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but think not fitt to advance any money towards ye building
thereof but advise ye said Conables to make their addresses or
applicacon to the Lord High Steward and the Justices of ye
Sessions as most properly belonging to them.
The two corporations were, nevertheless, unable to keep
' the watch ' in order:—
25 Feby., 1G90.—Att the request of this Vestry complaining to
Richard Newman and Nehemiah Arnold Esqr two of their
Maties Justices of the Peace of the great negligence of the
Watches and particularly of the abuses of the beadles the said
Justices doe order that the Justices of this parish have notice
to meet on the first Thursday in every month to regulate abuses
of officers and other things relating to the well Government of
the parish.
June 19, 1745.—The several Watchmen attended this Vestry and
received direction not to go off from watch until after the hour
of four & until they had proclaimed that hour throughout their
several walks on pain of being removed.
During the year ended at Michaelmas, 1725, the receipts
from the Watch Rate in St. Margaret's parish were
£544 16s. 0d, and the expenditure, £556 12s. Od. There
were at this time six beadles and 32 watchmen engaged in
the parish. The Beadles received £25 per annum each,
with two guineas for collecting the Watch Rate; the
Watchmen were paid £12 per annum each, and the Clerk
was awarded £10 for keeping the books.
On the 14th February, 1735, owing to difficulties on which
the minutes are silent, the Vestry appointed a Committee to
petition Parliament "for an Act to Regulate the nightly
watch and beadles in this parish." A special Act was
passed in the following year (9 Geo. II. cap 17), from the
preamble of which it may be inferred that the benefits of
'the watch' had been withdrawn from the area of the
parish of St. John the Evangelist on its constitution as a
separate parish. This Act declared that "the well regulating
the nightly watch and bedels is of great importance
for the preservation of the persons and property of the
parish and very necessary to prevent as well the mischiefs
which may happen from fires, as murders, burglaries,
robberies and other outrages and disorders."