CORONER. 



CORONER. 



280 



English coronations since the time of Edward III. is the ' Liber Rega- 

 lis ' deposited in the archives of the dean and chapter of Westminster. 

 and kept with a religious care. It is supposed to have been written 

 for the particular instructions of the prelates who attended at the 

 coronation of King Richard II. and his queen. Copies of this manu- 

 script, without its illuminations, are preserved in one or two of our 

 manuscript libraries. The substance of the ceremonial directed in it is 

 abridged in Strutt's ' Manners and Customs,' vol. ii. 



CORONER. The coroner (coranatur) is an ancient officer by the 

 common law of England. The name is said by Lord Coke to be 

 derived " a corond, because he is an officer of the crown, and hath 

 conusance of some pleas which are called placita coronte" In this 

 general sense the chief justice of the Court of King's Bench is by 

 virtue of his office the supreme coroner of all England, and may, if he 

 pleases, hold an inquest, or otherwise exercise the office of coroner, in 

 any part of the kingdom. Lord Coke mentions an instance in which 

 Chief Justice Fineux in the reign of Henry VII. held an inquest on 

 the body of a man slain in open rebellion, 5 ' Reports,' 51. In this 

 sense also, the Master of the Crown Office in the Court of King's 

 Bench, is styled the " coroner or attorney for the king; " his business 

 being confined to pleas of the crown discussed in that court. But the 

 officers now usually understood by this term are the coroners of counties, 

 who are of high antiquity, being eaid in one of the most ancient 

 treatises on the common law to have been ordained together with the 

 sheriffs to kee;) the peace of counties when the earls gave up the 

 wardship. (' Mirror,' c. i. 3.) In early times too, the office appears 

 to have been one of great estimation ; for by thu statute 3 Edw. I. c. 10, 

 they are required to be knights, and by the 28 Edw. III. c. 6, they 

 must be " of the most meet and most lawful men of the county." By 

 the 14 Edw. III. at. 1. c. 8, " no coroner shall be chosen unless he have 

 land in fee sufficient in the county, whereof he may answer to all 

 manner of people." No peculiar qualification is now required, though 

 Serju mt Hawkins seems to express an opinion that the persons chosen, 

 though nut kuights, must be " of good substance and credit." (Haw- 

 kins's ' Pleas of the Crown,' book ii. cap. 9.) Most commonly there 

 are four coroners in each county ; but the number varies according to 

 the usage of diti'erent counties. There have been recent instances in 

 which, upon a representation made to the lord chancellor by the 

 magistrates, th.it the existing number of coroners was insufficient for 

 the business of the county, writs have issued for the election of 

 additional coroners. (See 3 tjwaustou's 'Reports,' 181.) 



Coroners of counties are elected by the freeholders in the county 

 court, in the same manner as sheriffs and conservators of the peace 

 formerly were ; the election takes place by virtue of an ancient king's 

 writ, l>e Oorunat'ire Eliyendo, returnable in chancery. The 58 Geo. III. 

 c. 95, which made provision for conducting the election of coroners 

 similar to those then in existence for the eli otiou of knights of the 

 shire, was repealed in 1844 by 7 & 8 Viet. c. a2, which substituted 



regulations on the ground that the former mode of election was 

 inconvenient and attended with great and unnecessary expense. This 

 Act applies only to county coroners, and the coroners of the city of 

 London and borough of Southwark, of the Queen's household and the 



of the Queen's palace, and Admiralty coroners, are specially 

 exempted. Counties in iy be divided by the justices into two or more 



ts for the pursues 01 this Act, and alterations may be made in 

 existing divisions. The justices, in making such divisions, are in the 

 first place to petition her majesty, and notice is to be given to each 

 coruuer by the clerk of the peace of the time when the justices will 

 take such petition into consideration. Any coroner of the county may 

 pre.-tent a petition to her majesty touching the proposed division or 

 alteration of districts. Her majesty, witb the advice of the privy 

 council, may order that such county shall be divided into so many 

 districts as may be considered convenient, and determine at wha . place 

 within each district the court for the election of coroner for such 

 district shall be held. The justices are to direct the clerk of the \ eace 

 to make out a list of the several parishes, townships, or hundreds in 

 each of the coroner's districts into which the county is divided, speci- 

 fy, n.- the place witliin each district at which the court for the election 

 of coroner is to be held, the place or places at which the poll is to be 

 taken, and the parishes or places attached to tach polling-place. The 

 justices may then assign one district to each coroner ; and whenever a 

 vacancy occurs, the election is to be made in the manner prescribed by 

 the A ,t. The coroner must reside in the district fur which he is 



1, or in some place wholly or partly surrounded by such district, 

 or not more than two miles beyond its outer boundary ; the election 

 must be made in the district ; and the coroner chosen by a majority of 

 persons duly qualified who shall reside in such district ; no voter can 



it of the district where his property lies. Vv ithin not less than 

 seven or not more than fourteen days after the sheriff shall have 

 received the writ D. C'/runature Eliytiidi, he is required to hold in the 



r lor which a vacancy has occurred a special county court for the 

 election ; and if a poll be demanded, it may be kept open for two days, 

 eight hours each day, from eight o'clock in the morning. The sheriff 

 is to erect polling booths ; poll clerks are to be svvorn ; and an inspector 

 of poll clerks is to be appointed on the nomination of each one of the 

 candidates. Electors may be required by or on behalf of any candidate 

 l -cling their qualification. The result of the poll is 

 to be declared by the sheriff. The coroner, although elected for a 



district, is to be considered as a coroner for the whole county ; but he 

 is only to hold inquests within his own district, except in case of the 

 illness or unavoidable absence of the coroner for another district ; and 

 his inquisition must certify the cause of his holding such inquest. 



