The Memoirs of a Bow Street Runner by Henry Goddard were written by him in the late-Victorian era, but not published until 1957, when the Museum Press in London printed the Memoirs in hardback, with a foreword by the eminent historian and criminologist, Patrick Pringle.
Quaystone Books have now republished the Memoirs in paperback and as an eBook, with a foreword by me, Charles Rozel, which is reproduced in the following paragraphs.
Bow Street Runners roamed the mean streets of London detecting crime in late-Georgian and Regency times. In fiction the Runner is usually an ex-soldier, perhaps wounded, physically or emotionally, from fighting the French, or possibly the upstart United States of America. A handsome, square-jawed enigma, he is as romanticised as Wyatt Earp in Deadwood. A sharpshooter with a brace of flintlocks, skilled with a blade, and his knuckles; he moves as easily beneath the glittering candle-chandeliers of Mayfair as in the flickering tallow-shadows of the Seven Dials. Apart from his horse, his romantic interest is usually an aristocratic beauty (possibly a spy for Napoleon or the Americans) and the buxom wench who serves his ale in the pub he calls home, within a gallows-eye view of Newgate.
In 1811 the madness of King George III required his son, also called George, to become the Regent (the de facto king). Thus, the Regency period started in 1811 and ended in 1820 when George III died and the Regent became George IV. However, some historians, and aficionados of the period, extend the Regency to include the years from 1820 to 1830 when George IV reigned. He died in 1830.
The Bow Street Runners were founded, in late 1748 or early 1749 by Henry Fielding, a lawyer and sometime-novelist (he wrote Tom Jones: which was filmed in 1963 winning 4 Oscars). In setting up the Runners, Henry Fielding was assisted by his brother John, who was was blind. The Fielding Brothers lived and worked from number 4 Bow Street in the West End of London. This address was also their magistrates court from where they dispensed ‘justice’. Prior to the appointment of Henry Fielding, magistrates were not paid officially, but paid themselves from the fines they imposed in their courts. They were referred to as ‘trading magistrates’ and reputed to be corrupt. Henry Fielding himself said as much, when referring to Thomas De Veil, his predecessor as Bow Street magistrate.
Henry Fielding died in 1754 and his brother, John, known as ‘the blind beak’—he could recognise hundreds of criminal by their voices—carried on alone until he died in 1780. Thereafter, a succession of magistrates continued the work of the Fielding brothers until the Runners were disbanded in 1839, ten years after the establishment of the Metropolitan Police in 1829.
Most novelists refer to these detectives as ‘Bow Street Runners’ but this is a misnomer. They should be called Principal Officers. A runner was a messenger, or the person responsible for escorting a prisoner to and from a court. The common name for these Officers—Bow Street Runners—was inappropriate, and they considered it demeaning, but the name ‘stuck’ and I will use ‘Runner’ when referring to Principal Officers.
Funded, reluctantly and miserly, by the Home Department (now the Home Office), the Runners are considered to be Britain’s first organised police force, albeit without uniforms and small in number. Throughout their existence of ninety years, there were never more than eleven Runners at Bow Street at any one time.
However, the Runners were augmented by Patrols.
An eight-man Horse Patrol was inaugurated in about 1763, but discontinued within a few years because it was too expensive for the Home Department. It was not until 1805 that a Horse Patrol was re-established, this time in a uniform of scarlet waistcoats and blue trousers. This Horse Patrol is regarded by some historians as the first uniformed police force in England; it was absorbed into the Metropolitan Police in 1836.
Occasional Foot Patrols started in about 1765 and were discontinued within a few years. A regular Night Patrol on foot was inaugurated in 1790 and continued until it too was absorbed into the Metropolitan Police.
From 1821 a Patrol, whose official name was the Dismounted Horse Patrol as its members were ‘on foot’, operated during the day, until also absorbed into the Metropolitan Police.
Runners were often chosen and appointed from a Patrol, and were sometimes assisted in their investigations by members of Patrols: for example, Patrol Constables helped the Runners deactivate the Cato Street Conspiracy, an attempt to murder the prime minister and his Cabinet in 1820.
The premises in Bow Street, from which the Runners had operated since the Fielding Brothers, was know as a Public Office. In 1792, the government set up seven more Public Offices in London to be run along the same lines as Bow Street. One of these new Public Offices was at Great Marlborough Street in the West End of London.
Henry Goddard, whose memoirs these are, was employed at Bow Street as a Patrol Constable from 1824 until he was promoted to be a Runner (Principal Officer) at Great Marlborough Street in 1827 and remained there until he transferred to Bow Street as a Runner in 1834. He remained a Runner until they were disbanded in 1839. He died in 1883.
The Memoirs are available to purchase on Amazon and Google Play.