Saunders Welch (2 February 1711 – 1 October 1784) was an 18th-century English businessman,
justice of the peace for
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...
, and policing pioneer.
Life
He was born in
Aylesbury and educated in the town's workhouse. An early biography of the sculptor
Joseph Nollekens
Joseph Nollekens R.A. (11 August 1737 – 23 April 1823) was a sculptor from London generally considered to be the finest British sculptor of the late 18th century.
Life
Nollekens was born on 11 August 1737 at 28 Dean Street, Soho, London, ...
(husband to Welch's daughter Mary) stated that Welch was apprenticed to a trunk-maker in
St Paul's Churchyard
St Paul's Churchyard is an area immediately around St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. It included St Paul's Cross and Paternoster Row. It became one of the principal marketplaces in London. St Paul's Cross was an open-air pulpit from whi ...
in the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
, though another 1820s memoir refers to his receiving an inheritance and being "in person, mind and manners, most perfectly a gentleman".
[L.-M. Hawkins, ''Memoirs, anecdotes, facts and opinions'', 2 vols. (1824)] By 1734 he was living on Broad St Giles in the parish of
St George's Bloomsbury and running a grocery, probably from his home, moving into a bigger residence on the corner of Bow Street (now known as Museum Street) around 1739.
He began moving in artistic circles and is said to have modelled for the foot and leg of Roubiliac's
statue of Handel.
and subscribing to several religious, artistic and literary works from 1740 onwards.
He also became involved in the
and the
British Lying-In,
Lock
Lock(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
*Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance
*Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal
Arts and entertainment
* ''Lock ...
,
Foundling
Foundling may refer to:
* An abandoned child, see child abandonment
* Foundling hospital, an institution where abandoned children were cared for
** Foundling Hospital, Dublin, founded 1704
** Foundling Hospital, Cork, founded 1737
** Foundling H ...
,
Madgdalen,
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...
and
St George's Hospitals.
He also became active in local politics, becoming a churchwarden (1743) and
vestryman
A vestryman is a member of his local church's vestry, or leading body.Anstice, Henry (1914). ''What Every Warden and Vestryman Should Know.'' Church literature press He is not a member of the clergy.Potter, Henry Codman (1890). ''The Offices of Wa ...
(1745) for the parish as well as high constable of Holborn (1746–1755) and member of the Middlesex commission of the peace (1755–1756). In these roles he frequently collaborated with the Fielding brothers
Henry
Henry may refer to:
People
*Henry (given name)
* Henry (surname)
* Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry
Royalty
* Portuguese royalty
** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal
** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...
and
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
, with whom he shared an office at
Bow Street Court. In 1749 he not only established the Universal Register Office (effectively an employment agency) with them but also led the first group of organized thief-catchers under the brothers' new policing system (later known as the
Bow Street Runners
The Bow Street Runners were the law enforcement officers of the Bow Street Magistrates' Court in the City of Westminster. They have been called London's first professional police force. The force originally numbered six men and was founded in ...
) and assisted the brothers in suppressing a riot in which a mob gutted three brothels. Welch selected his men from former constables, discharged at the end of their year in office, who were prepared to receive legal training and carry on the work.
[J. M. Beattie (2012) ''The First English Detectives. The Bow Street Runners and the Policing of London, 1750–1840''. Oxford University Press. p. 25 ]
After Henry's death Welch fell out with John, leaving the Bow Street office and from the 1760s onwards joining the rota of magistrates at a new "rotation office" on
Litchfield Street,
attended all one winter by Welch's friend
Samuel Johnson, who was portrayed there in
Thomas Rowlandson
Thomas Rowlandson (; 13 July 175721 April 1827) was an English artist and caricaturist of the Georgian Era, noted for his political satire and social observation. A prolific artist and printmaker, Rowlandson produced both individual social an ...
's 1774 satirical print ''A Rotation Office''. Struggles to make that office self-funding eroded his previously robust health, with the office stagnating by 1775. Welch spent two or more years in Italy for his health, finally dying at
Taunton Deane
Taunton Deane was a local government district with borough status in Somerset, England. Its council was based in Taunton.
The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by a merger of the Municipal Borough of Ta ...
in Somerset in 1784, though his body was brought back to the
St George's Churchyard in Bloomsbury. His will left his daughter Mary twenty volumes of sermons by
John Tillotson
John Tillotson (October 1630 – 22 November 1694) was the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury from 1691 to 1694.
Curate and rector
Tillotson was the son of a Puritan clothier at Haughend, Sowerby, Yorkshire. Little is known of his early youth ...
and a small sum of money to Johnson, as well as a lump sum to his other daughter Ann equivalent to the £200 annual income and £200 in jewels settled on Mary at the latter's marriage in 1772.
Works
In 1754 Welch published ''An essay on the office of constable. With rules and cautions for the more safe and effectual discharge of that duty'', republished four years later in an expanded edition with a new "Introduction containing some Conjectures for fixing the Original of that Office in England; and certain Historical Anecdotes concerning the Rise and Progress of the Society of Thief-Takers, and the evil Consequences naturally resulting from an Institution of that Kind".
In 1758 he also published ''A proposal to render effectual a plan, to remove the nuisance of common prostitutes from the streets of this metropolis''.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Welch, Saunders
People from London
18th-century English judges
Holborn
History of law enforcement in the United Kingdom
1711 births
1784 deaths
People from Aylesbury
Sex industry researchers