Records of Glasgow Police

This collection comprises:

E1 - Minutes of the Glasgow Police Controlling Body and committees, 1800 - 1921.

E2 - Administrative records including: reports and returns, including criminal returns by the Chief Constable, and reports of the Fire Brigade, Statute Labour Department, Chief Inspector of Weights and Measures, Sanitary Department, fever and smallpox hospitals, Cleansing Department and Labour Bureau, 1896 - 1904 (E2/1); Police bye-laws, 1864 - 1873 (E2/2); correspondence, 1816 - 1932 (E2/3); papers relating to stipendiary magistrates, 1863 - 1900 (E2/4); papers relating to legislation and legal disputes, 1862 - 1895 (E2/5); papers relating to licensed premises, 1869 - 1874 (E2/6); burial records, 1870 - 1950 (E2/7); hotel inspection records, 1911 (E2/8); account book of the Police Clerk's office, 1900 - 1905 (E2/9) printed return of destitute persons, 1841 (E2/10).

E3 - Financial (Treasurer of Police) records, including abstracts of account, ledgers, and records of mortgages and other securities, 1801 - 1937 (E3/1-10); abstracts of daily returns of public baths and wash-houses (E3/11), 1884 - 1888 and cholera rental book (E3/12).

E4 - Correspondence of the Glasgow Procurator Fiscal 1817 - 1890

E5 - Police licensing registers including theatres, pedlars, hackney carriages, street traders, etc. 1908 - 1971

The register of bonds 1846 - 1862 (E2/2 on the original list) is missing although it may have been confused with another item in E3/8. The High Court Indictments (E4/4 on the original list) also cannot be located.

The records of the Assessors and Clerks of Police Court (E5 on the original list) were never deposited.

The Police Board came into being as a result of the 1800 Act for 'Extending the Royalty of the City of Glasgow...for paving, lighting and cleansing the streets; for regulating the Police and appointment Officers and Watchmen; for dividing the City into Wards; and appointing Commissioners...' At the meeting of 1 December 1800, it was decided that 'the Commissioners shall sit as a Board one day in the week in order to assist the Master of Police in putting the law in execution'.

The Police and Statute Labour Committee took over the work of the Board of Police from November 1846 following the implementation of the Act of that year. The Committee dealt with the same concerns as the Board namely lighting, watching, vagrancy, weighing machines, nuisances, appointments, fire engines, dung removal, assessments of levy, pavements, construction of cells, complaints against the police, enumeration of inhabitants etc with subjects indicated by margin notes. Other concerns included sewers and chimney sweeps.

Following the Glasgow Police Act 1862, the title of Board of Police was revived and it replaced the Police and Statute Labour Committee. The Board dealt with the same concerns as the Committee. One of the most significant results of the Act was the appointment of the first Medical Officer of Health in 1863.

The General Police and Improvement (Scotland) Act 1862 Order Confirmation (Glasgow) Act 1877 again abolished the Board of Police and the town councillors became Commissioners of Police although with separate accounts and administration. The Commissioners dealt with the same concerns as the Board. From 18 August 1890, the name of the body changed from the Magistrates and Council Police Commissioners to solely the Glasgow Police Commissioners 'for the despatch of business under the Police, Statute Labour, Sanitary and Public Health Acts'.

In 1895 the police authority and the town council were formally united as 'The Corporation of the City of Glasgow' following the Glasgow Corporation and Police Act of that year. (The amalgamation was not immediate as the Clerk of Police remained separate until 1905 and prepared minutes for the committees that dealt with what was still seen as 'police' functions. The Treasurer of Police was not fully combined with the City Chamberlain until 1912.) The Department oversaw the work of the Baths and Wash-houses, Sewage, Watching and Lighting, Statute Labour, Cleansing, Hospitals, Health, Fire and Magistrates Committees.

Access restrictions may apply. Please contact the Archives for further information.

Descriptive list available at Glasgow City Archives (some uncatalogued material). A lot of information from the original collection description has been removed as the material was not catalogued here. The additional information is available at I:\Catalogues\E

Application for reproduction should be made to the Archivist

This material has been appraised in line with standard GB243 procedures. 

No further accruals expected.

Glasgow City Archives, SR22, Records of Strathclyde Police (and predecessor forces)