Every man is to keep his watch according to the Statute of Winchester and the common custom of the town. He is to be at the constable's house between 8 and 9 o'clock to answer the roll-call and be assigned his charge. If any man defaults in this the constable may take distress from his house the morning after and sell it to the profit of the community, and the defaulter will have to answer before the justices of the peace, as law prescribes.

[This undated extract from the early 15th century volume of memoranda is actually described as a command by the mayor, but it has much the same appearance as if an ordinance of mayor and council. The town was divided into ten constabularies in the 14th century, but only nine in the fifteenth; constabularies were named after the appointed constable of the time, who had to be a resident of that ward.]