When the Normans conquered England, they adopted many Anglo-Saxon laws keeping methods such as the tithings, the hue and cry, the hundred and Shire courts. They worked so well and people were used to them so they saw no reason to change.
As time went on the Lord of the Manor[3] became the local ruler. He had a Manor Court and appointed officers responsible for functions such as ale tester, bread weigher. The most important of these was the local Constable who helped the Lord of the Manor to keep the King’s Peace. He was not paid and he had to combine his duties with his ordinary work as best he could. His tasks included reporting villager’s behaviour to the Courts, arresting criminals and guarding them until their trial and calling out the hue and ciy.
In 1285, a new law laid down rules which made the citizens of every walled town ‘watch the town continually all night, from the sun setting to the sun rising’. Any stranger was to be put under arrest and handed over to the constable in the morning. It was the constable’s duty to organise night watchman in turns to cany out these duties.
In 1361, an Act of Parliament made it law for each County to appoint three or four worthy men to arrest, restrain and chastise offenders and rioters. These men were to be known as Justices of the Peace[4] which still exist today in Magistrates Courts.
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