coroner
(ˈkɒrənə(r))
Forms: 4– coroner, (4 corowner, 6 -nere, croner, 7 corroner). See also crowner.
[a. AF. coruner, corouner, f. corune, coroune crown n., the original title being custos placitorum coronæ guardian of the pleas of the crown. The suffix is -er2 2, corresp. to F. -ier, L. -ārius, as in falconer, officer, treasurer, gardener, etc. The title was correctly latinized as corōnārius. But at an early date the ending was confused with that of verbal agents in -er (though never app. written -or, -our), and was rendered into Latin as corōnātor (already in Magna Carta).]
1. An officer of a county, district, or municipality (formerly also of the royal household), originally charged with maintaining the rights of the private property of the crown; in modern times his chief function is to hold inquest on the bodies of those supposed to have died by violence or accident.
Believed to be first instituted in 1194 under the ordinance cited below.
coroner's inquest: the inquiry or investigation as to the cause of death held by the coroner's court, a tribunal of record, consisting of the coroner and twelve jurymen (the coroner's jury) summoned for the inquest.
| [1194 Ordinance in Hoveden (Rolls) III. 262 In quolibet comitatu eligantur tres milites et unus clericus custodes placitorum coronæ. 1204 Rotuli Chart. 129/2 Per coronarios comitatus Sumerset. 1275 Act 3 Edw. I, c. 10 Pur ceo que petit gent e meins sages sunt esluz ia de novel communaument al office de Coruner. 1292 Britton i. i §6 Et en noster hostel soit un Corouner, qi face le mester de la Coroune par mi la verge, par tut ou nous seroms et vienoms en noster reaume. Ibid. i. xii. §4 Et si nul homme murge en prisoun, si volom nous, qe le Corouner voise veer le cors, et prenge bone enqueste de sa mort, coment il avera esté mort.] c 1325 Poem temp. Edw. II (Percy) lxii, At justices and at shiryves, Corowners, and chancelers. a 1400 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 350 Twey coroners by-lyþ þat þer be in Wynchestre. 1480 Caxton Chron. ccxxi. 212 Robert of Hamond that was coroner of the kynges houshold. 1591 Lambarde Archeion (1635) 38 That the Coroner of the Household have his proper power within his Verge, and that he and others have the order of Weight and Measure throughout the Realme. 1607–72 J. Cowell Interpr. s.v., The Lord chief Justice of the Kings Bench is the Soveraign Coroner of the whole Realm..There are certain Charters belonging to Colledges, and other Corporations, whereby they are licenced to appoint their Coroner within their own Precincts. c 1630 Risdon Surv. of Devon §215 (1810) 224 If any man die in the forest, the coroner of Lidford shall crown him. 1641 Sir E. Nicholas in N. Papers (Camden) I. 11 The office of Corroner and Attorney in the Kings Bench. 1762 Goldsm. Nash 96 The coroner's jury being impanelled, brought in their verdict lunacy. 1768 Blackstone Comm. IV. 271 The court of the coroner is also a court of record, to enquire when any one dies in prison, or comes to a violent or sudden death, by what manner he came to his end. 1836 Marryat Midsh. Easy xxxviii, The coroner's inquest and the funeral over, daylight was again admitted. 1885 Tennyson Despair xxi, Our orthodox coroner doubtless will find it a felo-de-se. |
2. The chief officer or sheriff of a sheading in the Isle of Man.
| 1577 in M. A. Mills Stat. Laws I. of Man (1821) 58 All Coroners shall make a general Search four Times in the Yeare for my Lord his Profitt,..every Coroner within his own Sheading. 1653 [see sheading]. 1883 Encycl. Brit. XV. 452/2 The coroner of the sheading, who is appointed annually by the governor, is a kind of sheriff. 1894 [see sheading]. |