County Surveyor for Middlesex

The origins of the Justices of the Peace lie in the temporary appointments of 'conservators' or 'keepers' of the peace made at various times of unrest between the late twelfth century and the fourteenth century. In 1361 the 'Custodis Pacis' were merged with the Justices of Labourers, and given the title Justices of the Peace and a commission (see MJP).

The Commission (of the Peace) gave them the power to try offences in their courts of Quarter Sessions, appointed them to conserve the peace within a stated area, and to enquire on the oaths of "good and lawfull men" into "all manner of poisonings, enchantments, forestallings, disturbances, abuses of weights and measures" and many other things, and to "chastise and punish" anyone who had offended against laws made in order to keep the peace. During the sixteenth century the work of the Quarter Sessions and the justices was extended to include administrative functions for the counties. These were wide ranging and included maintenance of structures such as bridges, gaols and asylums; regulating weights, measures, prices and wages, and, probably one of their biggest tasks, enforcing the Poor Law.

The dependence of the justices on officials like the sheriff, the constables, and the Clerk of the Peace to help them carry out their functions (both judicial and administrative) cannot be underestimated. As their workload grew, particularly during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, more help was needed and there was an increase in the number of officers appointed for specific tasks, and committees for specific purposes were set up.

The County Surveyor, sometimes known as the Bridgemaster, was appointed to oversee the maintenance of those roads and bridges which were the county's responsibility. He was a salaried official but the post was not always filled. Esther Moir in her study of the Justices of the Peace (1969, p118) believes that it was only with great reluctance that the Justices admitted "the necessity of a permanent and professional skilled architect or engineer in the place of their old habit" of giving such jobs to local workmen as they came up. The first County Surveyor appointed for Middlesex was Thomas Rogers (c1773-1802), followed by William Wickings (1805-1815), Robert Sibley (c1820-1829) and William Moseley (1829-1846). Frederick Hyde Pownall was appointed in 1847 and continued as surveyor following the creation of the Middlesex County Council in 1888, until 1898, and thereafter as consulting architect and surveyor until 1907. Following Pownall, four more county surveyors were appointed for Middlesex until the abolition of the county in 1965 - Henry Wakelam (1898-1920), Alfred Dryland (1920-1932), William Morgan (1932-1949), and Henry Stuart Andrew (1949-1965).