Sergeants Incorporated & the 19th Century

The Beadle of Southampton

Since the introduction of the Corporation Act of 1835, the role of the Town Sergeants has changed considerably. With the new corporation structure the Town Sergeants assumed more of an attendant and ceremonial role, and their duties as goalers, law enforcement, and trade regulators diminished.

The Rev. Davies records that at the time of writing the History of Southampton in 1883, there were but two sergeants-at-mace, who, with the town crier, were attendants upon the Corporation and Justices. This probably accounts for a Beadle carrying the Mayor’s Mace in the photograph dated 1862.