University of Virginia Library

THE CONSTABLE

The sheriffs were assisted by officers, called constables, who
were appointed by the County Courts and set over certain bounds,
within the county, termed precincts. Their authority was, to a
great extent, co-ordinate with the sheriffs, but in many cases
they had certain authority peculiarly their own. They collected
fines for small offenses, whipped criminals, arrested violators of
the revenue laws, accompanied those who searched places suspected
of containing smuggled goods, and had sole charge of
runaway sailors, servants and slaves. To these were added the
duties of visiting tobacco fields and destroying all inferior growths,
such as "seconds" or "suckers," the killing of stray dogs, and
superfluous dogs about the "quarters," and the execution of the
game laws. The constable's fees, like the fees of many other
officers of that period, were paid in tobacco. For serving a
warrant he received ten pounds of tobacco, for summoning a
witness, five; for summoning coroner's jury and witnesses, fifty;
for putting person in the stocks, ten; for whipping a person, ten;
and for removing from the parish any person suspected of becoming

a public charge, two pounds for every mile traveled going
and returning. He also received one pound of tobacco out of
the county levy for each tithable in his precinct, and was exempt
from payment of taxes, and from jury service, while in office.