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same for seven years. In 1751 "a proper place" for the
safe keeping of the fire engines way erected on the order of
the Vestry, at the east side of the Church Tower, and a
proper number of new water buckets was added to the
plant. Three years afterwards a resolution was also passed
directing that the engines should be kept at the Workhouse.
Fire plugs and boxes were provided in 1739; and in 1773
the Vestry appointed a Committee to co-operate with the
Directors of the Westminster Fire Office in "forming a plan
to be offered to Parliament for the more effectually supplying
the Town with water." Meanwhile "the small squirt
engine" was superseded by a "hand stream engine," a
survey of the fire plugs was made, and the tablets or plates
indicating their positions were renewed.
Robberies.
From 1585-6 to 1735 the parish was made
chargeable in respect of such robberies as were
committed in the Hundred of Ossulstone, within which
Westminster was comprised. Parliament passed an Act in
the first-mentioned year (27 Eliz., cap. 13) reciting and
remedying defects in Statutes of 13 Edward I., 1275, and 28
Edward III. (1355), under which robberies and other
offences had increased. The Act of Elizabeth sought to
make the inhabitants of the hundred more vigilant in the
pursuit and conviction of offenders by making the parishioners
"answer and satisfy the one moiety, a half of all and
every such sum and sums of money, and damages," which was
to be recoverable by the Clerk of the Peace, after assessment
by the Justices upon the several parishes in the Hundred
as they might think fit. No penalty was to be payable,
however, by the parish in which the offender was apprehended
The provisions of Sec. X., that " hue and cry shall
be made by horsemen and footmen only, any usage or custom
to the contrary notwithstanding," leaves scope for
speculation as to whether hounds had previously been employed
in tracing offenders. Another Act passed in 1597-8
(39 Eliz., cap. 15) prescribes that " no person robbing any