Empowerment & the 18th Century

By the 18^th century the sergeants’ title seems to have reverted back. In “A History of Southampton, Vol I. 1700 – 1914 by Patterson, their title and tasks are defined as follows:-

In addition there were four sergeants at mace, or town sergeants, who attended upon the mayor and Corporation, and the senior of whom was also the keeper of the town prison, while the second was the water bailiff, the third the keeper of the Bridewell, and the fourth the keeper of the lock up at Bargate. All were empowered to make arrests, execute attachments, and so forth, besides their other duties.

 They were also sometimes guilty of negligence, insobriety or indiscipline, however, and cases of suspension or dismissal occurred from time to time.

In 1747 the town sergeants were empowered to enforce the ancient prohibitions of shop keeping by non-freemen, and of the practice of crafts by persons who had not been properly apprenticed. These issues had been allowed to sleep since 1731, but in 1747 the Council authorized the town sergeants to seize the goods concerned in any transactions by “unlawful” shopkeepers.

These duties were further elaborated in The Southampton Corporation Journals, 1815 – 1835 by Patterson (page xiii). 

“The subordinate officers of the Corporation included four Sergeants at Mace, or town sergeants, who received salaries of £15 per year for attending the Mayor and J.P’s, serving summonses on the juries of the court of quarter sessions and court pleas, and performing a variety of other functions. In addition one was goaler of the debtors goal at £35 per year and another of the felons goal at £30 per year, while a third collected and retained for his own use the tolls of the poultry and vegetable market, averaging 6s or 7s a week, and the fourth was the water bailiff, in which capacity he collected and retained £8 or £9 a year as fish market tolls”.