User:Queen of Hearts/Drafts/Baltimore Police Department

The Baltimore Police Department

Colonial and early post-colonial law enforcement (1659–1784)

Baltimore County, Maryland, was founded in 1659, including what is now the independent city of Baltimore; early land patents were issued the same year. The county was governed by a group of commissioners, also known as justices of the peace, who were appointed by the lord proprietor and formed a court. The initial commissioners – Thomas Howell, Thomas Stockett, Henry Stockett, and John Taylor – held their first court, clerked by John Collett, at Howell's house on July 20, 1661. Most early courts were held on individual plantations.

And the said sheriff shall choose one of his servants for the execution of all corporal correction, shame or other punishment to be inflicted on the body or person of any one; and if the person so chosen and appointed by the Lieutenant-General and Council shall refuse to execute the said office, the Lieutenant-General, upon complaint thereof made unto him, shall or may censure the person so refusing by corporal shame or correction as he shall think fit.

A document outlining the appointment of the executioner

The chief commissioner appointed a coroner and sheriff, the latter of which appointed a public executioner. The office of public executioner was described in Folsom (1888) as "the least desirable office within the county", citing holding the position being used as punishment against John Dandie, whose death sentence was commutated to three years serving the lord proprietor and three years as the executioner in St. Mary's County. He also cited the harsh punishments imposed against criminals. Below the sheriff, constables were appointed by a hundred commander to perform precepts and warrants within the hundred. Petty constables, known as tithingmen, were appointed by the lord of the manor to patrol their manor.

Cartoon of a pillory and whipping post, common instruments of punishment in colonial Maryland

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References

Primary sources

In the text these references are preceded by "BPD":

Works cited

• Folsom, De Francias (1888). Our Police: A History of the Baltimore Force from the First Watchman to the Latest Appointee. J. D. Ehlers & Company. ISBN 9780788437779. LCCN 10022234 – via the Internet Archive.