Introduction
In the 1560s, Sir Thomas Smith wrote a guide to the Kingdom of England, in which he detailed some of the country’s customs and laws. Among them, was the ‘hue and cry’, the pursuit and apprehension of thieves and murderers, which was not the responsibility of law officers only, but the collective responsibility of all.
BY the old law of England* if any theft, or robbery be done, if he that is robbed, or he that seeth or perceiveth that any man is robbed do levy hue and cry, that is to say, do call and cry for aid: The Constable of the village ought to raise the parish to aid him and seek the thief, and if the thief be not found in that parish, to go to the next and raise that Constable, and so still by the Constables and them of the parish one after another.
This hue and cry from parish to parish is carried, till the thief or robber be found. That parish which doeth not his duty, but letteth by their negligence the thief to depart, doth not only pay a fine to the king, but must repay to the party robbed his damages. So that every English man is a sergeant to take the thief, and who sheweth himself negligent therein, doth not only incur evil opinion therefore, but hardly shall escape punishment.
The Statute of Winchester (1285), 13 Edw. I cc. 1 and 4, which provides for the security of English towns. Watchmen must detain those who fall under suspicion of breaching the King’s peace during their stay, and “if they will not obey the arrest, they shall levy hue and cry upon them, and such as keep the watch shall follow them with all the town and the towns near, with hue and cry from town to town, until that they be taken and delivered to the sheriff as before is said; and for the arrestments of such strangers none shall be punished.” For the full text, see ‘Select documents of English constitutional history’, edited by George Burton Adams and Henry Morse Stephens.