Henry Fielding was a dangerous man with
a pen as a playwright his political
satires were so vicious that Parliament
passed a law banning them from the
London stage with that Avenue closed he
turned his razor wit to what he remains
best known for today fiction in 1749 he
published his masterpiece Tom Jones a
book that reshaped the English novel
into something that entertained the
reader while also conveying a message he
in other words helped make books fun but
that was only his second biggest
achievement that year because also in
1749 Henry Fielding literary wit and
political satirist started London's
first police force now it might seem
strange that a novelist would go into
law enforcement but it's more
understandable once you get to know
Henry Fielding fielding was a writer
obsessed with rules rule breakers street
life fraudsters taverns criminals the
lives of brothel workers and chronicling
both the thrills and the darkside of the
endless gin-soaked party that was 18th
century London and he was particularly
interested in Jonathon Wilde making the
disgrace thief-taker the subject of an
early satirical novel in it
fielding directly compared Wilde to the
politician he hated most prime minister
Robert Walpole whose exploits you might
be familiar with from our South Sea
Bubble series but hidden among the
political slander was a keen sense of
all that was wrong in London's judicial
system the thief taking bounties that
encouraged corruption a vacuum of power
on the London streets where the
government consistently failed to fund
law enforcement solutions a system of
public executions that instead of
serving as a deterrent made the most
infamous of criminals into celebrities
and magistrates so dirty that they were
little different from the criminals they
prosecuted in fact after he was banned
from the stage fielding became a lawyer
in order to support himself which
allowed him to see the criminal justice
system firsthand and then in 1748 he got
the chance to put his literary and moral
ideals into practice his work as a
partisan political journalist had won
him friends in the government leading to
an appointment as the magistrate for
Westminster and this job was a good one
promising 500 pounds a year and the
ability to live and work
of Bow Street Magistrates Court now
justice fielding kept his family
upstairs and used the expansive room
downstairs as a magistrate's court a
type of court that would take the
accused into custody there he was to
examine suspects collect evidence and
either hand them over to the criminal
court for trial or release them he
quickly found the system even dirtier
than he anticipated seat magistrates
were not paid by the government instead
they funded themselves by extracting
fees from those that came before them
and as you can imagine this was a recipe
for corruption
not to mention fielding found that the
promised income of five hundred pounds
for his services came from extortionary
funds and bribery in fact a previous
justice reportedly gave sex workers
lenient judgments in exchange for their
services running a clean Court netted
fielding only 300 pounds barely enough
to support the court and himself but he
worked hard often cross-examining
suspects well into the night and
committing fifty into custody every week
then he started to try to implement his
reforms first he opened the court to the
public letting the people see and
understand the new order he appealed for
a pension from the government so that he
wasn't reliant on the inherent
corruption of feast a practice that
would later become standard for
magistrates and he got his jurisdiction
extended so suspects could not escape
justice by just fleeing to the
neighboring parish and then that winter
he went to war with the street robbery
gangs that were terrorizing London while
London did have parish constables men
elected by parish residents to
theoretically take suspects into custody
this system was centuries-old and
unworkable their jurisdictions were tiny
and often the designated constable who
also mind you had to keep running his
regular businesses to make ends meet
hired a deputy to do the actual work and
those deputies were usually infirm
unenthusiastic or just straight-up
corrupt none really wanted to risk their
necks bringing in violent offenders
indeed it was actually common for a
constable to walk past a criminal in the
street a warrant for the man in their
very pocket and failed to stop him out
of fear so in reality London truly
worked off the medieval hue and cry
system where citizens were expected to
drop everything to stop a crime in
progress they saw and apprehend
criminals themselves fielding gathered
the best constables he could find and
put them under the command of Saunders
Welsh a
grocer who was also known as the best
constable in London because after all
these were still semi-professional
constables they all still had day jobs
fielding laid out his plan first he
would issue warrants for known gang
leaders in the city
then his constables would put on their
swords and pistols roll up those
warrants and put them in the hollow
center of their tip staves the baton
that served as their weapon of office
