The Constables appointed by the Corporation of Wenlock, were officers who within the Constablewicks or allotments into which the Borough was divided, were entrusted, under the Bailiffs with very many important duties, such as collecting monies for the king, and carrying into execution acts of parliament, as well as executing summonses and bringing up defaulters. They were a superior class of men, selected from such as held land, or were persons of property. Later on quite a different class of men were appointed; still, sometimes from small tradesmen, but at others from men who sought the office for the sake of its emoluments, and who often became the tools of unscrupulous men in office, whether Bailiffs or Justices of the Peace; as in the case of Samuel Walters, a broken-down tradesman, whose doings at last, together with that of the Justices, attracted the attention of parliament. Walters, was the son of the Rev. Mr. Walters, incumbent of Madeley, and it may serve to give an idea of the estimation in which he was held in the parish to mention, that he on one occasion attempted to enlist his own father, by giving him the shilling in the dark. The powers exercised by the borough justices were often most arbitrary, especially when the individual who came within their power happened to be a dissenter, or “a dangerous radical.” On the merest pretence blank warrants were issued, which unscrupulous constables, like “Sammy Walters,” as he was called, carried in their pockets, and filled as occasion required. One notorious instance was that of three Dutch girls, (Buy-a-Brooms, as they were called), whom Walters overtook in his “Teazer,” between Wenlock and Shrewsbury, and invited to ride with him. Calling at a public-house on the road he went in, filled up three of his warrants, and then drove them straight to Shrewsbury gaol. This case came before the House of Commons, and was inquired into by the Home Secretary, and the system of granting blank warrants was abolished throughout the kingdom. Madeley is one of the three Wards into which the borough is divided. For parliamentary purposes Beckbury and Badger are included, these having been, like Madeley, part of the extensive possessions of the church of St. Milburgh. Madeley also formed part of the wide extending parish of Holy Trinity of Wenlock, a parish which embraced Broseley, and was not limited even by the Severn. The words of the charter granted by Edward IV. to Sir John Wenlock were these:— “That the Liberty of the Town or Borough shall extend to the Parish of the Holy Trinity, and through all the limits, motes, and bounds of the same parish, and not to any other Towns or Hamlets which are not of the Parish aforesaid.”