Coroners in counties are elected for life ; but if they accept an office 

 incompatible with the duties, such as that of sheriff 1 , or dwell in a 

 remote part of the county, or are incapacitated by age or infirmity, 

 they are removable by means of the writ De Ooronatore Exonerandu ; 

 and by the stat. 25 Geo. II. c. 29, 6, they may be removed upon con- 

 viction of extortion, wilful neglect of duty, or misdemeanour in their 

 office. The great seal has authority however, independently of the 

 above statute, to remove coroners for neglect of duty. (1 Jacob and 

 Walker's ' Reports," 451.) By the stat. 7 & 8 Viet. c. 92, coroners are 

 prohibited from acting professionally in any case in which they have 

 sat as coroner. 



At common law the coroner had authority to hear and determine 

 felonies ; but his powers in this respect were expressly abrogated by 

 Magua Charta, cap. 17. The most usual duty of a coroner is that of 

 taking inquisitions of death ; and though his duties, as well as his 

 authority in this respect, are said to have existed at common law, they 

 are declared by the 4 Edw. I. stat. 2, commonly called the statute De 

 Ojtciu Curonataria. By the directions of that statute, " the coroner, 

 upon information, shall go to the places where any be slain, or suddenly 

 dead or wounded, and shall forthwith command four of the next 

 towns, or five or six, to appear before him in such a place ; and when 

 they are come thither, the coroner, upon the oath of them, shall inquire 

 in this manner; that is to wit, if they know where the person was 

 slain, whether it were in any house, field, bed, tavern, or company, and 

 who were there ; who are culpable, either of the act or of the force ; 

 and who were present, either men or women, and of what age soever 

 they be, if they can speak, or have any discretion ; and how many 

 soever be found culpable, they shall be taken and delivered to the 

 sheriff, and shall be committed to the gaol ; and such as be found and 

 be not culpable, shall be attached until the coming of the judge of 

 assize." And it is declared by the same statute, that " if it fortune 

 any such man be slain, which is found in the fields or in woods, first it 

 is to be inquired whether he were slain in the same place, or not ; and 

 if he were brought and laid there, they should do so much as they can 

 to follow their steps that brought the body thither, whether he were 

 brought upon a horse or in a cart. It shall also be inquired if the 

 dead person were known, or else a stranger, and where he lay the night 

 before." It is declared also by the same statute, that " all wounds 

 ou^ht to be viewed, the length, breadth, and deepness ; and with what 

 weapons ; and in what part of the body the wound or hurt is ; and how 

 many be culpable ; and how many wounds there be ; and who gavp 

 the wound." In like manner it is to be iuquired by the coroner " of 

 them that be drowned, or suddenly dead, whether they were so drowned 

 or slain, or strangled by the sign of a cord tied straight about their 

 necks, or about any of their members, or upon any other hurt found 

 upon their bodies. And if they were slain, then ought the coroner 

 to attach the finders and all other in the company." The provisions of 

 this ancient statute are still in force, and are to be followed by coroners 

 in all their particular directions as nearly as possible at the present day 

 in inquisitions of death. In case of a death happening upon the high 

 sea, inquisitions are taken before the Admiralty coroner, who is ap- 

 pointed by the king or the Lord Admiral ; and the county coroners 

 have in such a case no jurisdiction. The inquisitions taken before the 

 Admiralty coroner are returned to the Commissioners of the Admiralty 

 under stat. 28 Hen. VIII., c. 15. 



The coroner has authority to assemble a jury by means of a precept 

 to the constables of the hundred or adjoining township, and under the 

 7 & 8 Viet. c. 92, jurors and witnesses who neglect to attend an in- 

 quest may be fined any sum not exceeding 40s. The power, however, 

 of punishing witnesses who refuse to give evidence for contempt of 

 court, and the right to exclude persons irom his court, are incidents of 

 his office. When the jury are assembled, they are charged and sworn 

 by the coroner to inquire, upon view of the body, how the p .rty came 

 by his death. The jury are, by the 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 86, amended by 

 the 21 & 22 Viet. c. 25, to inquire into the particulars required for 

 the registration of deaths, aud the coroner informs the registrar in 

 writing of the finding and other particulars, aud in case of a dead body 

 being found exposed, he must give notice to the registrar. By the 

 18 & 18 Viet. c. 108, he must also give previous notice to the 

 secretary of state, of inquests on deaths from accidents in coal 

 mines. The coroner has no authority to take an inquisition of 

 death, except upon view of the body by himself and the jury ; and if 

 he does so, the inquisition is wholly void. (Hex i: Ferrand, 3 Barn, 

 and Aid. ' Reports,' 2dO.) If a body liable to an inquest has been 

 buried before the coroner has notice of the circumstances of the death, 

 he haa authority to cause it to be disinterred for the purpose of hold- 

 ing the inquest, provided he does so within a reasonable time. By 

 the stat. 7 Geo. IV. c. 64, 4, which repeals an ancient enactment on 

 this subject, it is provided that " every coroner, upon any inquisition 

 before him taken, whereby any person shall be indicted for manslaughter 

 or murd r, or as an accessary to murder before the fact, shall put in 

 writing the evidence given to the jury before him, or as much thereof 

 as shall be material ; and shall have authority to bind by recognisance 

 all such person* as k ow or declare anything material touching the 