then they would disperse to get their
man and quick fun history fact for you
here this is where the phrase struck by
a warrant comes from ouch they descended
on taverns and brothels overwhelming
suspects who might have been inclined to
call their comrades into a brawl and
then they dragged those suspects to Bow
Street the experiment was an unmitigated
success making fielding one of the most
prominent law enforcement figures in all
of London and it also in turn gave him a
group of constables to call upon when
needed and just in time because in the
summer of 1749 multi-day riots rocked
Westminster as a group of sailors robbed
by women in the city sex trade sacked
and burned several brothels while
fielding was away Welsh and his
constables called out the soldiers to
end the disturbance taking several
suspected riders into custody and when
fielding returned to Bow Street he found
it under siege a crowd of rioters
demanding the suspects be let free he
examined the arrested ringleaders sent
them to Newgate and then helped organise
a force of guards to regain control and
while after all this fielding did emerge
with a black mark one of the men
executed was probably wrongly convicted
the government appreciated his
initiative and he gained further favour
that same year when he received a tip
that several gambling house owners
planned to assassinate the Lord
Chancellor over new anti-gambling laws
fielding broke up the plot with a raid
by the end of 1750 fielding had six
trained constables to serve warrants and
keep the peace he drew up manuals for
their conduct and trained them how to
collect evidence questioned suspects and
give testimony but with no financial
support from the government and forced
to fund them with deef taking bounties
he had to temporarily disband the group
so he changed focus working to Shepherd
through new laws restricting thief
taking and public drunkenness he also
pioneered the police lineup even telling
suspects to switch clothes to rule out
false positives and most of all he used
his journalistic skills
for community outreach publishing a
paper called the Covent Garden journal
met featured accounts from the court and
asked the public to partner with Bo
Street he invited victims to view recent
arrestees in case they recognized them
from other crimes and called for
witnesses to come forward any
description of suspects or stolen
property he kept in a record database
but unfortunately few victims ever made
reports they were all too afraid violent
street robberies were once again surging
driven by criminal syndicates who
operated with impunity called by the
government to suggest what could be done
fielding made a proposal give him 600
pounds and he would reform with the Bow
Street Runners but rather than only
operating in Fielding's jurisdiction in
Westminster they would strike citywide
making arrests under the thief taking
loss the force however would have to
remain secret because thief taking was
hugely unpopular among the public and if
they heard that an organized force of
thief-takers was loose in the city
people would assuredly call for its
abolishment even 30 years after his
hanging the memory of Jonathan wild was
just still too fresh but the government
agreed and it was the first time London
officials would fund a group
specifically meant to tackle crime
Fielding's plan was essentially to form
a clean version of wilds operation
taking constables of unimpeachable
reputation and using them for public
good prosecuting crime not for personal
gain but rather for public order the
government issued its first payment and
fielding called up Welsh and the Bow
Street Runners at the beginning of 1754
they struck they broke up the infamous
Irish gang and brought in several
highwayman that haunted the squares
around st. James Park
it was a rough operation much more
dangerous than the previous fights with
the gangs in fact one of Fielding's men
mr. hind the deputy governor of a prison
was killed while trying to apprehend a
criminal ring but within months they'd
arrested and imprisoned several of the
most notorious gang leaders in the city
yet fielding could not enjoy the success
in fact his half-brother John who'd been
assisting for a year had mostly taken
over Fielding's duties by then because
Henry Fielding had already been sick
when he arrived at Bow Street a misspent
youth in taverns and coffee houses
leaving him with gout and cirrhosis the
long hours at Bow Street only worsened
his health he took a voyage to Lisbon
hoping to improve in a better
environment but instead he died there a
final account of his time at Bow Street
remaining unfinished but he did leave a
good man in charge because under his
half-brother John the Bow Street Runners
would increasingly take on investigative
and patrol duties becoming detectives in
all but name and John himself would
later become a London legend known for
his ability to identify 3,000 criminals
solely by their voices because like
Justice John Fielding was blind special
thanks to our educational tier patrons
Ahmed Zayat Turk Joseph Blaine and
Dominic Valencia
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