Hamilton's Constabulary & Police, from Its Founding To

HAMILTON’S CONSTABULARY & POLICE, FROM ITS FOUNDING TO THE COLD WAR Information from town meeting and police records, town reports, and other public records unless attributed otherwise. By Tom Juergens In the northwest corner of the Hamilton Town Hall basement is a lockup, a cell of granite and brick roughly eight by ten feet. It is as solid today as it was when it was completed in 1898, but it doesn't hold people anymore. Its swinging gate is still lockable though, and if the cell had to hold prisoners again, all that would be required would be to rebar its high, small window and lock the gate. But a different granite cell was Hamilton's first lock-up. That one went up on Cutler Road (then Farms Road) somewhere near Bay Road (today’s Route 1A), when Hamilton was just incorporated and that neighborhood was the heart of town. Electing constables and building the first lock-up -- called 'the pound' -- were among the first orders of business at Hamilton's first town meeting in 1793. As the town's first public works project, the pound’s construction was put out to bid. Its specifications are spelled out in the first book of Hamilton town meetings in the fine, flowery hand of an eighteenth-century scribe: "Twenty-eight feet square on the inside, the thickness of the wall at the bottom to be not less than three feet, nor less than twelve inches at the top and six feet high from the surface of the ground," surrounded by "a trench to be four feet wide and ten inches thick, with one foot of ground to be taken off and fitted with small stones under the bottom of the wall," with "the house William Ayres lives in to make one side with the gate." Those specifications, modest overall yet downright medieval in thickness, likely resulted in a measure of four feet by seven: barely enough to swing a cat, but just enough for someone to stretch out and cool their heels. The pound was on Cutler Road, behind the Congregational Church and opposite the farm of George Brown (1825 - 1901), who was pound-keeper from 1853 until his death. It was purchased by Albert R. Merrill, owner of the property beside the meeting house, in 1919. © 2010 Tom Juergens. All rights reserved. 2 CONSTABLES’ FIRST ORDERS The Hamilton constables’ first orders were 'warning out' orders, executed during the winter of 1794. Warning out – municipal eviction by fiat -- cleansed a community of social and economic liabilities, and undesirables of all types, and was used throughout New England. Any number of reasons could lay behind such warnings, but basic to all was some sort of consensus that those warned -- who could be individuals or groups -- were regarded as some sort of liability. "It simply went without saying that aliens were not welcome" in a town. Newcomers did not simply move to a town, they "applied for admission." Economics certainly played a part, and warnings out were sometimes used "to escape undue expenses in the support of paupers." The law further provided that those "who were once warned were not counted as inhabitants entitled to support in case of poverty merely because they continued to reside" in a town, even if "assessed for local taxes" after being warned. In some towns outsiders "could not even be entertained by inhabitants unless such inhabitants obtained the permission of the town." 1 Warnings out also stemmed from philosophical or religious differences, and were used to extradite suspects, fugitives, and persons who were simply evading their responsibilities. The extradition-type of warning out is the only type mentioned in The Constable’s Pocket-Book, which straightforwardly notes that those warned "doth intrude on this town contrary to the law," and that to execute the warrant a constable was to "attach" (arrest) and then "convey and deliver" the wrongdoer to the constable of an abutting town, and so "from constable to constable" until they arrived "where of right they belongeth." Yet another reason for warning out was to clarify local property ownership: the bother of dealing with questionable, if not outright fraudulent, ownership claims could be pre-empted with a warrant to evict persons without rock-solid ownership credentials. Written by veteran Boston constable Nicholas J. Boone, The Constable's Pocket-Book was, he wrote, for constables "not learned in the law." Subtitled "A Dialogue between an Old Constable and (a) New, the book is extremely rare. Hamilton's first warning out warrants contain few clues as to why they were issued. They are dated January 6 and February 19 of 1794, from which dates those warned -- dozens of them -- had two weeks to pack and go. The January 6 warning instructs constables to put "all persons not citizens" on notice that they were to "depart" the town. The February 19 order simply applies