David J. Cox - A Certain Share of Low Cunning: A History of the Bow Street Runners, 1792-1839

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Book:
A Certain Share of Low Cunning: A History of the Bow Street Runners, 1792-1839
Author:
David J Cox
Publisher:
Willan
Genre:
Books / Detective and thriller
Year:
2010
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This book provides an account and analysis of the history of the Bow Street Runners, precursors of todays police force. Through a detailed analysis of a wide range of both qualitative and quantitative research data, this book provides a fresh insight into their history, arguing that the use of Bow Street personnel in provincially instigated cases was much more common than has been assumed by many historians. It also demonstrates that the range of activities carried out by Bow Street personnel whilst employed on such cases was far more complex than can be gleaned from the majority of books and articles concerning early nineteenth-century provincial policing, which often do little more than touch on the role of Bow Street. By describing the various roles and activities of the Bow Street Principal Officers with specific regard to cases originating in the provinces it also places them firmly within the wider contexts of provincial law-enforcement and policing history.

The book investigates the types of case in which the Runners were involved, who employed them and why, how they operated, including their interaction with local law-enforcement bodies, and how they were perceived by those who utilized their services. It also discusses the legacy of the Principal Officers with regard to subsequent developments within policing. Bow Street Police Office and its personnel have long been regarded by many historians as little more than a discrete and often inconsequential footnote to the history of policing, leading to a partial and incomplete understanding of their work. This viewpoint is challenged in this book, which argues that in several ways the utilization of Principal Officers in provincially instigated cases paved the way for important subsequent developments in policing, especially with regard to detective practices. It is also the first work to provide a clear distinction between the Principal Officers and their less senior colleagues.

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A Certain Share of Low Cunning

A Certain Share of Low Cunning

A history of the Bow Street Runners, 17921839

David J. Cox

First published by Willan Publishing 2010

This edition published 2014 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

David J. Cox 2010

The rights of David J. Cox to be identified as the author of this book have been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Publishers or a licence permitting copying in the UK issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.

ISBN 978-1-84392-773-0 hardback

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Project managed by Deer Park Productions, Tavistock, Devon

Typeset by GCS, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire

Dedicated to the memory of Benjamin Robins (c.17551812) whose unfortunate demise led indirectly to the writing of this book, and in loving memory of my mother, May Cox (19292009), who was an inspiration to me throughout her life.

Contents

BL	British Library
CUP	Cambridge University Press
IUP	Irish University Press
OBP	Old Bailey Proceedings Online
OU	Open University
OUP	Oxford University Press
PP	Parliamentary Papers
TNA	The National Archives

This book has its genesis in a serendipitous discovery in Dudley Archives and Local History Service back in 1999, when I came across a reference to Bow Street Runners being utilised in a local murder investigation. This mention caught my attention as I mused on whether or not this use of a London-based body of men was unusual. Little did I realise that it was to be the start of ten years of research.

During that decade I received help, advice and encouragement from a great many people. I would firstly like to thank all of the staff of the many archives and record offices (unfortunately too numerous to mention individually) that I consulted during the researching of this book all of whom gave me a great deal of help and often pointed me in the right direction. I especially extend my gratitude to the archivists and staff at Stafford Record Office and the William Salt Library, who were without exception courteous and helpful. Much of the original research was carried out at the British Library and the National Archives, and I would like to thank the staff at both venerable institutions for their unfailing help and advice. I also paid several visits to the Metropolitan Police Museum in Charlton, and would like to express my gratitude to Steve Earl and Ray Seal for their unrivalled enthusiasm and extensive knowledge of their collection.

I was greatly encouraged in my Masters research by Dr Edwina Newman and in my PhD research by my two supervisors, Dr John Archer and Dr Laurie Feehan, whose comments and advice were much appreciated.

My thanks also go to the numerous leading experts in the fields of policing history and criminal justice history who gave me invaluable advice and help; particular thanks must go to Professor John Beattie and Professor Clive Emsley, both of whom have encouraged me to continue in my research over many years. Professor Beattie in particular has been extremely generous both with his time and with his interest in my research. Dr Robert M. Morris was a fount of knowledge regarding aspects of the early Metropolitan Police and the functioning of the Home Department, while my friend and colleague, Professor Barry Godfrey, has been an invaluable source of knowledge with his expertise in the historiography of criminal justice history.

The Internet has proved invaluable in my research, and I would like to extend a note of appreciation for all those who worked on the Old Bailey Proceedings Online project (especially Professor Robert Shoemaker and Professor Tim Hitchcock) and the staff of the British Library Nineteenth-Century Newspapers Online project. Without either of these wonderful websites, this book would have been considerably more difficult to research.

I would also like to thank the many friends who have expressed interest and encouragement in this project (especially my unofficial proofreader), together with those individuals who helped me with particular aspects of my research; my especial gratitude to Frances Bevan for information on her ancestor, George Thomas Joseph Ruthven.

Finally, and most importantly, I would like to acknowledge the unfailing help and encouragement that I received from my father, Frank, and my late mother, May, throughout the writing of this book.

The study of policing history has undergone a sea-change in recent years; no longer do we simply have traditional teleological or linear accounts such as those offered by Reith or Howard, which largely ignored the centuries of policing history prior to the creation of the Metropolitan Police in 1829.1 The subject has benefited from the attention of historians who hold a wide spectrum of views ranging from traditional and revisionist to pluralist.2 This has led to a much wider understanding of the often complex issues involved in such research. Both macro- and micro-historical studies have been published, ranging from general overviews to histories of individual police forces, and while there has been an inevitable concentration on the situation within the metropolis, an increasing amount of research is now being focused on provincial policing.3

Within this panoply of studies, however, there is one aspect of pre-Metropolitan Police historiography that continues to be underrepresented: the history of the small group of men stationed at Bow Street Police Office in the period 17481839.4 These men headed the force that is better known today as the Bow Street Runners. This term is somewhat misleading, as it is often used to refer indiscriminately to all of the ranks based at Bow Street Police Office.5 The general term runner as used when describing a messenger or minor member of an organisation dates back to at least the seventeenth century, but the first unambiguous reference to employees at Bow Street Police Office as such was in 1755, when a defendant in a trial at the Old Bailey was described as a runner of Mr Fieldings office to carry persons backward and forward.6

One of the first printed uses of the term runner being specifically applied to Bow Street is credited to the Reverend Henry Bate, in the form of a poem printed 5 March 1785 in the Morning Herald, in which he penned the following lines after the artist Nathaniel Hone (who had coincidentally recently painted a portrait of Sir John Fielding) accused Sir Joshua Reynolds of plagiarism:

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