conſtables are inferior officers in every town and pariſh, ſubordinate to the high conſtable of the hundred, firſt inſtituted about the reign of Edward III[1]. Theſe petty conſtables have two offices united in them; the one antient, the other modern. Their antient office is that of headborough, tithing-man, or borſholder; of whom we formerly ſpoke[2], and who are as antient as the time of king Alfred: their more modern office is that of conſtable merely; which was appointed (as was obſerved) ſo lately as the reign of Edward III, in order to aſſiſt the high conſtable[3]. And in general the antient headboroughs, tithing-men, and borſholders, were made uſe of to ſerve as petty conſtables; though not ſo generally, but that in many places they ſtill continue diſtinct officers from the conſtable. They are all choſen by the jury at the court leet; or, if no court leet be held, are appointed by two juſtices of the peace[4].
The general duty of all conſtables, both high and petty, as well as of the other officers, is to keep the king's peace in their ſeveral diſtricts; and to that purpoſe they are armed with very large powers, of arreſting, and impriſoning, of breaking open houſes, and the like: of the extent of which powers, conſidering what manner of men are for the moſt part put upon theſe offices, it is perhaps very well that they are generally kept in ignorance. One of their principal duties, ariſing from the ſtatute of Wincheſter, which appoints them, is to keep watch and ward in their reſpective juriſdictions. Ward, guard, or cuſtodia, is chiefly intended of the day time, in order to apprehend rioters, and robbers on the highways; the manner of doing which is left to the diſcretion of the juſtices of the peace and the conſtable[5], the hundred being however anſwerable for all robberies committed therein, by day light, for having kept negligent guard. Watch is properly applicable to the night only, (being called among our Teutonic anceſtors wacht or wacta[6]) and it begins at the time
