VICTORIAN RURAL POLICEMAN Mini Project 2017

Rural Constabularies were established following the Royal Commission which met between 1836 and 1839, the County Police Act of 1839 and the amending Act of 1840. In 1856 the County and Borough Police Act made the establishing of a police force mandatory for all counties and boroughs. All the police men in the mini project are listed as Police Constables in the 1881 census. The purpose of the project is to find out more about these rural policemen – who they were, how they lived and do they fit the quotations.

FACHRS Ref: GOGJ02 Researcher Name: Gill Joye Name: William Parris Age in 1881 Census: 37 Source: - RG Number: RG11 Piece: 939 Folio: 66 Page: 17 Reg. District: Cranbrook Parish: Goudhurst County: Kent

Migration, Employment and Social Status

Police Constable Birth place: West Malling, Kent in 1843 – William George Parris Occupation of his father: Unknown, appears to be the illegitimate. GRO birth index (new improved version) has no maiden name listed for his mother. {1843, Sept Quarter, Malling, vol 5 p 323} ; It looks like his mother was Elizabeth Parris, who then married a Thomas Norris in 1845, Dec Quarter, Malling, vol 5 p547

Information from each census about William Parris and the household he lived in:

YEAR 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911 CENSUS HO 107 RG9 RG10 RG11 RG 12 RG13 RG14 PIECE 1612 485 915 939 715 811 4410 FOLIO 260 44 84 66 115 131 SN 184 PAGE N/A 16 37 8 17 15 7 REG DIS East Peckham Malling Malling Cranbrook Faversham Milton Faversham SUB DIS Malling Aylesford Teynham PARISH Burham Lynsted ADDRESS Back Street High Street Church Street Morebreddis Greenstreet 2 The Butts Lynstead Lane, Greenstreet TOWN West Malling West Malling Goudhurst Sittingbourne Sittingbourne COUNTY Kent Kent Kent Kent Kent Kent RELATIONSHIP Son-in-law Servant Head Head Head Head TO HEAD AGE 7 18 27 37 57 66 OCCUPATION Servant Police Police Officer Police Officer Club Steward Police N/A Constable Pensioner WIFE’s NAME N/A N/A Elizabeth Elizabeth Elizabeth Elizabeth Elizabeth Ann NO OF N/A N/A 3 5 2 1 CHILDREN Is this a Police No No ? No No House? No OTHER “parents” are Entry as William Wife: Club Married 44 information Thomas and Norris; servant Stewardess years. Elizabeth to Henry 7 children all Norris aged Burkett, living 29 & 25 butcher We would like to look at the hypothesis that the provision of a police house encouraged a man to marry earlier than might have otherwise been possible can you see any evidence of this with your Police Constable? No

Age at marriage?

“The 1830s and 1840s saw a significant growth in the opportunities for men who sought to follow the trade of police officer. The life was not easy, but then many working-class jobs involved long hours of often tedious and occasionally dangerous work, if not necessarily the fierce discipline of the new police. Unskilled, semi-skilled or even skilled men whose immediate job prospects were poor, by joining a police force and sticking with the trade, had the opportunity to pull themselves a few rungs upward on the ladder of the Victorian social hierarchy. A few … did this by remaining loyally with one force for thirty years or more. Others watched for openings and applied for jobs often far away from where they were born or had begun or improved their police careers.” (Emsley 2010 p84)

How does your Police Constable compare? Did he have any other employment before becoming a Policeman?

Worked as a servant to a Butcher in West Malling, although not clear in what context.

Did he have any other employment after leaving the Police?

Club Steward

Does he move to different locations as a policeman? Yes

Do you think his social status changed over the period of his life? Yes – he left his position as a servant to join the police force and by the time he was stationed in Goudhurst had been made an officer (see photograph at the end)

Did he get promoted while in the Police? Yes

The Policemen’s chorus in Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance goes: “Our feelings we with difficulty smother, When constabulary duty’s to be done. Ah, taking one consideration with another, A policeman’s lot is not a happy one.” (Emsley 2010 p157) Emsley suggests that this showed the policeman to the audience as “while a policeman’s lot was not a happy one, he was uniquely English, therefore honest and upright, and earnestly devoted to his duty.” (Emsley 2010 p.157)

How does your Policeman fit this stereotype?

