Forms: 4– coroner, (4 corowner, 6 -nere, croner, 7 corroner). See also CROWNER. [a. AF. coruner, corouner, f. corune, coroune CROWN, 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).]
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 Chartarum, 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. Eng., 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. 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.
