Elaine, I was handed down a story that one of my forebears was a village constable and that a truncheon and pair of handcuffs were handed down. I have since seen the truncheon and handcuffs, the truncheon inscribed 'Broxbourne' and 'George IV'. No-one in the family can remember who they belonged to. The names I have in the family tree in the Broxbourne area at this period (1820 -1830) are MACER, CLARK, HOW, LOWEN, possibly also FURNESS/FURNIS/FURNACE. I would be very interested to hear if you find anything that connects. Best regards, Ro --- On Tue, 4/5/10, Elaine Saunders <Elaine_Saunders@completetext.com> wrote: > From: Elaine Saunders <Elaine_Saunders@completetext.com> > Subject: [HRT] Parish Constables > To: eng-hertfordshire@rootsweb.com > Date: Tuesday, 4 May, 2010, 21:26 > Does anyone have any parish > constables in their tree please, working in the period > 1780-1840? > > It might be difficult to tell because often the duties were > foisted on them in addition to their 'day > jobs'.   This temporary appointment might not > have been recorded therefore.   Instead, > usually everyone in the village took a turn until the Herts > force was created in 1841 (and possibly beyond this too) > > I'm particularly interested in operational records of the > various village constables, details of their duties or any > private forces set up around the time.   I'm > building details on the Barnet General Association which > maintained a private police force and helped victims of > crime to prosecute.   Their records include > quite a few names of officers and members which I will post > to the list when I've transcribed them.    > > I'm spending lots of time at the archive, going through all > the village records, looking for details of constables so, > if anyone would like to send me some names, I'll see what I > can do in tracing them.   I'm already keeping > my eye open for ASHBY on behalf of Nick but any others most > welcome. > > Elaine > > > Hertfordshire Surnames List > > http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~hughw/hertford.html > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-HERTFORDSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com > with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the > subject and the body of the message >