History of the Constable
The office of constable dates back at least to
1066 and the Norman Conquest of England. William the Conqueror
appointed constables to supervise individual communities, or
boroughs. A constable's duties varied considerably in different
circumstances and times. They were often similar to those of a
sheriff, who supervised a shire (the equivalent of a county). Over
time, however, as sheriffs were given increasing administrative
duties, constables assumed primary responsibility for local law
enforcement. The office of constable had been transplanted to the
British colonies in North America by the mid-seventeenth century,
and with it continued the divergence between constable and sheriff.
In America as in England, the main qualification for the office of
sheriff was "that he be of sufficient estate." This limited the
choices for sheriff to a relatively small and elite group of
planters in each county. As a result, few sheriffs had either the
ability or desire to serve warrants or bring offenders to justice.
Consequently, the constable and justice of the peace were about the
only law and order most rural American settlers ever saw.
On March 5, 1823, John Tumlinson, the newly elected alcalde of the
Colorado District in Stephen F. Austin' first colony in Texas, wrote
to the Baron de Bastrop in San Antonio that he had "appointed but
one officer who acts in the capacity of constable to summon
witnesses and bring offenders to justice." That appointee, Thomas V.
Alley, thus became the first Anglo law enforcement officer in the
future republic and state of Texas. Other prominent colonists who
served as constable included John Austin and James Strange.
The Constitution of the Republic of Texas (1836) provided for the
election in each county of a sheriff and "a sufficient number of
constables." During the ten years of the republic's existence,
thirty-eight constables were elected in twelve counties, the first
in Nacogdoches County and the largest number (thirteen) in
Harrisburg (later Harris) County. Court records indicate that
violent crime was rare in the republic, except when horse or cattle
thieves entered Texas from Arkansas or Louisiana; most indictments
were for non-lethal crimes such as illegal gambling or assaults
resulting from fights or scuffles. Juan N. Seguín and Elliott M.
Millican both served as constables during the republic.
Shortly after Texas became a state, an act passed by the legislature
specified that the constable should be "the conservator of the peace
throughout the county," adding that "it shall be his duty to
suppress all riots, routs, affrays, fighting, and unlawful
assemblies, and he shall keep the peace, and shall cause all
offenders to be arrested, and taken before some justice of the
peace." Constables were the most active law-enforcement officials in
many counties during the early statehood of Texas.
After Texas seceded from the United States in 1861, many county
offices, including that of constable, remained unfilled or were
filled by men less competent than their predecessors. During the
military occupation of Texas after the Civil War, the election of
county officials all but ceased, as the Union military appointed
more than 200 individuals to state and county offices. A number of
these appointees refused to serve; from 1865 to 1869, over one-third
of the county offices in Texas were vacant. Many counties had no
appointed or elected constables during this period. Austin, DeWitt,
Fayette, McLennan, and Navarro counties had but a single constable
each, appointed by Gen. Edward R. S. Canby, head of the Fifth
Military District, in 1868-69.
Under the Constitution of 1869, a Reconstruction document that
centralized many governmental functions, no constables were elected
in Texas from 1869 to 1872, though some were appointed by justices
of the peace. Many of these appointees lacked experience in handling
violent offenders and access to secure jail facilities, and had few
deputies to call upon for assistance. They were no match for the
poor, embittered, and heavily armed former soldiers from both sides
who roamed the state, often turning to crime. As a result, the
office of constable began to diminish in importance, and the
better-equipped county sheriffs began to assume a leading role in
law enforcement. Still, a number of prominent peace officers of the
late nineteenth and twentieth centuries began their careers as
constables or deputy constables, including Thomas R. Hickman, George
A. Scarborough, and Jess Sweeten. In 1896, while serving as a United
States deputy marshal, Scarborough shot and killed the controversial
El Paso constable John Selman, who had himself gunned down the
notorious John Wesley Hardin in 1895.
The Constitution of 1876, designed to decentralize control of the
state government, reduced the power of many state officials and
mandated that constables would once again be elected at the precinct
level. A 1954 constitutional amendment extended their term of office
from two years to four. Today, constables numbering approximately
780 are elected from precincts in most Texas counties. Their
law-enforcement roles vary widely, but in general their police
powers are no different from those of other peace officers in the
state. Complete records do not exist, but the most recent estimate
is that at least ninety-three Texas constables have died in the line
of duty, including sixty-seven in the twentieth century.
This
link is to a current map of
the JP and Constables Precincts for Travis County Texas.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Eugene C. Barker, ed., The Austin Papers (3 vols.,
Washington: GPO, 1924-28). Allen G. Hatley, Texas Constables, A
Frontier Heritage (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1999).
Allen G. Hatley