Ward Committees - Establishing Precedent

It apparently lies within the power of the Court of Wardmote to appoint sub-committees. This matter is currently being investigated.

Historically, our ward had 5 such permanently sitting sub-committees, called Ward Precinct Committees.

It just so happens that the two main population centres in the ward fall conveniently into two of these precincts: The precincts themselves were never abolished, and the committees simply stopped being appointed.

For Portsoken Ward, the following two precincts are of interest:


Covent Garden Precinct - Middlesex Street
Tower Hill Precinct  - Mansell Street.

Both of these precincts are currently served by committees, which represent the inhabitants.
I propose that these committees be formally recognised by the court of wardmote as being the representative precinct committees for the ward.

I have found evidence of wardmotes appointing subcommittees right up until the late 1800's (Which was when most wardmotes in the City became dormant, apart from serving as an election court - even wardmote resolutions fell out of use, until revived in our ward in 2001). There may be examples from more recent times, but I have not yet dug one out of the records - what I have listed here is merely a selection of references to this apparent power of the wardmote that I have found using Google Books - more must be readily accessible, and of course,we have the existence of the Ward Precinct Committees.
A description of what happened to them is found in detail in Webb, Sidney, 'English Local Government', volume 2. In the chapter that discusses the Ward Precinct Committees,he shows that the power to appoint these committees,or let them slip into disuse, was a power of the wardmote. Sometime after the 1830s the wardmotes stopped appointing these committees, or amalgamated them into general ward-wide committees.
However, the power of the wardmote to appoint committees seems clear.
Here is a link to the English Local Government. The relevant section on Ward Precincts is found on page 586.

Regarding wardmote committees: one other thing to consider - the City Police Act (Clause 85) refers to the expenses of holding 'wardmotes or other ward meetings or for other local purposes connected therewith'. It is not unreasonable to assume that this refers to the precinct meetings and other ward committee meetings.

Here is a reference to a committee appointed at a wardmote/ward meeting from Castle Baynard Ward, 1891:
This link is the source document containing the full wording of the resolution, and the minutes of the subsequent committee meetings and sub-committee meetings that resulted from this resolution.

Here is the actual resolution passed at that Wardmote: "and that a committee be formed to give effect to this resolution"

Here is a reference to the Portsoken Wardmote appointing a sub-committee as recently as 1862

"On Wednesday a respectably attended wardmote of the inhabitants residing in the ward of Portsoken was held.for the purpose of taking into consideration what steps should be adopted with reference to the munificent gift of George Peabody, Esq. After a vote of thanks to Mr Peabody, Mr Good proposed the following resolution: "That this meeting,representing as it does one of the poorest districts of London, desires to express its opinion that the improvement of the dwellings of the labouring classes is the great necessity of the day, and likely topromote the happiness and well-being of the metropolis. The motion was seconded and carried,  and a committee was appointed to confer with the gentleman appointed to administer the funds"
Link to the source: The Illustrated Times

Here is another example from 1859, from the Ward of Farringdon-Without:

This resolution of the Wardmote is interesting,as it contains two elements:
1. The appointment of the committee for a specific purpose.
2. The report back to the wardmote of the committee.
Here is a link to the full source:  'Proceedings at a Public Meeting etc'  Appendix C.


Another precedent for the appointment of a committee at Wardmote can be found from Farringdon Within.(1740)
Here is a link to the full source

Here is another precedent, from 1789, again from Farringdon-Without:

Here is a link to the full document

Here is a reference to Ward Committees from 1803:

Link to the full document reports from the Committee on the State of the Police etc pg 28

Here is Joshua Toulmin Smith on the Constitutional position of the Wardmote committees:

The following minutes from a wardmote from 1789,relating to the committee mentioned above, that shows in more detail how a wardmote committee was set up with resolutions of the wardmote.: (Cripplegate Ward)
Link to the full source online

Although not in the City, one of the Cinque Ports , Faversham, had a wardmote that appointed a general purposes committee annually. See item 36, page pg 965, "Report of the Commisioners etc"