The Bermuda Police Force was established 135 years ago in 1879, which leads to the question: who was responsible for maintaining law and order in Bermuda before the Police Force came into being?

History buffs will know that the first recorded murder in Bermuda occurred as early as 1610, when one Edward Waters allegedly killed a fellow sailor by the name of Edward Samuell.

The accused man was caught, tried and sentenced to hang, but he managed to escape and was eventually pardoned. And that was two years before the first settlers arrived!

In June 1620 at the Second Assizes in St George’s (where Bermuda’s very first laws were passed), mention was made in the records of the role of the Bailifs of the Tribes (Parishes) and that “the subordinate officers to these in every tribe, are the constables, head-borowes, and church wardens”.

We may therefore reasonably deduce that in 1620 there were at least nine parish constables serving this fledgling colony.

It is fair to say that in those days, a constable’s lot was not a happy one!

He was required by law to serve part-time for a period of 12 months, and he received no salary. His only income came from the execution of writs and warrants.

The constable’s oath of allegiance was all encompassing and it was substantially different to the one taken by officers today.

In part, the oath required constables to “see and cause his masters’ peace to be well and truly kept and preserved according to your power.

“You shall arrest all such persons as in your sight shall go around offensively or shall commit or make any riot, affray or breach of masters’ peace” and that “if any such offender shall make resistance with force, you shall levy hue and cry and shall pursue them until they be taken”.

The First Police Act

About the time of the American War of Independence (1775-1783), the Island was faced with the familiar problem of how to encourage enough young Bermudian men to serve their allotted times as parish constables. It is an issue in one guise or another that has surfaced repeatedly throughout this Island’s history.

The simple solution at that time (1786) was to introduce an Act wherein any man chosen to serve as a parish constable, and who so refused to do so, could be fined £5 (probably the equivalent today to over $1,000).

Incidentally, the wording of this particular Bermuda Act was the first one to use the term “police”.

The World’s First Police Forces

Depending upon your interpretation of the term “police force”, the world’s first force was either established in Glasgow, Scotland in 1800, or in London, England in 1829.

From its inception, officers serving with the relatively small City of Glasgow Police were required to engage in duties which you would not ordinarily associate with policing, such as fire fighting and sweeping the streets.

Some people have since likened the duties of those first Glasgow constables to being more of akin to city watchmen, rather than police officers.

The (London) Metropolitan Police Force was founded on quite different principles. “The primary object of an efficient police is the prevention of crime; the next, that of detection and punishment of offenders if crime is committed,” wrote Sir Richard Mayne in 1829 (inaugural Joint Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police).

“To these ends all the efforts of police must be directed.”

The success of the London pilot scheme quickly encouraged other cities and jurisdictions around the world to follow suit.

The powers that be in Bermuda also took note, but it would be another 50 years before they acted.

First Death

Meanwhile, as it had been throughout the majority of its early history, Bermuda continued to be policed by part-time constables, who had limited training or knowledge of how to make arrests or how to defend themselves.

The records show that in 1867 rural constable Thomas Burrows Browne became the first Bermudian officer to die on duty.

While trying to recapture an escaped prisoner, the man stabbed him and the constable later died from an infection.

Despite this tragic event, for which the assailant was committed to the local lunatic asylum, the Island generally remained free of serious crime.

Eleven years later however, crime took a decided upturn, including the infamous murder of Anna Skeeters, and the Chief Justice of the day became particularly critical of the calibre of men selected to act as constables. Radical changes were soon to come about.

Next week: Read about the Skeeters murder and how the Bermuda Police Force was established in 1879.

The History of Policing In Bermuda will be available in both softback and limited edition hardback versions through the Bookmart at Brown & Company, and other book distributors.