the order to warn to a list of persons who, like those in the first, are identified by non-Hamilton addresses. Several on the second list are further identified as spinsters, who usually relied on family members for support. Those evicted came from nearby towns and from New Hampshire. Many of them were employed, with occupations as diverse as weaver, laborer, and doctor. One intriguing fact is that the last name of some of the dozens of evictees matches that of one of the selectmen who signed the warrants: Poland. The warrants instruct the Hamilton constables to give notice "that all the above-named persons depart the limits of this town to their respective towns and counties with wife and children and others under their care within fifteen days." © 2010 Tom Juergens. All rights reserved. 3 Resisting the warnings would have meant facing Hamilton first constables, Charles Tuttle and Colonel Robert Dodge. Little is known of Tuttle. Colonel Dodge, at the age of fifty in 1794, had a record of fighting the revolution with distinction and another thirty years of life before him, including a state senatorship. Hamilton found one of its own on the receiving end of a warning out in 1808, when town meeting resolved to "procure a man to go to Damariscotta [Maine] to see if Thomas Lamson was warned out." Whatever the circumstances were that brought the town to that decision remains a story yet to be retold; perhaps Lamson was simply not a bona fide resident of Damariscotta. (Johnathan Lamson was a member of the original board of selectmen, and the Lamson family has served Hamilton in a variety of capacities throughout its history.) Five substitute constables worked in Hamilton between 1795 and 1849. Hamilton’s constable roster ranged from two or three in its early decades to a high of five or six at the end of the 1800s, when law enforcers began to be categorized as both constables and police officers. Prior to the formal establishment of the police department, town meeting regularly passed over the question of appointing an 'inspector,' which is a police rank just below 'superintendent', which carries authority in several (or all) precincts, as opposed to a constable's parish- or precinct-specific appointment. Constables who served in Hamilton prior to 1907 were all elected. The position of constable had always been a springboard into town politics and higher office. (Nominating constable candidates who were absent from town meeting occurred in Hamilton as late as 1934, when Hollywood bombshell Mae West was nominated.) The motion to discontinue the election of constables and instead have them appointed by selectmen first came up in Hamilton in 1940. The motion was initially carried by voice vote, but was subsequently defeated by a standing vote of 75 to 67. The election of Hamilton constables ended in 1951, following a 1950 vote to rescind the 1793 vote to elect them. One comforting aspect of keeping the colonial peace was that emergencies were considered everyone’s responsibility. When a constable saw an "affray" or "any other criminal matter" the law let him deputize by-standers, who were expected to take orders without question, including, when necessary, joining the chase. When and how to give chase is spelled out in the Pocket-Book: "If affrayers be in a house with doors locked and bolted the constable may brake (sic) them open, though none have taken hurt, and if they get into another house, you may, upon such pursuit, brake into that house to apprehend them, and so till they shall be taken," says the Old Constable. However, if and when a constable arrived on the scene after an affray, seizure of any alleged offenders was prohibited without a warrant "unless some are dangerously wounded, and much blood drawn." Another task for the constabulary was special transport details. In 1795 Hamilton constables were paid nine shillings apiece for getting 165 pounds safely to Boston, where the legislature was overseeing financial settlements between Hamilton and Ipswich. From time to time Hamilton constables brought dogs' heads to Boston to check for rabies. © 2010 Tom Juergens. All rights reserved. 4 Collecting taxes, fines and rates (ministers' salaries) fell to Hamilton constables as late as 1874, even though the tax collector's position appears in the town record much earlier and started to appear regularly beginning around 1833. Constables were handed lists and made the collection rounds twice a year. A CRIMINAL RECORD Murder victims were discovered from time to time in and around Hamilton’s woodlots, swamps, ponds, the Miles River meadow, and other secluded places, according to Austin Brown, a Hamilton farmer and selectman. Brown was born in 1820 and chronicled nearly every day of his life from 1857 to 1908.

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