What the number of wards in this city at first was, does not appear upon record; however, by the first account we have of them in the year 1284, we find that they were then twenty-four; but in 1393, Faringdon being much increased in the number of its houses and inhabitants, was divided by parliament into the inward and outward wards, whereby the number was augmented to twenty-five; and in 1550, the citizens having purchased the borough of Southwark of King Edward VI. with the privileges belonging to it, they erected that into a twenty-sixth ward: but the power granted them by charter, not proving sufficient to support their title to it, by excluding the justices of peace for the county of Surry from interfering in the government, it became only a nominal ward: it, however, serves to dignify the senior Alderman, called _The father of the city_, who generally, by his great age, is rendered unable to undergo the fatigue of business, and has therefore this ward, in which there is no business to be done.
The wards into which the city is divided were originally known by other names, though they have long been called by those by which they are at present distinguished. These are, Aldersgate, Aldgate, Bassishaw, Billingsgate, Bishopsgate, Bread street, Bridge ward within, Bridge ward without, Broad street, Candlewick, Castle Baynard, Cheap, Cordwainer, Coleman street, Cornhill, Cripplegate, Dowgate, Faringdon within, Faringdon without, Langbourn, Lime street, Queenhithe, Portsoken, Tower street, Vintry and Walbrook, of each of which we have given a particular account under the several articles. ALDERSGATE WARD, ALDGATE WARD, BASSISHAW WARD, _&c._
Every one of these wards is like a little free state under the government of its own Alderman and his deputy, who is always one of the common council, and is at the same time subject to the Lord Mayor as chief magistrate of the city. The housekeepers of each ward elect their representatives the common council, who join in making by-laws for the government of the city; and each ward has a number of officers and servants, who are solely employed in the business of their respective districts. Of these there are in the several wards, 26 Aldermen, 236 common councilmen, 241 constables, 423 inquestmen, 218 scavengers, who employ rakers to clean the streets, at the expence of 3466_l._ 19_s._ _per annum_; 32 beadles, 672 watch-men, to prevent robberies by night, and 4800 lamps, to illuminate the streets, all maintained at the expence of the wards in which they are placed. In short each ward manages the affairs belonging to it, without the assistance of the rest, and each has a court for the management of its affairs, called a court of wardmote.