<P> By order of the King of England the Winchester Act Mandating The Watch . Part Four and the King commandth that from henceforth all Watches be made as it hath been used in past times that was to wit from the day of Ascension unto the day of St. Michael in every city by six men at every gate in every borough by twelve men in every town by six or four according to the number of inhabitants of the town . They shall keep the Watch all night from sun setting unto sun rising . And if any stranger do pass them by them he shall be arrested until morning and if no suspicion be found he shall go quit . </P> <P> Later in 1279 King Edward I formed a special guard of 20 sergeants at arms who carried decorated battle maces as a badge of official office . By 1415 a watch was appointed to the Parliament of England and in 1485 King Henry VII established a household watch that became known as the Beefeaters . </P> <P> After 1660 it seems that large numbers of men had avoided night - time service by paying for a substitute well before 1660 . Substitution had become so common by the late 17th century that the night watch was virtually by then a fully paid force . </P> <P> In October 1663 was promulgated an act of Common Council, known as' Robinson's Act' from the name of the sitting lord mayor, that confirmed the duty of all householders in the City to take their turn at watching in order' to keep the peace and apprehend night - walkers, malefactors and suspected persons' . For the most part the Common Council Act of 1663 reiterated the rules and obligations that had long existed . The number of watchmen required for each ward, it declared, was to be the number' established by custom'--in fact, by an act of 1621 . Even though it had been true before the civil war that the watch had already become a body of paid men, supported by what were in effect the fines collected from those with an obligation to serve, the Common Council did not acknowledge this in the confirming Act of 1663 . </P>

The watch ward system was instituted in what country