The Community

What is the size and type of the community he would have been serving in 1881? Large rural community

Can you answer the same questions for the other places he served in - all are rural communities

Did the type of community he lived in change through his career? No

Retirement “One of the perks of the job of policeman was the promise of a pension when a man retired.” (Emsley 2010 p.173) “It was only in 1890 that a Police Act required a full pension for any man retiring after twenty-five years and for any man retiring on medical grounds after fifteen years. But even after this parsimonious local authorities quibbled.” (Emsley 2010 p.173)

(Emsley Clive 2010 “The Great British Bobby A History of British Policing from the 18th Century to the Present” Quercus)

Did he retire? Yes

Did he get a pension? Yes

Family Connections

Did any other members of his family work in a Police Force? If so please give details.

Yes : his second son, Thomas Arthur Parris, (1868- 1941). He moved to Nottingham and the 1911 census shows he was a police sergeant, with the Nottingham Police Force. By 1939 he had retired with a police pension (1939 Register)

William George Parris

Born in West Malling, Kent, in 1843. – GRO Ref: 1843, Sept Quarter, Malling, gol 5 p523

1851 Census

1861 Census

Married: Elizabeth Anne Wratten in 1864 – GRO ref: 1864, June Quarter, Malling, vol 2a p645. Census returns show she was born in Dartford.

1868 – Maidstone Telegraph – 1st August p 3

Named in report of robbery in May that year.

1871 Census

The couple are now in West Malling, with three children; Elizabeth (7) born in West Malling, Thomas (3) and Emma (1) born in Burham. Described as Police Constable. The daughter Emma Alice Parris, was baptised in St Mary’s Church, Burham, on 20 November 1870, as was described as daughter of William Parris, Policeman. (FreeReg)

1881 Census

Living in one of the range of cottages known as Morebreddis, in Chequers Road, Goudhurst , with his wife Elizabeth, sons William G (15) born Peckham Rye, Surrey in 1866; Thomas A (13) born Burham, Kent; Albert (5) born Yalding and daughters: Emma (11) born Burham, and Harriet (8 ) born in Yalding.

From the birth dates of his children it is clear he moved fairly frequently.

!864 = West Malling; 1866 – Peckham Rye, Surrey; 1868 =

1870 = Burham, Kent; 1873 -1876 – Yalding. 1877 – c. 1881 – Goudhurst, Kent. ( see photo)

1891 Census

William and Elizabeth aged 47 and 46. Described as Police Officer. Son Albert, an elementary school teacher aged 16 and daughter Maud aged 5.

1901 Census

Now living in Sittingbourne and obviously retired from the police as both William and his wife, Elizabeth gave their occupation as Club Steward and Club Stewardess. Living with them is their 15 year old daughter, Maude, who was born in Murston, Kent in 1886.

1911 Census

Aged 66 and a police pensioner. The couple had been married 49 years and produced 7 children, all of whom were still living. Also living with them in 1911 was boarder, Alfred Twyman, age 30, single and a postman, born in Grove? , Kent.

Full Address was: Lynsted Lane, Greenstreet, Lynsted, Sittingbourne, Kent. They had 5 rooms.

1911 – Will Index

Parris, William George of Lynsted Lane, Lynsted, Kent, died 7th May 1911. Letters of Administration with Will, London, 29th July 1911 to Elizabeth Ann Parris, widow. Effects: £187 7s 3d

Children:

William George Parris, born 16/12/ 1865 (ancestry) – died c. 1935 Nottingham. 1911 census he was a widower and worked as a passenger guard for Railway Company in Mansfield.

Thomas Arthur Parris, born 13/1/1868, Burham, Kent, - died 1941, Nottingham

1911 Census = Thomas aged, 43, married for 23 years, was a police sergeant for Nottingham City Council. He and his wife Lizzie had one child. Address was: 4 Sturton Street, Nottingham.

1939 Register he was then a police pensioner, retired. Born 13 Jan 1868. Wife born: 21 Feb 1867. Same address.

Emma Alice Parris

Harriet Ellen Parris c. 1873 = may have died in 1959 or 1914

Albert Edward Parris c. 1875 Yalding

Maude Parris, 1886, Marden.