Abstract
Abstract: This article encourages scholars to consider how intensely local, longstanding, legal, and customary institutions illuminate lesser-known aspects of state building in early America. Focused on continuities and changes to Boston’s nightly watch—a form of early policing tasked with walking the streets monitoring for order and disorder—it advocates for studies of the quotidian state: the commonplace actions and activities performed day in and day out over time to support the development of law and governance at the local level.