzlement and assault. The
Vestry did not punish blindly as Edward Brown and George Barley discovered in 1829
when, having expressed their regret at having obstructed and assaulted one of the
watchmen and made a public acknowledgement of their misdemeanour by circulating a
handbill, all further proceedings against them were suspended.
One of the first tasks of the reorganised Vestry in 1785 had been to order the erection of a
watchhouse and on 30th December 1793, it adopted Mr. Justice Bonding’s system of
watching and laid down a rota of ‘beats’ to be walked by the watchmen.
By 1829 the watch was in its final years. Barnes had been the only part of the present
borough to come within the Metropolitan Police area when Wandsworth or ’V’ Division was
formed in 1830. But Richmond was added to the Metropolitan Police area on 13th January
1840 and the Vestry was relieved of its duty in that direction – other than collecting the
Police Levy. They did not completely give up their responsibilities however, and warned the
police in February 1840 "to suppress the nuisances which occurs on Shrove Tuesday in
every year occasioned by a football being kicked through the public streets and
thoroughfares of this parish to the great annoyance of all persons desirous of passing
quietly through the same and to the detriment of the shopkeepers in Richmond."
In 1849 the Vestry Hall was enlarged and the police (i.e. magistrates) court was added. The
watchhouse had been closed in 1841 when the police station, in two converted cottages in
Princes Street (the cottages were demolished in 1966 to make way for Waitrose’s
supermarket in Sheen Road) was opened. It later moved to a new building at 35 George
Street - now occupied by Gap Kids – which had been purchased in 1867 and opened in
1871 before taking up its present home in Red Lion Street on a site acquired by the Council
in 1912 for £1,625.
In 1895 the old Vestry Hall, which in 1859 had witnessed the enquiry of the Coroner into
the poisoning of Isabella Bankes and, on 31st March 1879, the beginning of the prosecution
of the arch-murderess Kate Webster, having outlived its usefulness and been replaced for
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all except its magisterial duties by the new Town Hall in Hill Street – Richmond became a
borough in 1890 – was pulled down and replaced by a new Magistrates Court and mortuary
which opened in October 1896. This building was greeted with mixed feelings – according
to one local paper "the universal opinion been wasted upon appeared to be that if the
exterior…is not exactly calculated to inspire respect mingled with admiration, the interior is
very well adapted to for its purpose. …No money has ornamentation." While Robert Ward,
one-time contender for a seat on Richmond Council, asked "Who are the people to be
hanged…for inflicting on Richmond that disgraceful building of the new Court House." This
building was replaced by the new Court House opened in Parkshot, on the site previously
occupied by Parkshot Rooms and the swimming baths, in 1975.
In 1989 the Richmond and Twickenham Police divisions amalgamated to form the
Richmond upon Thames division.
More information on this subject and on buildings and places in the London Borough of
Richmond upon Thames is available from the Local Studies Collection.
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